Nokia D1C Android phone: What’s the story so far?

Nokia is making its way back to smartphones, first announcing that it’s going to be embracing Android and reaffirming that position in December on formation of the new organisation.

That means we’re going to be seeing Nokia branded smartphones once again in 2017, which gives us plenty to be excited about.

Unlike other brands that are more predictable, Nokia is starting fresh. There’s a lot of rumour and speculation and we’re cutting through it to build a picture of what we expect to see.

Nokia Android phones: Two handsets families rumoured

• Mid-range Nokia D1C
• Flagship Nokia P1

First up, there’s rumours that Nokia is working on two (or more) handsets lines and these are said to be in the prototyping stage.

There are some codenames floating around, like Nokia D1C, first thought to be a tablet, but now considered to be a mid-range phone, said to come in two sizes – 5.0 and 5.5-inch sizes, although some are saying 5.2 and 5.5 inches. It’s this device we’re looking at here.

Then there’s the Nokia P1, which is thought to be the flagship.

All the names are a little abstract and there’s very little information to go on, so take it with a pinch of salt.

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Nokia D1C design

• IP68 protection suggested
• Metal build rumoured

In terms of design, it’s said that the Nokia D1C Android phone will offer a premium metal design, although other sources suggest a metal frame with polycarbonate rear shell.

So far we’ve seen some manufacturing images and concepts appear, but it’s difficult at this time to determine whether these are the D1C or the reported flagship P1.

There have been some renderings for the D1C, however, in both black and white finishes. These are said to have a metal frame and a plastic rear. The white version looks a lot like the Nokia Lumia 925, one of our favourite Nokia designs of all time. Either the concept artist knows our preference, or perhaps the Nokia D1C will have this link back to a previous design.

Currently, with lots of doubt around positioning and names of future Nokia phones, there’s only so much we can deduce.

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Nokia Android phones: Hardware specs

• 1920 x 1080 pixels, 5.2 and 5.5 inches
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, 2/3GB RAM,
• 16GB storage

The details are rather unsubstantial at the moment and there’s little that can be independently verified. Currently there are only a few sources claiming information on future Nokia devices, meaning you need to take this all with a pinch of salt.

The Nokia D1C, if pitched into the mid-range, is likely to offer a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, with two display sizes rumoured at 5.2 and 5.5-inches.

In terms of hardware, it’s thought that the Nokia D1C will offer a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, fitting its mid-range position, with one device offering 2GB RAM and the other offering 3GB RAM. The storage is rumoured to be 16GB.

From the rumours so far, it sounds like there will be a regular D1C and a premium version and that might also present different camera versions, which we’ll discuss next.

Nokia D1C cameras

• 13 or 16-megapixel rear camera
• 8-megapixel front camera

There’s rumour that the larger D1C will have a 16-megapixel camera and the smaller a 13-megapixel camera, with both offering an 8-megapixel front camera. 

This change in specs on an entry-level device might just be to hit a specific price in particular regions and currently little had been said about Nokia’s camera plans.

However, Nokia did have some great cameras on devices that weren’t too expensive. It also liked a dedicated camera button, something that hasn’t been mentioned so far. Whether we’ll see Zeiss lenses or not remains unanswered, but we’d imagine that Nokia will shoot for the very best it can with its new Android phone cameras.

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Nokia D1C: Software

• Android Nougat 
• Nokia customisations

Despite jumping off the Symbian train and falling into the Windows Phone quagmire, one of the details that Nokia has publicly confirmed is that it’s working on Android devices. The Nokia N1 tablet was also Android, but otherwise Nokia isn’t really known for its Android devices … yet.

However, that didn’t stop BlackBerry making the jump off its own sinking platform. BlackBerry managed to introduce plenty of lovely Android features on the Priv, proving that you don’t need to have a long history with a software platform to be able to innovate with it.

Nokia did release a launcher for Android called Z Launcher. This launcher would let you scribble to find apps to save you digging into the apps tray to get what you want.

It’s likely that we’ll see a full range of Nokia innovations when its Android phones surface, fronted with Z Launcher, but we’d be happy if Nokia kept things close to Android.

Nokia D1C release date

• Confirmed for H1 2017
• HMD has a stand at MWC 2017

Nokia hasn’t officially confirmed when Android devices might be hitting the market, but it was reported that the target was for the end of Q4 2016. That timeline was credited to a Nokia exec talking to the media in China, but as 2016 draws to a close, it seems very unlikely that we’ll see anything from the new company so soon.

For Nokia to make a big bang, the most obvious time to do so would be at Mobile World Congress 2017, in February. The company has stated that it will be targeting H1 2017, i.e., the first half of 2017.

That would give HMD (the company producing phones under the Nokia brand) time to make an appearance at Mobile World Congress 2017 and launch to market well within the first half of 2017. Fortunately, we already know that HMD will be at MWC, because the company will have a stand there.

• Mobile World Congress 2017: Smartphones, smartphones, smartphones to expect