Nokia makes 5G: Phone at decent prices to come in 2020
Nokia announces a smartphone that is 5G-capable and only half the price of a current 5G phone.
The new 5G mobile communications standard is currently being rolled out globally. While mobile phone providers are setting up antennas, smartphone manufacturers are setting new price records. Because 5G smartphones are expensive.
Nokia is not joining in.
Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer at Nokia's holding company HMD, told the tech magazine DigitalTrends that Nokia is working on a 5G phone. He would like to see the phone cost "about half" the price of a current 5G phone.
Qualcomm and the competition
Nokia smartphones are usually equipped with Qualcomm systems-on-a-chip (SoC), but not the flagship 800 series. So if Sarvikas says that HMD and Nokia are "working closely with Silicone Vendors", then an SoC from Qualcomm that is not only 5G-capable but also priced well below the 800 series is likely to be on the horizon.
But the Finns are facing a strong wind. Huawei and chip manufacturer MediaTek are working on a mid-range SoC based on the ARM Cortex A77, whose standout feature is 5G.
New hardware required
In order to take advantage of the speed of the 5G network, you will most likely need new hardware. Only a few phones currently on the market can connect to the 5G network and utilise its benefits.
5G offers theoretical speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. By comparison, 4G does not offer more than 100 megabits per second of data transfer.
There is still no date for the release of the 5G Nokia phone. But Nokia usually presents new devices at the MWC in Barcelona in February/March. <p
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