HMD Global made a big splash at last year’s MWC event. The Finnish company has promised to unveil some “awesome” stuff at the MWC in Barcelona later this month. HMD is expected to launch budget-friendly as well as premium Nokia-branded phones at the press event. Ahead of the MWC unveiling, the Nokia 9 has been spotted in the wild in Indonesia. The device has been subject to tons of leaks.
On Tuesday, Indonesian publication Detik.com posted pictures of what it claimed to be the Nokia 9. The photos depict an HMD Global executive testing the phone’s dual camera system. Though the images are a bit blurry, you can see a vertically-arranged dual camera system on the back panel. The LED flash is on the side. It corroborates with the Nokia 9 renders leaked by an accessories manufacturer recently.
The fingerprint sensor is located below the camera module on the back panel. The phone appears to have a glass back, and the screen is curved on both sides with an 18:9 aspect ratio, similar to the Galaxy S8. You can see the Nokia branding below the display panel. The Nokia 9 is expected to feature a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 12-megapixel secondary lens on the rear panel. It will likely have a 5.5-inch Full HD+ display.
According to the rumor mill, the Nokia 9 would run Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 chipset, which would be a bit of disappointment. It would offer 128GB of internal storage, Android Oreo, 6GB RAM, and a 3250mAh battery. It would have only a 5MP camera on the front. The specifications and design suggest that the phone spotted by Detik.com could also be Nokia 7 Plus. Anyway, we will find out soon as the MWC unveiling is less than two weeks away.
Back in December, a Nokia-branded phone with model number TA-1005 was spotted passing through the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). At the time, the rumor mill claimed it was Nokia 9. However, HMD Global recently trademarked the name ‘Nokia 8 Sirocco’ with the same TA-1005 model number in Thailand. It has sparked speculations that the newly leaked phone could be Nokia 8 Sirocco rather than Nokia 9.
After having successfully revived the iconic Nokia 3310 brand, HMD Global might be planning to revive the Sirocco brand with the MWC unveiling of Nokia 8 Sirocco. We know that nostalgia played a major role in the success of Nokia 3310, which was released last year. According to NokiaPowerUser, the Nokia 8 Sirocco would come with Carl Zeiss lenses similar to the Nokia 8. It is expected to have the OZO surround sound technology and the Bothie feature that allows you to take photos and videos with both the front and rear cameras simultaneously.
If you aren’t old enough to remember it, Nokia had launched the Nokia 8800 Sirocco back in 2006 as a premium variant of Nokia 8800. It was named after the Mediterranean wind from the Sahara desert, and offered a glossy steel body, a sapphire glass covering, a 262K TFT screen, and came with a leather case. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco was the most expensive Nokia phone at the time of its release. HMD Global might be planning to capitalize on nostalgia once again with the Nokia 8 Sirocco launch later this month.
The Finnish smartphone maker will reportedly unveil a wide range of phones at the MWC trade show. The cheapest of them would be a 4G variant of Nokia 3310, which would run Alibaba’s YunOS. There will also be a budget Nokia 1 phone. It would be part of Google’s Android Go program, featuring 1GB RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The Nokia 1 would run Google’s lightweight apps such as Files Go, Maps Go, and Google Go.
HMD Global has come a long way in the last one year. According to data from TrendForce, it sold 4.4 million phones in the fourth quarter of 2017. That’s more than the sales of popular brands like Google, Sony, HTC, OnePlus, and Lenovo. HMD is now the 6th largest smartphone vendor in the world, capturing 15% of the global feature phone sales and more than 1% of the smartphone sales. However, it sells most of its phones in the low-end and mid-range segments, where profit margins are thin. The MWC unveiling of Nokia 9 and Nokia 8 Sirocco could help the company capture market share in the premium segment.
