Leak: Samsung Mandel, the 4G LTE enabled Windows Phone that never was

Last month we reported on a rumor that said Samsung would release three Windows Phones this year. Two of them are supposedly going to run the next version of Windows Phone, codenamed Apollo, and one of them will run Mango, the version that’s currently out on the market. That Mango phone, codenamed Mandel, is a device we’ve known about for what feels like forever. When you think about it, Mandel seems like an obvious upgrade. Samsung launched the Focus when Windows Phone first hit the market in 2010. Then they announced the Focus S when Mango hit the scene in 2011. So why not come out with a device that supports 4G LTE to compete with the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II? We’re happy to report that Mandel has been seen in the wild, and thanks to WPCentral we have a photo of it. Unlike previous Samsung smartphones, this one appears to have rounded corners and a more “organic” feel. Could it be a hint as to what the Galaxy S III, due to be announced in less than 5 hours, will look like? We’ll find out soon enough.

Two more important questions come to mind: Why hasn’t Samsung announced this thing yet and has it been killed? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Windows Phone hasn’t been doing well, so maybe Samsung doesn’t want to waste time, money, and energy launching a product that they know isn’t going to sell more than a million or so units. And as for Windows Phone 8, now that Nokia is Microsoft’s playtoy, maybe Samsung doesn’t want to support the platform?

Anyway, back to the Mandel, how many of you would have actually bought it had it come out? The Lumia 900 is obviously better designed, though to be honest the Lumia 800 is even better looking.