Nokia A1 Plus With In-Display Fingerprint Sensor, Snapdragon 845 To Launch At IFA 2018
Commencing on the 31st of August, the IFA Berlin conference is expected to see the launch of a few exciting smartphones. One such smartphone could be the Nokia A1 Plus. A report claims that HMD Global is gearing up to launch its first-ever smartphone with an in-display fingerprint sensor at IFA Berlin this year.
The flagship smartphone will run on the latest high-end chipset, the Snapdragon 845. It is worth noting that a Snapdragon 845-running Nokia device, the Nokia 9, has been heavily leaked over the past few months. There are chances that the Nokia A1 Plus could be nothing but a rebranded Nokia 9, which will serve as a successor to the Nokia 8 Sirocco. The Nokia 8 Sirocco was launched at MWC 2018 which runs on the Snapdragon 835 chipset.
HMD Global will use the same in-display fingerprint sensor found on the Vivo X21 Plus UD. The fingerprint sensor was developed by Synaptics and goes by the moniker ‘Clear ID’. The in-display fingerprint sensor sits between the mainboard and the OLED panel where it illuminates the finger and then processes the beams of light. Hence, this technology will not work on LCD panels as the sensor looks through the dots of an OLED panel, and then recognises the fingerprint.
Reportedly, HMD Global is working with its manufacturing partner Foxconn to release the smartphone in the European market.
The moniker of the smartphone is also interesting. HMD Global has so far stuck to using numbers for its Android smartphone lineup. The ‘A1 Plus’ here could signify a software difference between this smartphone and other Nokia-branded Android smartphones. The Nokia A1 Plus could be an Android One device. It is, however, worth noting that so far, Nokia smartphones have shipped with near stock Android OS. With Android One, the A1 Plus will receive faster software updates.
While the Nokia A1 Plus seems like an exciting prospect, these are still rumours. With the IFA 2018 conference more than a month away, we are expected to get official announcements from brands in the coming days.