Nokia 9.3 PureView might be a no-show this year
HMD Global has flooded the market with affordable Android phones but its track record on higher tiers has been less impressive. To date, only the Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 9 PureView can be considered top-tier, at least based on the premium Snapdragon chips they're carrying. The latter's successor would have not been on par, at least based on the earliest information we had, but it would have given the PureView brand yet another stab at the market. Unfortunately, that won't be happening any time soon, as the Nokia 9.3 PureView has reportedly been delayed to 2021.
The Nokia 9 PureView was quite the oddity, though it wasn't surprising considering HMD Global partnered with mobile camera company Light. It utilized five co-equal cameras to independently take shots of the same scene and stitch them together into a single hi-res image. It mostly delivered on that promise but left plenty of room for a version 2.
By late 2019, Qualcomm seemed to be quite excited for a Nokia 9 PureView successor that would showcase its Snapdragon 765's capabilities despite not being an 8-series processor. It might have disappointed some who were hoping for a true Nokia premium flagship. For better or worse that successor never came, which ironically leaves the door open for a better device.
Twitter user @Nokia_anew now claims that the Nokia 9.3 PureView has been pushed back to 2021. When that will be is still unknown but it might be sometime in the first half of the year. That potentially means HMD could switch to using a Snapdragon 875 but, considering its preferences for mid-range to entry-level chips, we won't be too optimistic about the chances.
Some bad news.
The Nokia 9.3 PureView won't be unveiled this year.
The announcement was postponed to the first half of 2021. The month is still unknown.#exclusive #nokia9 #nokia #nokiamobile #hmd #juhosarvikas #nokia9pureview #2020year pic.twitter.com/cMLPNjtOjV— Nokia anew (@nokia_anew) November 26, 2020
Even more concerning, however, is the absence of a Nokia PureView in 2020, which could call into question HMD Global's ability to even make one now that Light is out of the mobile market. The company still has to come out with a new high-end phone but, then again, Nokia was better known for flooding the market with innumerable phones anyway.