Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been Nokia’s home ground ever since the Finnish team of HMD Global resurrected the brand. But the company had to pull from this year’s mobile tech extravaganza amidst concerns of the novel coronavirus spreading far more quickly in such mass congregations. Around a month after the MWC show itself was canceled, HMD has announced a separate launch event that is scheduled for March 19 in London.

HMD’s long-time executive Juho Sarvikas took to Twitter to share the event’s basic details. The nine-second video simply gives away the date and place of the announcement without going into much detail. Based on what we know from various leaks and rumors, Nokia’s MWC lineup included a host of budget and mid-tier phones, including a 5G model. At its rescheduled conference, the company is expected to announce the Nokia 8.2 5G, along with a 4G-only variant, besides refreshing the Nokia 5 and 1 budget handsets for 2020.

The Nokia 6.2 and 7.2 came out late last year, so they’re unlikely to get a follow-up this soon. HMD was earlier rumored to launch the flagship Nokia 9.2 (9.1?) PureView at MWC 2020, but its unveiling has reportedly been deferred until September, possibly so it could include the newer Snapdragon 865 SoC. The last high-end phone to come out of HMD’s stable was the Nokia 9 PureView, which had a distinct five-camera array but used the older-gen Snapdragon 845.

Source: @sarvikas