Nokia Lumia 928 speculation increasing prior to rumored April release

Speculation surrounding the soon-to-be-announced Nokia Lumia 928 has been picking up today thanks to several photos (see slideshow above) allegedly leaked demonstrating the quality of the device’s camera. The device, which will be released on the Verizon Wireless network in the United States, will be an upgraded version of the Nokia Lumia 920 which has been available on AT&T’s network since November of last year.
While the photos that are emerging on sites like Flickr and Google Plus seem, at first, to be the standard run-of the mill planned industry leaks, newer shots showcasing a family at SeaWorld in San Diego indicate that the leaks might not be intentional, but rather the result of early market testers simply engaging in modern connected life.


The reason behind the uncontrolled leak theory is that several of the family shots incidentally include reflections of the Lumia 928 itself. This would be odd for an intentional leak regarding an unannounced device. There are never any direct reflections, but two distinct pictures provide a clear outline of the device from both the front and the back. The back of the device is shown in the reflection from a classic circus-like distorting “fun mirror”, while the front of the device is seen in a reflection from sunglasses in a family portrait.
The EXIF data from the images seems to show that the images were all collected from a device named Nokia Lumia 928. But not all of the record sets from the EXIF data look spotless, so it is possible that only some of the images are legitimate, or none at all. Still, given the large volume of other non-camera information leaks about this device, the photos are most likely legitimate.

If the leaks are indeed intentional—which is still likely despite the prevailing “accidental leak” theory—they are a very clever way to sidestep the exclusivity that AT&T currently enjoys on high-end Nokia smartphones in the United States. That exclusive contract is said to expire sometime in April, at which point Verizon is said to be ready to announce, release, and promote the device in extremely rapid succession.
The Nokia Lumia 928, if confirmed, will be the second high-end Windows Phone 8 device on Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, but the first Windows Phone 8 flagship from Nokia on the network. The only current high-end offering for Verizon customers is the slightly less powerful, but still impressive and inexpensive, Windows Phone 8X flagship device from HTC.

As for internal specifications, the Nokia Lumia 928 is rumored to have a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.5Ghz processor, 2 GB Ram, 32 GB internal storage, a 4.5” IPS touchscreen, and an aluminum casing rather than the more standard—and cheaper—polycarbonate. The aluminum body will be available in black, white, red, and cyan, all of which are popular colors for other Lumia models. The price is rumored to be $199.99 on-contract or $550.00 off-contract.