The Nokia C series was pretty popular back in the days when Nokia was still the smartphone king. The series had both smartphones and feature phones, thus making it available for different pockets. Now HMD Global is bringing the series back with the new Nokia C1. The new phone was announced in Kenya today.
The Nokia C1 is an entry-level smartphone targeted at Africa, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. With respect to its design, it looks like the Nokia 1 Plus which is also an Android Go entry-level phone. However, there are some design differences.
The Nokia C1 has a hole for the speaker on the back just like the Nokia 1 Plus but the hole is on the left side rather than on the right. The Nokia C1 also has an LED in front alongside the selfie camera. Other than these two differences and of course the slightly different shade of red, you will not be wrong to call this a rebranded Nokia 1 Plus.
With respect to specs, the Nokia C1 has a 5.45-inch FWVGA+ IPS display just like the Nokia 1 Plus. The spec sheet says it is a “toughened glass display”. It has a 5MP f/2.4 rear camera with an LED flash and another 5MP camera with LED too up in front. There is 1GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage along with an unnamed 1.3GHz quad-core processor.
Millions of consumers across markets in Africa, Middle East and APAC will upgrade from a feature phone to their first smartphone. Nokia C1 is a smartphone they can trust – bringing quality experiences at an affordable price with 3G connectivity #nokiamobile pic.twitter.com/QibUYWxRTn
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) December 11, 2019
There is a dedicated Google Assistant button on the left side of the phone, a MicroUSB port, Dual SIM support (nano only), an audio jack, FM radio, Bluetooth 4.2, and a MicroSD card slot (64GB max). It also has GPS and 2.4GHz WiFi.
HMD Global has cut corners with connectivity by not including support for 4G, so you are limited to just 3G. That is not an issue as the phone is targeted at those who are switching from a feature phone to their very first smartphone.
[envira-gallery id=”294590″]HMD Global ships the Nokia C1 with Android 9 Pie Go Edition and includes apps such as YouTube Go and Gallery Go. The phone is priced at KES 5,999 (~$60) in Kenya but there is no info on the price and availability in other markets.
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