HMD Global has announced the launch of two new devices in its C series. These are entry-level phones, designed for affordability and they are phones that Nokia has had some success with.
HMD Global has announced operational profitability for 2021 and some of this comes down to a focus on the lower end of the market.
Having made an aspirational moonshot with the Nokia 9 PureView in 2019, the focus has been on entry-level and mid-range devices since and it's obviously having an impact.
That gives rise to the Nokia C21 Plus as the new hero of affordable phones for Nokia. It's priced at just £99.99 or €119 and you get a 6.5-inch display, 13-megapixel camera and it's powered by UNISOC hardware.
There's a lower positioned model - the Nokia C21 - which is the same size but reduces the battery capacity and the camera functionality.
Lower still is the Nokia C2 2nd Edition, which will cost you just £74.99 or €79. This model offers a 5.7-inch display and has a 5-megapixel rear camera. But it does feature a 2400mAh removable battery.
These phones are all 4G devices and while there's appetite for these affordable Android phones, there are some aspects that raise a few queries.
Firstly, these are Android Go devices, the lightweight version of Android that's designed to run on these affordable devices. But Android Go is still on version 11 and we don't know when Google is going to bring it up to date to add in new features that arrived with Android 12.
Secondly, HMD Global is only offering 2 years of security updates on these devices. That's a bit of a surprise, given that Nokia has been pushing the mantra of "love it, trust it, keep it" on its phones. It's hard to "keep it" when it's obsolete after 2 years.
Perhaps that reflects the expected lifespan of these devices, or perhaps it's just that at the affordable end of the market, it's not worth the development time to support phones for longer periods of time.
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