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Nokia's big upgrade: Sub-$200 Nokia 3.1 Plus adds bigger screen, fingerprint reader

HMD Global beefs up its budget Nokia Android lineup with the six-inch display Nokia 3.1 Plus.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

Nokia brand licensee HMD Global has unveiled the Nokia 3.1 Plus, a bigger and better version of the 5.2-inch display Nokia 3.1 that was launched in May.

The Nokia 3.1 made a reasonable sub-$200 choice for an entry-level smartphone, featuring a 5.2-inch display, and a rear 13-megapixel (MP) camera and an 8MP front-facing camera.

With full Android Oreo, it was the cheapest new option launched in May along with the Nokia 5.1.

The Nokia 3.1 Plus is still a sub-$200 device but offers Nokia fans a larger six-inch display at an 18:9 aspect ratio, and dual rear cameras above a new fingerprint sensor.

The two cameras on the rear have 13MP and 5MP sensors, while the front-facing camera is 8MP.

Also, with a large 3,500mAh battery, HMD Global says the Nokia 3.1 Plus will last two days, which is in part thanks to a Media Tek eight-core Helio P22 processor that only uses four cores for basic tasks and switches on the other half for heavier jobs, like displaying video.

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The additional battery life should be a welcome addition for buyers of budget smartphones in India where the device was announced today.

The phone also features a 3.5mm headphone jack, one speaker, and a microSD slot that supports up to 400GB of additional storage.

The phone comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, or 3GB of RAM and 32GB, and will be available for €159 and €179 ($184, $207) respectively.

The Nokia 3.1 is another member of the Nokia Android One family and will ship with Android Oreo. It will be available in blue, white, and baltic and goes on sale in India from October.

The budget phone update follows HMD Global's mid-range refresh with the just launched 5.84-inch screen Nokia 7.1, which will be available in the US and Europe for about $350.

The Nokia 7.1 runs-on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor and features dual Zeiss Optics rear cameras with 12-megapixel and five-megapixel sensors.

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The Nokia 3.1 Plus offers a larger six-inch display at an 18:9 aspect ratio, and dual rear cameras above a new fingerprint sensor.

Image: HMD Global

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