Nokia Prepping Sony Xperia Z1s Rival in Lumia 1520 Mini

Nokia may be prepping a smaller version of its large and powerful Lumia 1520 phablet. Given that the smaller Windows Phone smartphone is rumored to come with many of the same high-end specs that its larger brother debuted with, the smaller Lumia 1520 Mini will be a device without any compromises and would appeal to smartphone owners who prefer a smaller form factor. As smartphone displays inch their way up into phablet territory in recent years, the problem is that devices with smaller screen sizes and smaller footprints often come with more modest specs, meaning that they’re classified as mid-range devices without the best processors or displays.

The Lumia 1520 Mini, also rumored to be called the Lumia 1520V according to a report published on WMPU with intelligence from WPBar.cn, will come with a small 4.3-inch display and full 1080p HD resolution. The device will come with 2 GB RAM, a 3000 mAh battery to give it stellar battery life, and a 14-megapixel PureView camera.

Unfortunately, however, unlike the larger 6-inch Lumia 1520 currently on offer through AT&T Mobility in the U.S., the smaller 1520V won’t come with support for a removable micro SDXC card slot so users will be capped with just 32 GB of non-expandable storage. This means you’ll likely have to rely on the cloud or synchronize the phone with a PC if you take a lot of pictures, download videos, or carry a lot of music and files with you when you’re on the go.

The 14-megapixel camera will bear less resolution than the 20-megapixel PureView shooter on the 1520 and the 41-megapixel on the Lumia 1020.

At this time, it’s still unknown if the device will have a quad-core processor, but this seems likely given that the Lumia 1520 is ushering in quad-core support with a Snapdragon 800 processor. This means that the Lumia phablet matches Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 in terms of hardware specs so on paper, the Windows Phone handset no longer appears to be at a disadvantage. Microsoft had been slow in supporting the latest operating specs in the past, claiming that Windows Phone as an OS is more efficient at handling the more limited available resources than rival Android devices. And while this is true, consumers comparing rival devices will come to the quick judgment that Windows Phone is lagging behind.

The strategy of keeping flagship specs in a smaller footprint is something that Android rival Sony has been doing with its latest Xperia lineup, including the Xperia Z1s for T-Mobile, a device with high-end specs in a smaller form factor.

And according to the same source, the new Lumia 1520V is said to be landing sometime in April alongside the release of Windows Phone 8.1. This means that the device may debut at Microsoft’s BUILD conference in San Francisco, California.