Nokia affordable 5G smartphone confirmed for 2020

DigitalTrends did an interview with HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas, in which he revealed some tidbits about the company’s plans for 2020, particularly regarding smartphones with 5G support.

The news site posted just this info from the interview, where Nokia Mobile’s CPO said that the company sees the opportunity to bring 5G smartphones to a more affordable market segment, adding that about half of the current price of 5G phones is something they might aim at. The direct quote follows below:

“We see a particular opportunity for us in bringing 5G to a more affordable segment as we enter the market. I would say affordable in relation to what’s available today. I would love to see us at half of the price where you have 5G today.”

As you can read from the direct quote, it isn’t really fair to interpret the statement as a 100% confirmation that an “affordable” 5G Nokia smartphone is coming in 2020, but considering that the Mr. Sarvikas himself retweet the article with the title “A Nokia 5G phone is coming in 2020 at ‘half’ the price of what exists today”, it looks to me like it is basically confirmed.

It’s interesting that just this little part from the article was shared, two weeks before Nokia Mobile scheduled a launch event in Berlin for new Nokia phones. Today, HMD’s partner ZEISS leaked the image of Nokia 7.2 and we can confirm as well that HMD already held a media pre-briefing in Germany with selected journalists. For sure, we shouldn’t expect a 5G Nokia phone at IFA2019, but three smartphones and three feature phones are rumored to appear there.