HMD Global is keeping up the pace on releasing new Nokia-branded Android smartphones (and TVs!) with yearly refreshes on its varied series ranging from the premium side to the penny-pinchers. For the most part, the new Nokia 2.3 brings progress for its most basic line of offerings, but as we're headed to 2020, there's one big thing about this phone that doesn't scream "future-proof": the microUSB connector.

For context, the Nokia 2.2 from just this June was a vast improvement from its two predecessors in adopting a larger display and slightly sleeker design. The 2.3 hones in on that streamlining, enlarges a couple of aspects, but mostly retains much of the kit from the last go around.

That means no capacitive fingerprint sensor — just facial recognition for biometric authentication — and no handy reversible USB-C connector, just a microUSB port on USB 2.0. 27 days from 2020 and there's still some sort of argument (cost? excess supply? the Luddite faction?) for not putting in Type-C pins in there. On the flip side, there's an extra camera at the back for software-induced bokeh, a dedicated Google Assistant button and, as an Android One device, it's got 2 years of OS upgrades and an extra year of security updates in the wings.

The phone was announced in Cairo, so the specs we see here are probably for the EMEA markets — the list price of €109 might not exactly be "burner phone" money in some territories — as HMD has done some spec-tinkering for other markets before.

SPECS

No word on which specific regions will get the Nokia 2.3 and if other markets will receive a modified version, but we do know this thing will be coming to retail in the next few weeks.

Source: HMD Global, Nokia