With the Nokia 9.2, HMD Global is going back to basics

The Nokia 9 PureView launched with high expectations, especially in the camera department. But as impressive and strange-looking the hardware was, the final product was a little bit lacking.

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Back to basics for the camera?

Nokia's long-time collaboration with the German optics manufacturer, ZEISS, is almost certain to continue for the Nokia 9.2 but we're hearing rumors that the fancy Light camera technology that was in the Nokia 9 PureView could now be ditched for a more conventional approach. The camera on last year's Nokia flagship used complex image processing and algorithms to capture a single shot from its five cameras. But this year the Nokia 9.2 will use more conventional Toshiba lenses. As a result, the PureView experiment, and also the name, will be over.

Regarding the front-facing selfie camera, we're hearing that there will be upgrades here, potentially to either a 32 or 48-megapixel sensor.

• Nokia 9 PureView review: the camera gamble that (almost) pays off

A Snapdragon 865 from Qualcomm

It seems like Nokia is going all out for power here in what we expect will be a relatively affordable Android One smartphone. We had initially heard that HMD Global was delaying the launch of the Nokia 9.2 to upgrade the processor from a Snapdragon 855+ to a Snapdragon 865, but there seems to be some confusion over how long this delay will actually be.

Price and release date

Whilst the upgraded SoC is welcome news, it does mean that we might not see the Nokia 9.2 until the autumn. We had hoped that we might see the new Nokia flagship at the MWC 2020 next month, given that HMD Global used the 2019 edition of the Barcelona event to launch the Nokia 9 PureView, but this now looks unlikely. Still, it would be a huge shock if the phone was teased at the trade show.

As for the price, the more conservative approach to the camera technology could see this launch around the $600 mark. That's around the same price as the Nokia 9 PureView was last year, but the upgraded SoC will probably offset the savings in the camera department. We'll have to wait and see.

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The images in this article are of the Nokia 9 PureView, released in 2019.

Source: Nokiamob