Nokia devices will forever hold a special place in our hearts owing to their hand in revolutionizing mobile phone telephony. The Finnish manufacturer, whose leaning on Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS was a bad idea and what that saw its near demise from the smartphone space, leased its Nokia brand to HMD Global that has been doing a fine job in the past two or three years.
Other than the flagship Nokia 8 that was released in 2017, HMD has not released another top tier device in a world where enthusiasts continue looking forward to a proper successor that can compete favourably with the Galaxy S’s, Mates and iPhones. The wait, which has been long, to say the least, will be put to a stop towards the end of January when Nokia will reportedly announce the Nokia 9.
HMD should have as well relaxed and announce the device at MWC in Barcelona, but it appears the company is rushing to beat some of its competitors; Samsung, among other high-profile manufacturers, will be naming their flagships in the fair, which should hit store shelves a couple of weeks later, which is sometime in March. A January launch for the 9 would imply an early entry into the market just in time to influence people’s purchase choices.
However, it is likely the Nokia 9 will ship with Snapdragon 845, which is last year’s chipset that’s no longer the most powerful around. This may force HMD to release another version of the Nokia 9 with Snapdragon 855 at a later date.
That aside, the Nokia 9’s most exciting feature is the camera or should we say cameras? – because the device is rumoured to pack 5 of them at the back with the PureView brand (their arrangement could set people who love symmetry off). It may also be Nokia’s first phone with an in-display fingerprint scanner like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro that is set to launch in Kenya very soon.
