A new model of what’s said to be the Nokia 9 was listed on Geekbench on Tuesday, boasting 6GB of RAM and a Qualcomm-made octa-core system-on-chip (SoC) that’s likely the new Snapdragon 835. The popular mobile benchmarking tool identified the model as “Unknown Heart,” indicating that the smartphone in question was made by HMD Global, the company that holds the rights to manufacture Nokia-made devices. The Finnish consumer electronics manufacturer has a history of referring to handset prototypes as “Unknown Hearts” and while there’s no guarantee that the model that was just listed on Geekbench will be called the Nokia 9 — with some previous reports claiming that the company is working on the Nokia 7 or Nokia 8 — the fact that it’s powered by 6GB of RAM and a CPU with eight cores clocked at 1.8GHz indicates that this is indeed the upcoming Nokia-branded flagship.
The recently benchmarked Unknown Heart was running Android 7.1.1 Nougat at the time of its testing and its variant of Google’s operating system was likely close to the stock Android experience. According to some comments made by HMD Global’s representatives at the latest iteration of Mobile World Congress (MWC) earlier this year, all upcoming Nokia devices will ship with a relatively clean version of Android that won’t be modified in a significant manner. This software approach should allow the Finnish company to deliver timely system updates, something that the firm promised to do in the past. Supposed variants of the Nokia 9 have already been sighted online on numerous occasions, with some of its models sporting between 4GB and 8GB of RAM. While it’s possible that HMD Global is currently testing different prototypes of the handset before deciding on which one will be commercialized, there’s also a chance that the Nokia 9 will be offered in a number of different variants. This product strategy has already been employed with the Nokia 6, a mid-range Android smartphone that’s offered in a number of different configurations, depending on the market.
The first Nokia flagship in the brand’s post-Microsoft era is expected to be launched later this year and more details on the thereof will likely be available shortly.