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As is practically tradition, HMD Global has come to Mobile World Congress with a new lineup of Nokia phones, and this year’s group includes budget devices with some clever new features.
That starts with the Nokia 4.2, a new class of phone for the company designed to slot in between the pricier Nokia 5 line and the cheaper Nokia 3. The 4.2 is meant to offer an “affordable flagship experience,” with premium features like a notched 5.71-inch display, glass front and back design, dual camera system, and a fingerprint sensor without breaking the $200 mark.
The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 439 processor, so it’s definitely not the fastest device around. It’s rounded out by a 3,000 mAh battery and either 2GB RAM with 16GB of storage or 3GB RAM with 32GB of storage.
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But the most interesting part of the Nokia 4 is its buttons. There’s a dedicated Google Assistant button, which Nokia is loading with a few tricks: press it once to trigger the Assistant, twice to bring up Google’s Visual Snapshot view, and press and hold to keep the mic open for a conversational, always listening mode like on a full smart speaker.
There’s also a “breathing” notification light integrated into the power button. If the device is face down, the light will gently glow when you have new notifications, which is a clever feature. The Nokia 4 will cost either $169 or $199 depending on the storage configuration, although Nokia isn’t sure yet which configurations will come to the US when the phone launches in April.
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Next is the Nokia 3.2, an updated version of the 3.1 that’s getting the same dedicated Google Assistant and glowing power buttons, a larger 6.26-inch notched display, and a beefy 4,000 mAh battery.
The 3.2 has the same Snapdragon 439 processor and 2GB RAM / 16GB storage and 3GB RAM / 32GB storage options as the 4.2. But the 3.2 does lack a few of the 4.2’s nicer features, like the glass back (it’s plastic, instead) and the fingerprint sensor. It is a bit cheaper though, set to cost $169 and $139, depending on the storage/RAM option. The Nokia 3.2 will launch in May.
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HMD is also announcing the $99 Nokia 1 Plus, which is meant to improve upon last year’s Nokia 1 as a sort of entry-level smartphone for folks looking to upgrade from a feature phone for the first time.
It features a 5.45-inch 18:9 display, removable back cover with replaceable battery, and is thinner than last year’s model. Crucially, it’ll also run Android 9 Pie Go, instead of the larger Android 9 Pie, and will be available in mid-March.
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Lastly, there’s the Nokia 210, a proper, classic Nokia feature phone. As you might expect, the specs here are nothing to be amazed by: a 2.4-inch QVGA display and 16MB of memory. But, it also does have Snake, physical keys, a removable 1,020mAh battery, an FM radio, and even an app store (for apps designed for Nokia’s proprietary, Java-based feature phone OS). It’ll cost $35 when it comes out in March.
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