Friday, 20 March 2020

Nokia Announces First 5G Flagship, Retro Phone, Other Handsets

Nokia decided to forego its usual live press event and instead announced its new lineup of mobile devices entirely online. There’s a new 5G smartphone, a couple of midrange smartphones, and a retro-inspired feature phone. It’s unlikely any of these devices will come to the US, but they may appear later under different model numbers with a few spec tweaks. 

The €600 Nokia 8.3 5G (above) is the latest almost-flagship from Nokia. This device runs a Snapdragon 765, which is similar to the 865 seen in devices like the Galaxy S20. It has slightly less powerful CPU cores, but the 5G modem is integrated with the system-on-a-chip. The 865 requires a separate modem, which is less power-efficient. The only drawback to the 765’s design is that it cannot support millimeter-wave 5G. Although, that’s very rare outside the US. 

The 8.3 has a giant 6.8-inch 1080p display, but it’s an LCD rather than OLED like more expensive phones. As a result, the 8.3 has a rather large “chin” at the bottom. The LCD also means the 8.3 can’t have an in-display fingerprint sensor, so Nokia went with a side-mounted version. Nokia always talks up its Zeiss-branded cameras, and this is no exception. The 8.3 5G has a 64MP main sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth sensor. 

Nokia also has the 5.3 and 1.3 in its new lineup. Neither one is 5G, but the 5.3 has a reasonably powerful Snapdragon 665. The 6.55-inch display is only 720p, though. It has a water-drop notch display instead of the hole-punch seen on the 8.3 5G. The 5.3 also gets a quad-camera array similar to the 8.3, but it maxes out with the main sensor at 13MP. It’ll cost much less at €190 when it launches. 

The Nokia 1.3 is an Android Go phone, so it won’t have as many software or hardware features as the other devices. The 5.71-inch screen will be 720p, which is higher than older Android Go phones. However, you’ll have to make do with the anemic Qualcomm 215 with four low-power CPU cores. It’ll only cost €100, though. 

Finally, there’s the quirky Nokia 5310. This is the latest in Nokia’s line of retro phones that lack Android and the modern features that come with it. This phone has a small 2.4-inch screen with a numerical keypad below that. It should last for a month on a single charge, and it does look nice. The Nokia 5310 will cost a mere €39 when it launches this month.

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