A purported Samsung Z1 smartphone has leaked online in a couple of images, and is expected to come as the company's first Tizen-based smartphone.

Samsung has been working on a new smartphone with its own Tizen OS on board for quite some time, yet the handset never made it to market. The company has repeatedly postponed the launch of its first Tizen-based smartphone, which reportedly aims to lessen its reliance on Google's popular Android platform.

Roughly seven months ago, Samsung announced that it would launch a high-end Z smartphone based on Tizen OS, with model number SM-Z910. Shortly after that, however, the company canceled its plans and the handset never saw the light of day.

A subsequent report then claimed that Samsung would eventually launch an entry-level smartphone based on Tizen OS, not a high-end one as initially planned. This handset sported model number SM-Z130H and was spotted in India for research and development purposes, and it now seems that it may be closer to launch.

The purported Samsung Z1 Tizen smartphone has now leaked online in its first images, surfacing in a Twitter post and in a Café Naver report (via SamMobile). Screenshots also show the smartphone's user interface (UI) elements, icons, navigation interface, widgets, and others such.

When it comes to specifications, meanwhile, previous reports have tried to paint a picture of what to expect from this entry-level Tizen OS smartphone from Samsung. The handset is expected to sport a 4-inch display with a resolution of 800 x 480, a dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, ARM Mali-400 graphics and 512MB of RAM. Other rumored specs include a 3.2-megapixel rear camera, a VGA front shooter, and dual-SIM support. Connectivity options will reportedly include 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and micro USB 2.0.

The Samsung Z1 Tizen smartphone is expected to make its official debut early next year, on Jan. 18, but it's not officially confirmed at this point. At the same time, even when a Tizen smartphone was official, plans still got derailed and the handset never hit the market. We'll keep you up to date as soon as more information becomes available, but take everything with a grain of salt in the meantime.