Nokia licensee HMD Global isn’t done launching a flagship smartphone. According to reports coming from China, the Finnish company is preparing a full-fledged 5G flagship for later this year. The phone will arrive in the Chinese market on November 11, 2021. Zhang Yucheng, the Product Manager for HMD’s Nokia Mobile division in China, reportedly revealed this information on local microblogging platform Weibo.
November 11, i.e. 11.11, is also referred to as Double 11 and is celebrated as the Singles’ Day in China. It is an unofficial Chinese holiday, known for being the largest online shopping day in the world. Nokia seemingly wants to take advantage of this mega shopping event by releasing its first 5G smartphone in China. The Nokia 8.3 5G isn’t available in the world’s most populous country.
Not much else information is available about Nokia’s upcoming flagship as yet. However, if the November 11 launch date is accurate, it shouldn’t be long before the device starts appearing in leaks and certification listings.
A new Nokia flagship is finally coming
The Nokia 9 PureView, that arrived in early 2019, was the Finnish company’s last flagship model. Despite all the hype around its “revolutionary” penta-camera system at the back, the device failed impress the crowd. We have since seen a plethora of rumors around its successor. Those started with the Nokia 9.1 PureView and gradually progressed to 9.2, 9.3, and even the Nokia 10 PureView. However, the company never released another flagship after the Nokia 9 PureView. Even the rumors have started to die down recently.
Meanwhile, Nokia focused its business on budget and mid-range devices, launching multiple phones at various price points. A strategy followed by other established brands like Samsung and Xiaomi, this move has helped the company to some extent.
It is now seemingly preparing to return to the flagship smartphone market with a new model later this year. It’s unclear what this phone will be called. But it almost certainly won’t arrive as the Nokia 9.3 PureView or anything of that sort. Nokia has moved away from the “dot” naming scheme, with its recent phones featuring an alphanumeric moniker, such as the Nokia G20, Nokia C20, and others.
The upcoming flagship could also use a similar naming scheme. Perhaps, it will arrive as a member of Nokia’s new X series. The Nokia X50 is said to feature a 108-megapixel primary camera, a 6.5-inch QHD+ 120Hz display, a 6,000mAh battery, and several other flagship-grade specs.
That said, the Snapdragon 775 isn’t the most powerful mobile chipset out there. So maybe the recently rumored Nokia X70 is this upcoming nokia flagship. There are also rumors of Nokia launching a phone with Huawei’s HarmonyOS. Such a phone would certainly be exclusive to the Chinese market. We will have to wait and see how things shape up in the coming months.