After the acquisition of its smartphone business by Microsoft, Nokia had decided to stay away from the industry.
This was part of the non-compete deal that the company signed with Microsoft in 2014 that it would not engage in manufacturing and selling smartphones for about two years, which is towards the end of or fourth quarter of 2016.Unfortunately, this paved way to quite a bit of disappointment among die hard Nokia fans. But, as the deal period began to draw to a close, there were strong rumors about the enterprise getting back to offering handsets. Yet, as the year draws to a close, there was initially no firsthand information on this and Nokia did not make any comments on this front.
But, a recent NPU report now has finally some good news for them. The report states that the company is once again definitely binging into the smartphone arena next year. Added to this, a presentation made by Nokia during its Capital Markets Day 2016 event highlighted the return of its devices in 2017. Fans all over the world have been considering this as an official confirmation about the smartphones comeback. Also, Android Authority stated in October that Rajeev Suri, CEO and President of Nokia will be delivering a keynote speech at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017. There are conversations going around that Nokia will make use of this opportunity to announce a mid-range smartphone and two flagship handsets. The major difference from the earlier venture is that while the previous offerings were Windows smartphones, the company is dwelling into the Android gadgets sector.
Partnerships with HMD Global and Foxconn
Like with its previous project, the smartphones and tablets will be marketed under the Nokia brand name. However, the company will not get involved in the building and manufacturing processes. The building or design process will be undertaken by another Finnish hardware company called HMD Global that was established in the beginning of this year by some former Nokia employees. With effect to this, both Finland based firms have already signed a contract way back in May 2016. According to the terms of the contract, HMD Global will solely be responsible for the smartphone design for the next decade and hold the exclusive license needed to do this. This has been confirmed by GSM Arena reports. The two companies will jointly reveal their new smartphones at the MWC 2017 that is likely to be February or at least in the second quarter of the year. There is also a buzz that Nokia has entered into collaboration with Taiwanese based Foxconn for manufacturing its smartphones with its very own wide range of telecom and design patents.However, the company’s CEO has assured its fans that there will be no compromise on the build quality and trademark design that it has always been popular for.
What smartphones can fans expect?
The new upcoming Nokia handsets are believed to have metallic bodies with IP68 rating that make them water and dust resistant. They will come with a screen size of either 5.2 or 5.5 inches. As for the cameras, it is said that the shutterbugs will be highly sensitive and may make use of grapheme. Although the list of smartphones that are expected to hit the market is not yet confirmed, a few of them have made their way on benchmark listings. These are Nokia 1490, Nokia 5320 and Nokia D1C. Even though it is not clear whether all of them will be launched initially, it is hoped that at least a few will see the light of the day. There are strong talks doing the rounds that Nokia D1C will be the first smartphone from the company to be spotted in the limelight and will be a mid-range handset.
While specs and features of the other two handsets have not been revealed, there are a quite a few gossips about what the D1C has to offer. Based on the inputs available, the device will encompass a5.5-inch Full HD display screen with 1080p resolution, 3GB RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa core processor. This processor is slated to have a clocking frequency of 1.4GHz. In the optics division, the gadget will include a 13MP primary snapper on the rear and an 8MP secondary snapper on the front.Inbuilt storage is reported to be either 16GB or 32GB. The key highlight is that true to the promise given by Nokia, the handset will make its appearance with Android Nougat 7.0 installed out of the box. Other specifications are stated to be at par with what you find in handsets of more or less the same price.
As for the flagship smartphones, although the names have not been revealed, they could very well be the Nokia 1490 and the Nokia 5320. One of them is expected to have a screen size of 5.2 inches while the other has a tad bigger screen of 5.5 inches. However, both of them are slated to make use of OLED displays featuring Quad HD resolution. If the discussions going around can be taken into consideration, these handsets will also support Android’s latest Nougat.
The name Nokia has always been synonymous with excellent battery life and durability. Fans from all over the world are eagerly waiting to see if their favorite brand smartphones live up to these expectations.