Encased Nokia 9 prototype unit gets the hands-on treatment

Since HMD Global announced it would start launching Nokia-branded smartphones, the Finnish company unveiled three handsets: Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6.

All three are about to make their debut in just about every market across the world in the coming weeks. However, these won't be the only Nokia smartphones HMD plans to launch this year, as reports claim 3 or 4 more handsets will follow in the second half of 2017.

Nokia 9 is said to be HMD's flagship for this year, one that hasn't been officially introduced yet. Still, fans anxious to learn more about the first Nokia flagship in a long while will be pleased to know that the first hands-on pictures of the phone have just emerged online.

A French online publication posted the images of what appears to be a prototype Nokia 9 unit hidden in a “black box.” This special case is meant to hide the phone's design, thus preventing any leaks regarding the phone's looks before the official unveil.

The good news is some traits are visible since they're positioned outside this “black box.” For example, it looks like Nokia 9 will come with a dual camera on the back, and there's also an USB Type-C port at the bottom, alongside a 3.5-mm audio jack.

One of the pictures published reveals some of the phone's specs, such as the 5.3-inch Quad HD display, 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal memory. Although the images state the smartphone packs a Qualcomm chipset without actually naming the model, it would be extremely unlikely for the Nokia 9 to include a processor other than the Snapdragon 835 processor.

There's no rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, but the phone comes with a Home button, which is where the fingerprint reader might be positioned. It's also worth pointing out that the prototype unit is running Android 7.1.1 Nougat that offers an experience very close to “stock Android.”