Nokia 10 Release Date, News, and Rumors
While Nokia was absent from the mobile industry for a few years, the company is back under HMD Global’s backing. We have seen multiple mid-range and high-end flagships launching since Nokia’s big comeback, and we’re going to talk about one of Nokia’s future flagships that could break cover anytime soon.
This phone is expected to succeed the Nokia 9 Pureview from 2019, and may likely carry a few upgrades in some key areas to make it a serious contender in the smartphone segment.
The Nokia 10, as it is known for now, may also be called the Nokia 9.1 or 9.2 given Nokia’s odd naming schemes for device successors. While there’s no confirmation on this front, we’ll refer to this upcoming Nokia flagship as the Nokia 10. Could it bring upgrades to the iconic five-camera layout? Will there be a bigger battery onboard? We try to figure out these mysteries in this article.
Nokia 10 Release Date, News, and Rumors
Nokia 10 News
There’s been talk on multiple occasions about using a decimal system for the Nokia 9 Pureview successor. Keeping this in mind, it’s likely that Nokia may call it Nokia 9.2 instead of the Nokia 10.
HMD Global recently took the wraps off the Nokia 8.3, which was officially Nokia’s first 5G phone. This pitches the possibility of the Nokia 10 also coming with 5G capabilities.
Nokia 10 Release Date
There’s no concrete information available on this front yet, but considering that the Nokia 9 was released last year, it’s very likely that the Nokia 10 will be unveiled sometime in Q3 of 2020. However, the ongoing pandemic may have added a few more months to the flagships’s arrival.
Nokia 10 Rumors
Size & Design
Unfortunately, there’s not much we know about the design of the smartphone, but many suggest that the Nokia 10 may look to cut down on unnecessary bezels to provide a more refined user experience. It was slightly strange that Nokia decided to keep the bottom bezels intact, despite the fact that the Nokia 9 had an under-display optical fingerprint scanner. Perhaps the company wanted to maintain symmetry with the top bezel that houses the front cameras.
Display
If the predecessor is an indicator, the Nokia 10 should be packing a display close to 6 inches. While this made the phone somewhat hard to hold, especially with the additional bezels, the company may not consider changing this aspect. The display should also likely remain an OLED panel, considering that LCD screens are seldom seen on flagships anymore.
It is also hoped the smartphone will add an oleophobic coating on the display so that fingerprints don’t remain on the screen.
Some concepts late last year predicted a 90 Hz display for the Nokia 10, which also seems likely given the market trend right now. Samsung’s recent flagship, for example, comes with a 120 Hz display refresh rate.
Camera
Nokia will likely maintain the same penta-camera layout on the back, although its capabilities will likely improve. On the software front, Nokia will look to add a few missing features to the smartphone, preferably with regards to better night mode photography, something that’s becoming a common feature among flagships.
With regard to the front camera of the Nokia 10, we didn’t find any particular complaints with the 20MP sensor used on the Nokia 9 Pureview, although as experts suggest, there’s always room for improvement. While there’s been talk of an under-display selfie camera being used on the Nokia 10, we don’t think the company may take that step this early in the day. Companies like Samsung are currently said to be testing an under-display selfie camera.
Other features
For a 2019 flagship, the Nokia 9 was pretty well equipped with regard to RAM and internal storage. Keeping this in mind, we should see the Nokia 10 sporting at least 8GB of RAM, and possibly two storage variants (128GB and 256GB). Since the predecessor didn’t have a microSD card slot, it’s quite possible that the trend will continue with the Nokia 10.
The phone will likely run Android 10 by default, while an update to Android 11 may be provided later in 2024. We are curious to learn about the software changes made by Nokia for the new flagship.
The Nokia 9 Pureview only had an in-display fingerprint scanner and no support for secure facial recognition tech. Perhaps this is an area where the company would look to improve with the successor.
Some reports in December 2019 indicated that the arrival of the Nokia 10 had been delayed to later in 2024 due to the delay in acquiring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 SoC which also brings 5G to the equation. Although this processor is currently seen on the likes of the Samsung galaxy s20.
Nokia 10 could have 5G
While it was largely believed that the Nokia 10 will be the first 5G phone from the company, the company unveiled the Nokia 8.3 5G running on the Snapdragon 765 SoC, which is a mid-range 5G compatible chipset.
Fast wireless charging to remain
Nokia introduced 10W Qi-based fast wireless charging on the Nokia 9 Pureview, and the tech can only get better with the successor. The battery capacity could likely increase to 3,500 mAh as compared to 3,320 mAh on the 2019 flagship. Other features like USB Power Delivery 2.0 along with Quick Charge 3.0 and 18W fast wired charging are aspects that don’t need to be changed with the Nokia 10.
What will Nokia call it?
This is an area that has caused a lot of confusion for the fans. Keeping this in mind, we should likely get used to the idea of calling this the Nokia 9.2 / Nokia 10.
Nokia 10 Price
The Nokia 9 Pureview was launched at around $699 in the regions that it was available. Things may be significantly different with the Nokia 10, however, particularly if rumors about the smartphone featuring 5G materialize. This should push the pricing of the phone beyond $1,000, which will bring it in line with other flagships in the market. On the other hand, if Nokia decides to play it safe and skip 5G, the $699 could be retained with the Nokia 10.
Should you be excited?
Any new smartphone that introduces new technology to the world is bound to be exciting. However, Nokia has been somewhat limited with its markets, with not a big focus on the U.S. While we hope each year that things will be different, customers can only buy unlocked Nokia flagships in the U.S. as of now.