Microsoft’s Luma 950 was a flawed handset, while many assumed the firm would release a follow up to it the following year to tackle its many flaws, Microsoft decided to wind down its Windows phone operation then both for the software which is now in maintenance mode, and the hardware.

A prototype of what allegedly may have been intended to be Microsoft’s Successor to the Lumia 960 has now surfaced on the internet alongside other prototypes of Nokia handsets.

The alleged device would have had a design more similar to modern smartphones, eschewing the contentious plastic, cheap feeling body of the Lumia 950 for an all metal aluminium unibody design with iPhone 6 like antenna bands. A triple LED Flash (Originating in the Lumia 950) and a 20MP would have completed the package. Of course, while this handset would have been a thrilling purchase for Windows 10 Mobile fans (myself included) had it been released, it would never have done anything to move the needle. Android and the iPhone have the market of beautifully designed handsets sewn up on the high end, and Windows 10 Mobile’s software has never been a draw for anyone.

While a refined version of the Lumia 950 released with a new and improved version of continuum might have won critics over, it seems Microsoft recognised that the window for a successful Windows Phone experiment was over and any effort to reach the consumer market, no matter how well intended, would be too little – too late.