The iconic logo and tagline of Nokia is displayed along with the potential look of the upcoming Nokia Edge Android smartphone. (Photo : YouTube/GONE IN 180)
The year 2017 will mark the return of Nokia and speculations are rife the Finnish smartphone brand will introduce at least three Android phones early in the year to kick off its attempt to reclaim the market leadership. But becoming King of Mobile will not be easy as Nokia will have to deal with tough competition ahead.
Elite SD 835 circle
Within the Android sphere, which Nokia will enter for the first time, there will be hero handsets that are designed to frustrate the touted Nokia comeback. The phone models that readily come to mind are flagships from Asus, HTC, Huawei, Motorola and Samsung, which are all expected to mighty up using Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon 835 SoC.
The 8-core chip will make use of the 10-nanometer FinFET process that according to Qualcomm will permit smartphone engineers to design slimmer but more powerful mobile devices, apart from the automatic benefit of longer battery life. Also with the platform, Android flagships that Nokia will have to compete with will boast of RAM provision that start at 6GB and can go as high as 8GB.
The specific Android handsets scheduled to get the SD 835 are the Galaxy S8/S8 Plus, the HTC 11 and the Galaxy Note 8 later in the year, to name a few. It is expected that emerging Chinese smartphone brands - Meizu and Xiaomi, for instance - will also take advantage of Qualcomm's SD 835 platform.
On Nokia's part, it remains suspect if the rumored Android flagship bets of the company - the Nokia DC1 and Nokia Edge - will be part of the SD 835 club.
LG G6 as Nexus replacement?
Also part of the SD 835 handset models is the rumored LG G6, which according to WCCFTech will depart from the modular approach that was the signature of last year's LG G5. With a new industrial design, the G6 will be cheaper to mass produce that potentially could allow LG to retail the handset at a more budget-friendly price point. The best guess is within the $400 to $500 price range.
And if the rumors will prove correct then it appears that LG, which previously assembled three Nexus flagships in the past, is likely to return to its well-loved native Android roots if only to win back fans turned off by the LG G5.
Apple iPhone 8
Even if the rumored Nokia Edge and Nokia DC1 will become real, the handsets will find it hard to slug it out with Apple's next iOS flagship bet. The tech giant is said to deploy three mobile phones October this year - the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus that will bump off the current flagship models and the premium of premiums, the iPhone 8.
It will be the iPhone 8 that is the cream of crop for Apple as the company is set to celebrate the tenth year of the iPhone brand. So it's only fitting that the device is overhauled inside and out. At the exterior, it will be an all-glass build and design with the front panel to trigger drooling with an all-screen profile. The display will stretch far to the edge and make no room for bezels and physical control keys. In their stead, there will be touch-sensitive buttons that are either embedded on the 3D Touch screen or located on the edge of the device.
The iPhone 8 on release date is powered by an A11 Fusion chip also in 10nm process. And it's unclear how this device will be defeated by any of the rumored Nokia Edge and Nokia DC1, which according to GSM Arena are so far pictured as midrange Android handsets.
