Could budget phone brand Nokia be about to release a 48MP camera phone?

Nokia 9 PureView
Nokia 9 PureView. Image credit: TechRadar (Image credit: Future)

When you think of Nokia you think of budget smartphones – despite its recent Nokia 9 PureView having five rear cameras, in general the brand puts out low-end phones with low prices. That's why a newly leaked Nokia phone is surprising, as its main sensor has a whopping 48MP resolution – but that's only one of many intriguing things about the device.

Photos of the Nokia handset were leaked on Chinese social media service Weibo, before being shared around on other sites. They show the front and back of the phone, and are accompanied by scant information about it. It seems this is a prototype of a future Nokia handset, being tested under the codename "daredevil".

As with any leaked information, especially when it has no clear source or verifiable reliability like in this case, take the information with a pinch of salt – but if these pictures do truly show an upcoming Nokia handset, it's a big departure from the budget manufacturer we know.

What do the photos tell us?

Many features of the phone cement its budget status – the front-facing camera is housed in a teardrop notch, there's a fairly wide chin under the screen, and on the back of the phone there's a fingerprint sensor.

However the camera array tells another story.

The leaked images. Image credit: Weibo - @fenibook

The leaked images. Image credit: Weibo - @fenibook (Image credit: Weibo - @fenibook)

Since each lens looks different, we can tell that the cameras don't have identical lenses, like in the Nokia 9 PureView – instead, it seems HMD Global (the company behind recent Nokia-branded smartphones) is going the traditional route of having three different lenses.

The main camera likely has a basic wide-angle lens, and we'd imagine this is the snapper with the 48MP sensor that we've heard about.

One of the images also shows the camera app, revealing a toggle for ultra-wide photos, which suggests there's also an ultra-wide angle lens.

The third shooter looks like a Time-of-Flight (ToF) lens, or some other device for measuring distance. These are typically used for portrait pictures, to accurately gauge how close the subject is in order to apply appropriate 'bokeh' background blur, and isn't technically a camera in its own right.

If our predictions are correct, and this is in fact a real phone, we could be looking at a powerful smartphone camera right here – which is a surprise given the 'Nokia' logo on the front of the phone.

Of course, there's no way of knowing right now if the photos represent a real upcoming handset, a device being tested, or just a well-planned hoax, and only time will tell whether or not we'll be able to get our hands on this phone.

Via Pocketnow

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.

He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist.