Nokia 9 rumor review: Design, specs, price and release date of the mysterious flagship

But what about the second rumored device? Well, the rumor mill tends to believe that a Nokia 9, of all names, is in the works. Is there reason to be excited about this one?

For starters, we should lay it all out: nothing is written in stone when it comes to this secretive device -- it might be another vaporwave that only exists in the collective hive mind. To be bluntly honest, rumors about a romanticized, super-unique Nokia flagship  that are bordering with unsubstantiated wishful thinking have been around for ages. Thusly, take everything with a grain of salt.

Right now, we have no credible leaks that would give us a possible sneak peek at the design of the phone. Sad, but true. Judging by the times we live in, it will be quite illogical for the Nokia 9 to come with а bezelless design to combat the likes of the flagship stock these days. A notch could probably be expected, too.

Still, provided that a proverbial Nokia 9 exists, we would bet that the company could go with the trendy-of-late full-glass design. It would seem that metal is now considered a second-grade build material by phone designers and has gradually succeeded plastic as the preferred material of choice for mid-range and entry-level devices.

Aside from the material of choice, there's no denying the fact that the phone would adopt an unorthodox aspect ratio. The days of the good ol' dominant 16:9 format are gone, at least for flagship and high-end devices.

Specifics-wise, some rumors put a 5.7-inch display at the front of the Nokia 9. We are rather pessimistic of this one -- if the phone is bezel-less, we'd argue that a larger display would be employed. The reasoning is simple - high-end phones these days roll with 6.0 - 6.3-inch displays and it makes sense for Nokia to follow suit.


While display specifics are hard to come by at this point, there's one saucy rumor lying around, and it claims that the Nokia 9 would feature an in-display fingerprint scanner. While the technology is still not found on any mainstream flagship device by a well-known manufacturer, many exotic devices are already using it, hinting that a more mainstream adoption could be just around the corner.

If the Nokia 9 got released today, it will undoubtedly have the Snapdragon 845 chip inside. The rumors we've heard so far also agree with this rather logical conclusion, and it should also come with 6 or 8GB of RAM. Storage-wise, given that the Nokia 9 will be as high-end as they come, we suspect that storage could vary, but start at 128GB.

Of course, if the Nokia 9 isn't slated for a 2018 release but a 2019 one, it could theoretically come with a next-gen chipset, possibly a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. Theoretically, of course.

We haven't caught wind of other credible specs due to the lack of those benchmark leaks we cherish so much.

Nothing particular is circulating out there when it comes to the camera of the secretive device.

Dual cameras these days are a given, but triple ones are nothing out of the ordinary. Hence we should probably expect at least two cameras at the rear of the phone.

But what about that crazy penta-lens camera setup we've seen before? This is rumored to be a highlight feature of the Nokia 9, one that will set it apart from just about anything on the market. Of course, we are quite intrigued to see if the rumors will play out well and churn out something real, but until then, we remain cautiously pessimistic that Nokia will be able to pull such a setup off. Not to downplay Nokia's engineering prowess, but so far such a camera setup hasn't been pulled off.




As we mentioned in the beginning of this piece, the very existence of a Nokia 9 is quite doubtful. Don't shoot us if it doesn't exist at all. 

However, it's logical for Nokia to have or at lest consider having a super high-end phone in its lineup as the Nokia 8 Sirocco doesn't really cut it. It has slightly dated specs to battle the other top-dogs out there.

As far as pricing is considered, everything is possible given that $1000 phones are a reality and not a dystopia.

A possible release date for a high-end Nokia device could be IFA 2018 in Berlin, Germany, which is a big enough venue for Nokia to showcase its high-end wares.

If they exist, that is.