HMD is yet to announce its 2018 flagship Nokia phone, but here’s what we know so far.
Considering how HMD Global has been launching one Nokia phone after another, it’s surprising that we still haven’t seen a true 2018 flagship Nokia smartphone till now. We have been hearing about the Nokia 9 for many weeks now but things have been pretty quiet from HMD’s end. A few weeks ago, reports suggested HMD is delaying the launch of the Nokia 9 until next year as it’s not ready yet, but newer reports have now emerged that once again tip a 2018-end launch.
There are multiple and conflicting reports on the Nokia 9. Right from leaked images and renders to specs, the Nokia 9 is far from giving us a complete picture. But among the vast rumours and reports, we expect some features to turn out true. As of now, there is no exact timeline for when HMD may announce this phone. The company is holding an event on October 4 in London. While we expect the event to see the launch of the Nokia 7.1 Plus, we’re not ruling out the possibility of seeing the Nokia 9 flagship. Here’s everything we know so far about the phone.
— The design is perhaps the biggest mystery right now. Earlier renders and leaked images showed a Nokia 6.1 Plus like design on the front with a notched display. The images also showed a five-camera setup on the back arranged in a hexagonal manner. However, newer Nokia 9 images (below) show a Nokia 8 Sirocco-like design with dual curved edges on the front. I’m leaning more towards the image above as it looks more plausible. The new image spotted last week could just as well be the Nokia 8 Sirocco.
— As of now, the biggest highlight and talking point about the Nokia 9 is its penta-lens setup. HMD Global knows it needs to bring a unique flagship to help it stand out from the crowd and it’s probably planning to do that by bringing the first phone ever to sport a five-camera setup. Based on what we have heard, there will be a fixed sensor and four interchangeable secondary sensors. So we’re probably looking at different zoom lenses, an RGB sensor and a wide angle-sensor to be part of this system.
— Roland Quandt of WinFuture.de, who has been pretty spot on with leaks, tweeted this week that HMD will be calling its upcoming flagship, Nokia 9 Pureview. HMD recently acquired the Pureview trademark from Microsoft, which also makes the penta-lens camera setup sound more plausible than ever before.
— Some separate reports say that the pinta-lens Nokia phone is being delayed until February 2018 and that the upcoming Nokia 9 may simply go with a traditional dual rear camera system instead. That being said, we have no new information about what sensors will be on offer. It is widely expected that the cameras, whether it is a penta-lens setup or dual camera setup, will have Zeiss-branded lenses.
— Since the Nokia 9 is expected to be HMD’s 2018 flagship smartphone, it is largely expected that the device will be powered by a Snapdragon 845 chipset with up to 6GB of RAM. The Nokia 8 Sirocco that was launched earlier this year cannot be called a 2018 flagship many because it runs last year’s Snapdragon 835 chipset.
— Interestingly, Samsung last month may have revealed the storage options for the Nokia 9 via a buyback page on its official Latvian website. As per the list, the upcoming Nokia phone will have four variants — 64GB single SIM, 64GB dual SIM, 128GB single SIM and 128GB dual SIM.
— The Nokia 9 will, of course, be part of the Android One program so you can expect stock, bloatware-free Android out-of-the-box. Given the timing of its arrival, the Nokia 9 will ship with Android 9 Pie.
— As a flagship Nokia smartphone, we expect to see a pretty high price tag. The Nokia 8 Sirocco was launched in India at just under Rs 50,000, so one assumes the Nokia 9 will be priced along the same lines. That being said, the competition is pretty fierce now, especially after the Poco F1 made its debut. HMD has done well to price its newer phones like the Nokia 6.1 Plus and 5.1 Plus at competitive prices, and the company may just do the same with its flagship phone as well.
— There is no word yet on when the Nokia 9 will be revealed. HMD is yet to start teasing its 2018 flagship smartphone and we can only hope to see or hear something on October 4.
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