Two years since the peak of HMD's new Nokias?

madbilly

Hi all,

I realised that it's now two years since HMD released the Nokia 9 PureView, which although flawed in some respects was a bold and innovative approach to smartphone photography and a proper flagship. At that time we thought it was the beginning of great new things and were eagerly awaiting a worthy successor.

Well, that didn't really turn out as we expected it did it? Last year we saw the 8.3 5G get announced, a premium device but not a flagship - just like the 8.1 wasn't a flagship either. I wasn't actually available until about 6 months ago, so that meant 18 months between release of top-end devices and we're still waiting for another proper flagship.

As well as the 9PV in 2019 we had flagships in 2018 (Sirocco) and 2017 (Nokia 8). We didn't get one in 2020. Will we get one in 2021? I somehow doubt it, but I remain optimistic that HMD are working on something special.

It's not only two years since the last flagship, it's two years since the last significant innovation as well. Can we count 5G last year as an innovation? Not really, because others were doing it too. What about the ultra-wide cinecam mode? I have a feeling that Sony were already doing that, possibly others.

When will we next see a significant innovation from HMD? Is the X-series' 3 years of OS version updates an innovation? Possibly, at that price range almost certainly. Otherwise I think that Samsung and Google are already doing this for their premium phones.

But then, HMD calls the X-series premium doesn't it!

Let's hope we something worth getting excited about soon.

Cheers 🙂