Nokia: Our new Android phones will hit US by June, starting at $150
HMD Global has confirmed it will launch its Nokia Android handsets to the US and the rest of the world in the second quarter.
The company said on its Twitter account today that its new Android handsets and one feature phone will launch worldwide between April and June.
The newly confirmed dates offer a little more clarity for fans of the new Android Nokia handsets that HMD Global unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February.
The new devices include the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 6. Estimated prices for the handsets will be €139 ($150), €189 ($204), and €229 ($247), respectively, while the Nokia 6 Arte Black will cost €299 ($323).
It will also launch the Nokia 3310 for €39 ($42), a basic phone running on the Nokia Series 30+. The phones will be sold online and at select retailers, according to HMD.
HMD did reveal pricing in February, so it's merely drumming up interest among old Nokia fans who are keen to see the brand's return to smartphones after Nokia's once dominant handset business was crushed by Android and the iPhone in the late 2000s.
The highest-end Nokia 6 Arte Black device features a 5.5-inch full HD display, 64GB storage and 4GB RAM, with a 16-megapixel main camera, and an eight-megapixel selfie-shooter. It's all wrapped in an aluminum unibody and runs pure Android Nougat with Google Services, unencumbered by bloatware.
By the time the Nokia's worldwide relaunch occurs, it will have been just over three years since the Android-powered Nokia X debuted in Nokia's dying days as a handset maker.
The devices business was sold to Microsoft a few months later for $7bn, which included a 10-year patent-licensing agreement.
Microsoft licensed rights to the Nokia brand. But after a massive write-down on the business, HMD Global, which is run by former Nokia execs, announced it had an exclusive 10-year license to market and sell Nokia-branded phones.
And here we are today with three low- to mid-range Android handsets that will attempt to capitalize on the remaining goodwill consumers have for the brand's legacy in mobile.
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