Affordable 5G is on its way thanks to Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 690 platform recently released and it looks like it’s going to be powering future Nokia phones.
HMD Global’s chief product officer Juho Sarvikas has taken to Twitter to congratulate Qualcomm on the launch of the new affordable 5G platform, describing the it as “truly transformational,” before going on to say: “This new platform from Qualcomm plays a central role in our 5G strategy for Nokia phones.”
Congratulations @cristianoamon and the awesome team at @Qualcomm for the launch of #Snapdragon 690 Mobile Platform! We are excited to bring our Nokia Phones vision of a truly global, future proof 5G experience at an even more affordable price with this transformational platform! pic.twitter.com/yctqfE13sY
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) June 17, 2020
Nokia and Qualcomm have long been talking about more affordable 5G, looking to shift the conversation from the first-gen 5G phones that were all flagship grade, through to devices that will be more widely accessible. The first of these – the Nokia 8.3 – is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G and is due to launch shortly.
But the Snapdragon 690 will move into a lower tier of devices – likely Nokia 6 or Nokia 7 series device. Previous rumours suggested that there might be a Nokia 7.3 5G in the pipeline, originally suggested to be using MediaTek’s Dimensity hardware which is also 5G equipped.
Nokia, it seems, now has more options, with the Qualcomm brand certainly carrying value in some of Nokia’s key markets, like India.
Exactly when these devices might launch we don’t know, but it’s often the case that Qualcomm has provided hardware for development to manufacturers in advance, reducing the time to market. We’d normally expect Nokia to make announcements for new devices around September, but given global disruption to supply chains, it’s hard to pin down exactly when we’ll be seeing these more affordable 5G phones.