Nokia 9 Press Renders Leaked Before MWC Launch, Confirm Past Leaks

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Leaks and rumors about HMD Global’s Nokia 9 flagship have been circulating online for more than a year. HMD Global reclaimed the ‘PureView’ trademark from Microsoft in August last year, and is expected to revive it with Nokia 9. The device is widely expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona later this month. Ahead of the MWC unveiling, folks at 91Mobiles have leaked the ‘official’ Nokia 9 press renders.

Check out the leaked Nokia 9 press renders

The leaked renders shed light on what the device would look like. The Nokia 9 press renders have a design similar to what tipster Evan Blass leaked in December. Considering the MWC is only a few weeks away, we might be looking at the final design of Nokia 9 PureView.

HMD Global has already sent out press invites for its event, which will take place in Barcelona at 4 PM local time on Sunday, February 24th. If you were hoping to see a revolutionary new design with Nokia 9 PureView, you are going to be disappointed. Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, and other vendors are using punch-hole display, notch, or slider camera mechanism to offer a bezel-less display. But HMD Global seems to be in no rush to join the bandwagon.

The Nokia 9 press renders suggest it will have a thick forehead above the display to accommodate the ear speaker, selfie camera, and other sensors. The Nokia logo is placed in the top-right corner, next to the front camera. It also has a thick chin at the bottom, which would lead to a low screen-to-body ratio. The front panel design reminds you of the budget and mid-range phones from Chinese vendors. There is nothing innovative or premium-worthy here.

The press renders confirm that it would have an in-display fingerprint sensor to let users unlock the device by putting their finger on the screen. The phone appears to have a glass body with a dark blue hue and a fairly slim profile. The power and volume buttons are placed on the right side of the phone. The rear panel is curved on the edges to make it easier for users to hold it.

It’s going to be all about the camera

The biggest highlight of Nokia 9 PureView is going to be its camera. It appears to have only a single 12MP camera on the front for selfies. But the real magic happens on the rear panel, which accommodates five cameras, an autofocus module, and an LED flash in a circular layout. Most other vendors are trying to add three or four cameras on their phones. The Nokia 9 PureView is going to outdo them all with five lenses.

The rear cameras have a Zeiss branding. The back panel has seven cutouts – five for cameras, one for the autofocus module, and one for the LED flash. Folks at 91Mobiles speculate that it could consist of a high-resolution main sensor, an ultra-wide angle lens, a telephoto lens, a depth sensor, and a monochrome lens. It could also feature a 3D Time of Flight (ToF) sensor to capture a 3D image of the scene.

Having five rear cameras is no guarantee that it would capture the best photos and videos. Much would depend on how the software would collect, utilize, and process the data from five different sensors. Google’s Pixel 3 has only a single camera on the back, but it’s still among the best in the world.

The Nokia 9 press renders have Android One branding on the back, meaning it would offer nearly stock version of Android 9 Pie out of the box. There will be no bloatware. Users would also get at least two years of software updates and security patches, which is pretty rare in the Android world.

The phone would launch without the 3.5mm headphone jack. Sources told 91Mobiles that it would feature a USB-C port for charging and data transfer. The phone is rumored to have a giant 4,150mAh battery with Qi wireless charging support. The publication added that it would sport a 5.99-inch QHD+ AMOLED display with 2K resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. The display is expected to be protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass.

The Nokia 9 PureView is rumored to run last year’s Snapdragon 845 processor with 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. That’s quite surprising because we will see many other vendors unveiling phones with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 855 chipset at the MWC later this month. The use of an older processor could turn many potential buyers away from Nokia 9.

According to a Twitter tipster, HMD Global could unveil another version of Nokia 9 with Snapdragon 855 and 5G support in the second half of the year.

Given HMD Global’s pricing strategy, we don’t expect it to be cheap despite sporting an older processor. According to the rumor mill, it would cost upward of EUR 749 in European markets. Only time will tell whether its five-camera setup is good enough to justify the premium pricing.

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