New hands-on video shows Windows Phone 8.1 on a Nokia Lumia 630 developer device

With Windows Phone 8.1 just days away from being announced, the floodgates are starting to open for leaks about Microsoft’s new major OS update. This morning, a new video originally found on YouKu, the popular Chinese video hosting service, and published by the site Coolxap, has been released.

The video, like many leaks, is of abysmal quality, and it was originally shot vertically. We managed to rip the video and reorient it, so it’s easier to watch. See it after the break...

So what exactly are we looking at? The device in question is definitely a Nokia Lumia 630. There are many clues that give it away, including the 5 MP camera on the back with no flash, the rear speaker in the lower right corner and placement of the volume and power buttons on the right.  Seeing as the phone is matte black, and there’s little flare on the front, there’s just not much to look at with this phone.

Looking at the OS itself, it’s a seemingly current build of 8.1 with virtual keys on the front of the device, as noted on the Lumia 630 hardware. Some other features observed in the video include:

• Action center
• New Podcast app
• New FM Radio app, pulled out of Music hub
• Video and Music Xbox apps separated into two apps
• New Store layout, as we recently reported
• IE changes, including new Tab section, private tabs
• IE tabs are displayed in multitask view
• Pull down to close apps in multitask
• New stock Photos app, with sections All, Albums, Favorites now on separate panels
• New stock camera layout
• Apps that are installed on the device: Storage Sense, Battery Sense, Data Sense

While the video and OS are in Chinese, we can confirm its authenticity. Surprisingly, the voice-assistant app Cortana is not revealed on the video, which may suggest this is either an older build of the OS that feature won’t ship on Chinese versions of the OS initially – we’re betting on the latter, unfortunately, due to the time required for language localization.

• Read more: Full Windows Phone 8.1 feature list

To wrap up, there is not much revealed as new in this video, but since many of you are yearning to see it in action, there you go. Sound off in comments on what you think though we suggest you wait until next Wednesday for Microsoft to tell the whole story.

Stay tuned for Windows Phone Central’s live coverage next week at Microsoft Build in San Francisco!

Source: Coolxap, YouKu; Thanks, qwe123878, for the tip and translations