New Nokia Smartphones to Debut in Mobile World Congress, Marking Return to Market

Nokia will mark its return to the smartphone market by unveiling its new phones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain in 2017. The exhibition of Nokia's new devices at the event will signal its comeback to the mobile phone industry, which it dominated in the past.

HMD Global, a Finnish company licensed to develop and launch Nokia phones in the next ten years, announced its presence at the upcoming trade fair in February. The phones may be unveiled during Nokia CEO Rajiv Suri's keynote speech at the MWC, GSMArena reports.

It is not yet clear how many Nokia smartphones HMD Global will release in the first three months of 2017, and exactly when they will hit the markets. But PhoneArena says it is widely expected it to release the Nokia DC1 first, the features of which have long been a subject of rumors.

Reports in recent months said the DC1 will run with the Android Nougat 7.0 operating system. It will reportedly be powered by a 1.4 gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, and will have 3 gigabytes of RAM, as well as an internal memory of either 16 or 32 gigabytes. Other rumored features are a 5.5-inch display that has a full HD resolution and a 16-megapixel camera.

HMD Global has yet to confirm the reports and make official announcements about the Nokia DC1. But a post on the Chinese social networking site Weibo has given netizens a preview of what the smartphone could look like, based on leaked information.

Nokia was a former leader in the mobile phone business until its decline with the arrival of newer brands like Apple's iPhone. Microsoft then acquired Nokia's mobile division, but the Windows Phones it released afterward failed to catch on.

The new Nokia smartphones will be made by HMD Global in collaboration with the Taiwanese firm Foxconn. Do you think Nokia will have a successful comeback? Watch this story about the rise and fall of Nokia.