Nokia unveils its new slate of Android smartphones starting at 85$.
Nokia-in its newest iteration as a licensed based of HMD is a long way off its glory days, the years when it not only set the place for innovation in the mobile phone market but also led its as the world biggest handset maker. The company took its latest step in rebuilding itself as it unveiled a slate of android smartphones, The Nokia 1, the Nokia 6, Nokia 7 plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco with the cheaper of these the Nokia 1 coming at 85$ and new feature phone.
The new handsets come as the company said that it sold 70 million
devices in 2017 across its 11 models, year one of its comeback strategy.
“Being a challenger and smaller player, market share is not the most
important thing for us to grasp right now,” said
Pekka Rantala,
EVP and CMO of HMD Global said in an interview. “But we sold more than
70 million Nokia phones in 2017 – including all models. We have high
ambitions but this figure was higher for us than we expected.”
The company currently has over 100 retail partners and the plan is to expand that to more this year.
“This time last year, we started our journey
with huge expectations from fans and a massive responsibility to
deliver on the legacy of one of the most innovative brands in our
space,” Florian Seiche, CEO of HMD Global, said in a statement. “Since
then we have reintroduced well-loved icons, forged partnerships with
friends old and new and delivered our pure, secure and up-to-date
Android experience across our smartphone portfolio. Last year we shipped
over 70 million Nokia phones.”
The smartphones getting lauched today are notable for how closely they are tied to Google’s Android, with Nokia joining Google’s Android One partnership program as part of today’s news — and in the case of the pared-down Nokia 1, using Android Go.
Its unique spin, the company says, will be in the craftsmanship of the hardware itself.
In the absence of a distinctively different operating system and any
alternative to what is already on the market software-wise, it will be
interesting to see whether this is enough to motivate the masses who are
new to Nokia phones an brand loyalists from the old days.
The flagship of the range, the Nokia 8 Sirocco, will retail for €749
and will include Dual-Sight, Zeiss optics, Nokia spatial audio, and a
curved glass finish around a stainless-steel frame, with a measurement
of 2mm at the edge, using edge-to-edge pOLED 2K 5.5-inch display. Nokia
claims the stainless steel frame is 2.5 times stronger than 6000 series
aluminium. It also features wireless charging and a way to log into the
phone using facial recognition.
The Nokia 7 Plus, priced at €399, is being positioned with its camera
features in the forefront, with a 12MP Zeiss optics — significantly,
marking the return of Zeiss to Nokia devices after having a long-time
collaboration with the brand when Nokia was still making its phones
itself — for its primary camera and a secondary 13MP camera with 2x
optical zoom.
The front camera has adaptive sensor technology for low-light
conditions, and a new feature called “pro camera” on all Zeiss optics
where you can modify the aperture and other features and see previews
before taking the pictures, along with a new imagine suite that lets you
include AR-type lenses as well as animated characters.
It is built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform with a
two-day battery life and comes in Black/Copper and White/Copper.
The Nokia 6, meanwhile, will retail for €279 when it goes on sale in
April, and is a new version of the phone it announced previously. The
new features include faster processing power (60 percent faster, HMD
says) and a more durable body, made from a block of 6000 series
aluminum, along with Zeiss optics, USB-C fast-charging and Android Oreo
as part of the Android One program. Another two notable features are
wireless charging, as well as the ability now to unlock your phone using
your face — two details that it seems are now becoming standard in
mobile devices.
It’s built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 Mobile Platform and comes
in Black/Copper, White/Iron and Blue/Gold, with two configurations of
3GB RAM/32GB ROM, and later 4GB RAM/64GB ROM.
Finally, the Nokia 1 is the company’s
low-end smartphone, with a very reasonable price of $85 at retail when
it goes on sale in April. It’s marketed as “smartphone essentials” —
which in this case is Android Oreo Go Edition
— the version of Android that is optimised for phones with memory of
1GB or less. On the outside, the phone comes with a series of Xpress-on
covers to change the color to Azure, Grey, Yellow and Pink (a feature
Nokia has been running for years now, starting in the Lumia line).
Specs:
Nokia 1:
- Networks: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA: Band 1, 2, 5, 8, LTE: Band 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41(Full band 41)
- Network speed: LTE Cat 6, 2CA, 300Mbps DL/50Mbps UL
- OS: Android 8.0 Oreo™
- Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 660 mobile platform
- RAM: 4 GB LPDDR 4
- Storage: 64 GB internal memory2 with MicroSD card slot3 (up to 256 GB support)
- Form factor: touch monoblock with on-screen keys
- Display: 6” IPS LCD full HD+ (2160 x 1080, 18:9), sculpted Corning®
Gorilla® Glass, 403 ppi pixel density, 500 nits, 1:1500 contrast ratio,
laminated and polarised
- Camera:
- Primary camera: 12MP, 1.4um f1.75, 2PD, ZEISS with dual-tone flash
- Secondary camera: 13MP, 1.0um, F2.6, ZEISS
- Front facing camera: 16MP FF 1.0um, F2.0, ZEISS
- Connectivity & Sensors: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, BT 5.0,
GPS/AGPS+GLONASS+BDS, NFC, USB type-C (USB 2.0), OTG, 3.5mm AV jack,
ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, accelerometer, e-compass,
gyroscope, hall sensor, fingerprint sensor
- Battery: Integrated 3800 mAh battery4 with USB type-C fast charging and 2-day battery life5
- Audio: Single speaker with smart amplifier, Nokia spatial audio capture with 3 mics
Dimensions: 158.38 x 75.64 x 7.99 mm (9.55 mm with camera bump)
Nokia 6:
- Networks: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA: Band 1, 2, 5, 8, LTE: Band 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41 (Full band 41)
- Network speed: LTE Cat. 4, 150Mbps DL/50Mbps UL
- OS: Android 8.0 Oreo™
- Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 630 mobile platform
- RAM/Storage variants: 3 GB LPDDR 4 RAM with 32 GB internal user
memory2 or 4 GB LPDDR 4 RAM with 64 GB internal user memory2 both
variants available with MicroSD card slot3 (up to 128 GB support)
- Form factor: Touch monoblock with on-screen keys
- Display: 5.5” IPS LCD full HD (1920 x 1080, 16:9), sculpted Corning®
Gorilla® Glass, 403 ppi pixel density, 450 nits, laminated, 1500:1
contrast ratio
- Primary camera: 16MP PDAF / 1.0um / F2.0, dual-tone flash, ZEISS optics
- Front facing camera: 8MP FF, 1.12um / F2.0 / FOV 84˚
- Connectivity & sensors: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, BT 5.0,
GPS/AGPS+GLONASS+BDS, FM/RDS, USB type-C (USB 2.0), OTG, 3.5mm, ambient
light sensor, proximity sensor, accelerometer, e-compass, gyroscope,
hall sensor, fingerprint sensor, NFC
- Battery: Integrated 3000mAh battery4
- Audio: Single speaker with smart amplifier, Nokia spatial audio capture with 2 mics
- Dimensions: 148.8×75.8×8.15 mm (8.6 mm with camera bump)
- Nano SIM
Nokia 7 Plus:
- Networks: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA: Band 1, 2, 5, 8, LTE: Band 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41(Full band 41)
- Network speed: LTE Cat 6, 2CA, 300Mbps DL/50Mbps UL
- OS: Android 8.0 Oreo™
- Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 660 mobile platform
- RAM: 4 GB LPDDR 4
- Storage: 64 GB internal memory2 with MicroSD card slot3 (up to 256 GB support)
- Form factor: touch monoblock with on-screen keys
- Display: 6” IPS LCD full HD+ (2160 x 1080, 18:9), sculpted Corning®
Gorilla® Glass, 403 ppi pixel density, 500 nits, 1:1500 contrast ratio,
laminated and polarised
- Primary camera: 12MP, 1.4um f1.75, 2PD, ZEISS with dual-tone flash
- Secondary camera: 13MP, 1.0um, F2.6, ZEISS
- Front facing camera: 16MP FF 1.0um, F2.0, ZEISS
- Connectivity/sensors: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, BT 5.0,
GPS/AGPS+GLONASS+BDS, NFC, USB type-C (USB 2.0), OTG, 3.5mm AV jack,
ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, accelerometer, e-compass,
gyroscope, hall sensor, fingerprint sensor
- Battery: Integrated 3800mAh battery4 with USB type-C fast charging and 2-day battery life5
- Audio: Single speaker with smart amplifier, Nokia spatial audio capture with 3 mics
- Dimensions: 158.38×75.64×7.99 mm (9.55 mm with camera bump)
- Nano SIM
Nokia 8 Sirocco:
- Networks: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900, CDMA One: BC (800), CDMA 2000:
BC0 (800). WCDMA, 1,2,5,8, TDS CDMA 34,39 FDD-LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8,
20, 28 TDD-LTE: 34, 38, 39, 40, 41
- Network speed: LTE Cat 12 600Mbps DL \ Cat13 150Mbps(64QAM) UL
- OS: Android Oreo™
- CPU: Qualcomm™ Snapdragon® 835 Mobile Platform
- RAM: 6 GB LPPDDR 4X
- Storage: 128G GB USF2.1 internal user memory2
- Form factor: Touch monoblock with capacitive system keys
- Display: 5.5” QHD pOLED, 3D Corning® Gorilla® Glass 5
- Primary camera: 12MP wide, 2L7, 1.4um, 2PD, f/1.75, FOV 78”
- Secondary camera: 13MP tele, 3M3, 1.0um, f/2.6, FOV 47.3”, dual-tone flash
- Front-facing camera: 5MP, 4E8, 1.4um, F/2.0, FF, display flash
- Connectivity/sensors: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (MIMO), BT 5.0,
GPS/AGPS+GLONASS+BDS, NFC,ANT+, fingerprint sensor, ALS/PS, g-sensor,
e-compass, gyro, hall sensor, barometer
- Battery: integrated 3260mAh battery3
- Audio: 3 AOP mics, smart amp on single speaker
- Charging: QC 4 compatible, Qi wireless charging compliance
- Dimensions: 140.93×72.97×7.5 mm
- Nano SIM
Availability
Nokia 8 Sirocco will be available from early April for a global average retail price of €749.
Nokia 7 Plus will be available from early April for a global average retail price of €399.
New Nokia 6 will be available from May for a global average retail price of €279.
Nokia 1 will be available from early April
for a global average retail price of $85. Xpress-on covers, sold
separately, are available from $7.99 in Azure, Grey, Yellow and Pink.
Nokia 8110 will be available from May for a global average retail price of €79.
