Nokia Teases Lumia 928 Launch on Verizon

Nokia has confirmed via a magazine ad, a billboard, and now a new website that its next Lumia device for the U.S. will be the Lumia 928.

Oddly, the teases come ahead of Nokia's May 14 Lumia event in London, which is expected to include the official reveal.

Nokia has a new website that encourages fans to "Stay tuned for updates about the newest Nokia Lumia. It features a photo of a Lumia device, which looks a bit less rounded than previous Lumias, snapping a photo of people on a beach.

The name of the device is not present on the page, but is revealed in the URL: nokia.com/us-en/lumia928.

But the smartphone also showed up in the pages of Vanity Fair. As noted by Engadget, the two-page advertisement features the same photo found on the Lumia 928 website, with a few more details about the camera: low-light support; PureView technology; optical image stabilization; a Carl Zeiss lens; and more.

The ad also carries the Verizon Wireless logo, so expect the Lumia 928 to hit the U.S.'s biggest carrier.

That Verizon logo also appeared on a billboard, a photo of which was posted on My Nokia Blog. That billboard tipped the "best low-light smartphone camera."

Last month, Nokia said during its earnings call that it sold 5.6 million Lumia smartphonesduring the first quarter, up 27 percent from the previous quarter. Approximately two-thirds of those Lumia sales were for smartphones running Microsoft's latest Windows Phone 8 platform.

"We are seeing our Lumia momentum accelerate as we exit Q1," Nokia chief Stephen Elop said. As a result, Lumia growth in the second quarter will likely exceed the 27 percent it saw in the first quarter, he said. Nokia sold 4.4 million Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012, and 2.9 million in the months before.