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Here’s A Look at the Axed Nokia Smartwatch That Never Came To Be

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A long time ago, back before Microsoft bought and subsequently wrote off Nokia’s handset division, the latter company had planned to make a smartwatch, presumably for the Windows Phone platform. After buying Nokia’s handset division, Microsoft nixed it in favor of the Microsoft Band, but legends and mockups still live on. Another render appeared this week, and it sure looks like the smartwatch wouldn’t have been our cup of tea, anyway.

Evan Blass, who leaks a lot of tech stories on Twitter, posted a gif of the smartwatch, which was under development in 2014. Called or codenamed Moonraker (don’t ask me why they went with a mid-tier at best Bond movie), it looks like the watch would have had silicone bands with colors matching the then very brightly colored Lumia smartphones. It was planned as a companion to the Lumia 930, and would have had basic notifications, a remote camera shutter, fitness tracking sensors, and some third party notifications.

It would have used a rectangular display similar to the one the Apple Watch ended up using, and one we’ve never been particularly fond of on smartwatches. The UI looks similar to what was found on Windows Phones apps at the time, so it would have at least paired well with the Lumia series. Still, the shape and thickness probably would have kept us away.

Although Nokia looks to be getting back into the device game, we have our doubts that we’ll ever see a Nokia smartwatch. The Lumia line is basically dead now, and Nokia seems to be planning to get into Android devices anyway. Even then, an Android Wear smartwatch from Nokia seems very unlikely — smartwatches haven’t exactly been taking the world by storm. Android smartwatches have been slow, and it’s unlikely that Nokia would want to take a crack at an oversaturated market lacking in demand (especially now that they’ve purchased Withings and their fitness tracking wearables). So, we’ll chalk this up to something that will only exist in alternate timelines.

Via Wareable

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