Last year it seemed HMD Global was testing the waters with its smartphone lineup, but at MWC 2018, we expect Nokia to come all guns blazing.
Last year’s Mobile World Congress saw Nokia rise from its ashes under the stewardship of HMD Global. Nokia phones finally embraced pure, stock Android. However, it seemed HMD Global was just testing the waters with last year’s portfolio. In 2018, Nokia will once again be one of the highlights of MWC, and this time, we expect the Finnish company to pack more firepower.
HMD Global will hold an event at Barcelona along the sidelines of MWC, around the same time as the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S9. The event is scheduled for February 25th, 4PM CET (8:30PM IST). HMD will stream the event live on its website and social channels and we will be there to cover it live.
Based on leaks and rumours circulating the internet, we have a fair idea of Nokia’s plans for this year. HMD Global could be launching four phones under the Nokia moniker this year — The flagship Nokia 9, the mid-range Nokia 7+, the entry-level Nokia 1 and a newly rumoured budget Nokia 4.
Nokia 9
The Nokia 9 is going to be the flagship phone for HMD this year. There is also a certain Nokia 8 Sirocco phone out in the wild, which could be renamed as the Nokia 9. Nevertheless, based on leaks and rumours, we expect the Nokia 9 to sport a 5.5-inch QHD OLED display (no 18:9 univisium display rumoured), with an older Snapdragon 835 chipset underneath coupled by either 6GB or 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. At the back, there could be a 12-megapixel dual camera stack with Carl Zeiss optics and a 5-megapixel shooter at the front. The phone is also rumoured to be IP68 water resistant and could come with wireless charging and OZO audio.
However, another source claimed Nokia is working on a phone with five cameras which will be powered by the Snapdragon 845 chipset. While there’s no news about the name of that rumoured phone, it could very well be the Nokia 9.
Nokia 7+
Even if the Nokia 9 is considered the flagship phone, the Nokia 7+ will hog the limelight. Based on the leaked renders shared by serial leakster Evan Blass, the Nokia 7+ will sport a display with the in-vogue 18:9 aspect ratio along with vertically aligned dual-cameras at the back. It will be a mid-range device powered by the Snapdragon 660 chipset coupled with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. Evan Blass also said the Nokia 7 Plus will be under the Android One programme with the ‘purest of pure’ version of Android Oreo powering it.
Based on the leaks, this could very well be the first Nokia phone to adopt the modern display with slim bezels.
Nokia 1
Nokia catapulted to its cult status by making phones for everybody regardless of a budget. That philosophy was reintroduced last year with the reimagined Nokia 3310 and the Nokia 3. This year, HMD is expected to take a deeper dive into the budget segment with the Nokia 1. Once again, Evan Blass spilled the beans on how the phone will look along with some information on its specs and features.
By the looks of it, the Nokia 1 is going to come with entry-level specs. It could be powered by an entry-level Qualcomm processor along with 512MB or 1GB of RAM. Based on the specs, we expect the phone to run on Android Oreo (Go Edition) and it could come in at an extremely affordable price.
Nokia 4
The Nokia 4 is the latest phone to be rumoured to launch at MWC 2018. A teardown of the Nokia camera app revealed the name of the phone. If real, the Nokia 4 will be a new smartphone altogether. It will allegedly be powered by the Snapdragon 450 chipset which is a new entry-level chipset built on the 14nm process. Apart from this, there isn’t much news about the Nokia 4. We can’t be sure this phone will indeed launch at MWC or Nokia might hold an event for the phone later this year.
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