HMD Global announces two affordable Nokia phones

Just weeks after taking over as the new home for Nokia phones, Finnish company HMD Global on Tuesday announced the launch of two affordable phones. The Nokia 150 and Nokia 150 dual SIM devices will start rolling out in Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Europe in the first quarter of 2017, the company said in a statement.

Both the phones feature a 2.4-inch QVGA display, built-in FM radio and mp3 player. The phones come with talk time lasting up to 22 hours, and standby times of up to 31 days for the single SIM and 25 days for the dual SIM variant.

Earlier this year, Nokia announced that it licensed HMD to produce Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets. Nokia remained the owner of the Nokia brand after it sold its handset business to Microsoft for 5.4 billion euros, but was forbidden to license it to outsiders until the end of 2015.

HMD has reached agreements with both Microsoft and Nokia about the use of the Nokia brand and some design rights. The agreement HMD signed with Nokia is exclusive and valid for 10 years.

The agreement with Microsoft has some conditions and only covers the use of the Nokia name in basic phones. Microsoft continues the production of the high-end Lumia smart phones, which will use Windows platforms. HMD is planning to spend some 400 million euros to market the Nokia brand for the next three years.