Is Nokia going to announce low-end Lumia 520 and 720 at MWC?

Most days leading up to the MWC are usually full of rumours and ever since Nokia said they would be present in Barcelona, there has been quite a buzz about the company’s forthcoming products. It was earlier believed that a Nokia Windows RT tablet would surface at the Mobile World Congress, but follow-up reports have denied that the company will be coming with a slate in tow.

Instead, it now looks like Nokia is set to launch cheaper handsets in an attempt to fend off growing competition from Chinese rivals such as Huawei and ZTE, Reuters cited "company sources" as saying. The new models, due to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress industry convention in Barcelona next week, show Nokia expanding its focus after spending the past two years concentrating on catching up with Apple and Samsung via expensive smartphones.

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And right on the heels of this piece of information, purported images of two models, the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 720, have cropped up thanks to serial smartphone leaker @evleaks.

Nokia Lumia 720

My Nokia Blog reports that the 720 is codenamed Zeal and will have 4.3-inch ClearBlack Display, a 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB of RAM. The Lumia 720 will allegedly come with 8GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, and will run WP8. The camera will be of the 6-megapixel variety with Carl Zeiss optics and a 2-megapixel camera is expected on the front. The device will support HSPA+ frequencies.

Besides these rumoured specs, we can venture a few guesses about the other specs and features. The leaked pictures show three pogo pins at the back, which could indicate that a dock for the phone will also be released, and wireless charging may not be part of the bundle. However, the Lumia 820 does have an alternative back cover that enables wireless charging. Nokia could introduce a similar feature for the 720, which will put it between the Lumia 820 and 620 in the line-up.

Recently, Nokia India’s Senior VP, D Shivkumar, said the company would be slashing prices of the Lumia handsets and introducing a smartphone at every price point. The Lumia 520 would be the replacement for the low-end Lumia 510, which was released last year. The Lumia 520 could be the international variant of the Lumia 505, which was released in Mexico.Nokia Lumia 520

The Lumia 520 will supposedly have a 4-inch Super Sensitive display, which was also seen in the Lumia 820 and 920. Its other specs match up with the 720's to a certain extent. The 1GHz dual-core processor is present, along with 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. However, the Lumia 520 will have no front camera and the primary snapper on the back will be a 5-megapixel one. The 520 will also run on Windows Phone 8.

Again, the back is seen in bold colours, which is becoming something of a signature for Nokia.