Three new budget Android smartphones and a $35 feature phone have been announced alongside its flagship Nokia 9 by Nokia at MWC 2019 today.
The Nokia 1 Plus and Nokia 210 will be available in March at $99 and £35 respectively, while the Nokia 4.2 and Nokia 3.2 will follow in April and May at $169/$199 and $139/$169. We’ll update with UK and EU pricing when that information is available.
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Nokia 4.2
With a 5.71in HD+ 19:9 display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 octa-core processor inside, the Nokia 4.2 comes in two versions with 2- or 3GB of DDR3 RAM and 16- or 32GB of storage, expandable up to 400GB with microSD.
It might be a budget device, but the Nokia 4.2 is a good-looking smartphone with its sculpted-glass design and high screen-to-body ratio. There’s a dedicated button at the side for calling up the Google Assistant. Around the back is fingerprint sensor and a dual-lens camera (13Mp + 2Mp, f/2.2, 1.12um pixels), and there’s another 8Mp camera at the front.
With a 3,000mAh battery inside the Nokia 4.2 weighs in at 161g, with dimensions spanning 148.95×71.30×8.39mm. It will be available in Black or Pink Sand.
In common with all Nokia’s Android phones it runs a vanilla version of Android 9 Pie and promises timely software updates.
Nokia 3.2
The Nokia 3.2 is very similar to the 4.2, but larger with a 6.26in HD+ panel. A larger case (159.44×76.24×8.6mm) allows it to also accommodate a higher-capacity battery, at 4,000mAh, which Nokia say will last two days. Unsurprisingly this also means it weighs a little more at 178g. It also includes a dedicated button for the Google Assistant.
In order to keep down the price Nokia has removed the second 2Mp lens from the rear, leaving just the 13Mp main camera which is accompanied with an LED flash. Around the front there is a 5Mp selfie camera, which is also lower specified than that on the Nokia 4.2. Only the 3GB/32GB version includes a fingerprint sensor at the rear.
Inside, though, everything else is the same, from the octa-core Snapdragon 429 to the memory and storage options. It, too, supports microSD up to 400GB. And it runs the same Android 9 Pie operating system.
The Nokia 3.2 will be available in Black or Steel.
Nokia 1 Plus
An Android Go smartphone, the Nokia 1 Plus is designed to be light on data and optimised for lower-power hardware.
Costing just $99, the Nokia 1 Plus has a cheaper design but still looks good, with a textured polycarbonate casing and a 5.45in FWVGA+ 18:9 IPS display. It will be available in Black, Blue or Red, measuring 145.04×70.4×8.55mm.
The hardware isn’t much to get excited about, with a 1.5GHz MediaTek quad-core processor and just 1GB of RAM and 8- or 16GB of non-expandable storage, but with Android Go onboard operation should be smooth.
The Nokia 1 Plus has two cameras, a 5Mp fixed-focus selfie camera and an 8Mp camera with autofocus at the rear.
Its 2,500mAh battery charges over Micro-USB and is said to offer 12.7 hours talk time and up to 25 days on standby.
Nokia 210
This one’s not a smartphone, running Nokia Series 30+ software on a device with a small 2.4in QVGA colour display and physical keypad – but it is cheap, just $35 in the US when it goes on sale in March.
Nokia’s latest feature phone is web-connected with the Opera Mini browser preinstalled, and support for apps available in the Mobile Store such as Facebook. More importantly, it has Snake.
The 82g handset measures 120.8×53.49×13.81 and contains a removable 1020mAh battery that offers up to 18 hours talk time and 20 days on standby.
Housed in a durable polycarbonate shell, the Nokia 210 will be available in Black, Grey or Red.
Author: Marie Black, Editorial Director
Marie is Editorial Director at Foundry. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she's worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our EMEA and LatAm editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry's transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.