HMD Global Oy, a Finnish start-up looking to reinvigorate the Nokia phone brand, on Wednesday unveiled the Nokia 8, hoping to cash in on rising consumer demand for high-quality audio and video features.
The Android device, due to be launched next month, could potentially beat rivals on price, but will still face fierce competition, with Apple Inc’s highly anticipated 10th anniversary iPhone also expected next month and Samsung Electronics Co’s Galaxy Note 8 set to hit the market next week.
With a suggested price tag of about 599 euros (US$705), the Nokia 8 undercuts Apple, which typically offers a stripped down version of its latest phones for a similar price, but charges hundreds of euros more for memory and key features.
Photo: Bloomberg
The new top-of-the-line Nokia sports a dual-sight video feature that enables simultaneous live-streaming on social media from both front and rear cameras on a split screen. It has licensed lens technology from cameramaker Zeiss.
It is the most high-end phone so far from HMD, which was set up late last year and made a splash in May when it revived Nokia’s classic 3310 feature handset in new brightly colored versions.
Other features of the Nokia 8, which will also compete with Huawei’s recently launched P10, include surround-sound audio technology made for Nokia’s own virtual reality camera OZO for Hollywood professionals.
“This is especially meant for millennial creators, people who want to share what’s happening every day,” HMD chief marketing officer Pekka Rantala said.
HMD products are built by a unit of Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), which acquired the manufacturing and distribution assets of the former Nokia phone business from Microsoft Corp last year.
Once the world’s dominant phonemaker, Nokia Oyj sold its handset operations to Microsoft in 2014, leaving it to focus on telecoms network equipment.
HMD is owned by Smart Connect LP, a private equity fund managed by Jean-Francois Baril, a long-serving former senior vice president of Nokia.
It took over the Nokia feature phones business in December last year and has a licensing deal giving it sole use of the Nokia brand on all phones and tablets.
Last month, HMD announced that CEO Arto Nummela, a former Nokia executive, was leaving the company for personal reasons, without elaborating.
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