Nokia announces launch of 6.1 plus and 5.1 plus in India
Aiming to move from number three to number one position in India, Nokia announced the launch of two new smartphones. The team also plans to double manufacturing in India.
Stepping up its game in the highly competitive smartphone market, Nokia announced the launch of two new smartphones. Parent HMD Global had launched the Nokia 2 smartphone two years ago.
HMD Global Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas launched Nokia 6.1 plus and Nokia 5.1 plus. Apart from being exclusive to ecommerce marketplace Flipkart, the phones will be available on the Nokia website. Juho said, “India is a special market for us. What sets us apart is our design and for me, Nokia experience is about exceeding expectations.”
Florian Seiche, CEO, HMD Global, said, “We are focussed on key markets to grow, and India is one of the top three markets.” He indicated the company will soon look to double its manufacturing efforts in India. Nokia also plans to launch more phones during the upcoming festival season.
Nokia 6.1 plus will be available from August 30, and is priced at Rs 15,999, while Nokia 5.1 will be launched in September and its price for India is yet to be decided.
The Nokia 5.1 Plus comes with a dedicated NPU for AI-related tasks. The Nokia 6.1 Plus sports a 16MP+5MP camera, while the Nokia 5.1 Plus has 13MP+5MP camera combination. Both offer a Bokeh effect (a blurry effect in pictures).
Both phones have a dual rear camera and have a glass and metal body. Nokia 6.1 has a 5.8-inch display and it has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor. Nokia 5.1 plus has a MediaTek Helio P60 processor (octa-core processor). Nokia 6.1 will have Android 8.1 Oreo. It has a 3060mAh battery and when coupled with an 18W charger, it can deliver up to 50 percent of charge in 30 minutes, thanks to Quick Charge 3.0.
Other innovations
“We have launched nine smartphones in the past two years in India,” says Ajey Mehta, Head of Nokia India. Apart from the launch of the two new phones, the team also announced that existing phones Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 8 will get an overhaul in the camera app with image improvements.
As of January this year, Nokia claims to have sold 70 million phones. When it launched Nokia 3310 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017, it was an instant hit. At its peak in 2000, Nokia accounted for 4 percent of Finland’s GDP, 21 percent of the country’s total exports, and 70 percent of the Helsinki Stock Exchange market capital.
