Nokia has been bringing out some decent budget-friendly models recently, with the X-series leading the way. We’ve already had the X10 and X20, but for a while now there have been rumours of a potential flagship model for the range.
We gather up all the news and rumours about the Nokia X50 to see if it has the potential to put the Finnish brand on top once again.
When will the Nokia X50 be released?
Speculation about the Nokia X50 has been doing the rounds for quite a while. The aforementioned Nokia X10 and Nokia X20 models made their respective debuts in June and May of 2021, but while the X50 was being talked about at that time, it still remains something of a mercurial device. Some sites, such as GSMArena, had expected to see the X50 launch in Q3 of 2021, but that window obviously came and went.
There could be good reasons for this, as there has been a global shortage of processors over the past year which has made it difficult and/or expensive to produce new devices; just look at how hard it is to buy the latest generation of games console or graphics card to see the extent of the problem.
More rumours are beginning to appear now, with a potential name change to the ‘Nokia X50 Pro’. Whether this marks a separate model or a new tier of Nokia phones remains a mystery so far.
Nokia did choose to announce its new range of models at a special event in April 2021, which suggests it may follow suit again this year. We’ve seen a report on BestMobile24 stating that the Nokia X50 Pro will arrive on 11 January 2022, while GadgetsNow claims it will be released at the end of August 2022.
We did see the emergence of a Nokia X100 in November 2021, but this is just a slightly tweaked Nokia X10 and not quite the premium device that the rumours seem to be discussing.
How much will the Nokia X50 cost?
Price is just as much a quandary as the release date. We can look at the other members of the X-series family as an indicator of what you might need to pay, but with the X50 or X50 Pro thought to be a higher-spec device, it may be that the final price will be higher.
- Nokia X10 – £249/€299/ (approx) $329
- Nokia X20 – £319/€399/ (approx) $420
What features will the Nokia X50 offer?
There have been various reports citing leaks and other rumours regarding what we can expect to see in the Nokia X50/X50 Pro (depending on whether they are the same device or not). GSM Arena states that the X50 will come with a 6.5in QHD+ AMOLED display, running with a 120Hz refresh rate.
According to the article, the device was expected to come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 775 processor. We haven’t seen that particular chip yet, so it’s possible that the rumour has become the victim of technology’s ever-evolving nomenclature. It may be that the Snapdragon 750G or 780G could be the ones that fit the bill instead. The latter seems the most likely, as it’s built on a 5nm process, which is the same scale as that reported about the 775.
In terms of cameras, GSMArena reports a five sensor array on the back, headed by a 108Mp main shooter, aided by ultra-wide, telephoto, macro and depth cameras. All of which are powered by a huge 6000mAh battery.
A different report on GadgetsNow cites the processor as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, accompanied by 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage. It predicts a smaller display – at 6.38in – with a 1600 x 768 resolution, while the cameras are said to be comprised of four sensors: 48Mp, 5Mp, 2Mp and 2Mp.
BestMobile24 has a rather more elevated view of the Nokia X50, which it calls the Nokia X50 Pro 5G. It reports a 7in Super AMOLED display, 10GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset and a quad-camera array, comprised of 108Mp, 32Mp, 16Mp and 5mp sensors. The battery is also seriously sizeable at a reported 6900mAh, complete with support for fast charging.
Admittedly, when compared to the more price-friendly models in the Nokia X-series, the BestMobile24 report does seem incongruent and more of a wish list than actual leaked information, but if Nokia does decide to launch a premium model, then maybe it will swing for the rafters.
We’ll update this article with more details as they become available, but in the meantime take a look at our guide to the best smartphones and best phones coming in 2022 so you’ll know whether this Nokia is going to be worth the wait.