Nokia smartphone smaller than Nokia 2 passes through FCC, could be Nokia 1 with Android Go

HMD Global is expected to launch a number of smartphones this year. The Nokia parent company has already launched the Nokia 6 (2018) and is expected to launch the Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 9, Nokia 7 Plus and (hopefully) Nokia 10 with its penta-camera setup at the MWC 2018 event in late February. And now, it seems the Finnish company is readying up to introduce a new entry-level smartphone which could possibly be the Android Go-running Nokia 1.

Also read: Nokia 9, Nokia 4, Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 1 accidentally confirmed by company: Here's everything you need to know

A new Nokia-branded smartphone carrying model number TA-1056 has just passed FCC certification in the US. The FCC listing does give out some information about the phone, and from what it looks like, it will be an entry-level device.

The listing reveals that the Nokia phone bearing model number TA-1056 will be smaller than the Nokia 2. The new device measures 140mm diagonally or 133mm tall and 68mm wide, which is smaller than the Nokia 2 which is 143.5mm tall and 71.3mm wide.

The smaller footprint than the Nokia 2 (Review) hints at the possibility that the TA-1056 could be the Nokia 1 – the Android Go smartphone that Nokia is said to be working on.

And just in case, the 140mm diagonal means the handset will most likely feature a conventional 16:9 aspect ratio screen measuring 4.5-inch or slightly more.

The listing also shows that the upcoming device will be a dual-SIM smartphone with Cat. 4 LTE and to judge by the position of the FCC label which is placed inside the battery compartment, it will come with a removable battery. There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack which is a good thing considering that it is becoming a rarity in smartphones these days.

Although the listing does not specify the exact operating system the TA-1056 will be running, it will not be the other OSes like Yun OS (like the Nokia 3310 4G) or Series 30/Feature OS, which also suggests that the phone will likely run Android Go. Apart from this, not much is known about the Nokia TA-1056 as of now.

However, according to earlier reports, the Nokia 1 could be launched in the first half of 2018 and some reports say that it will start selling in Russia from March 2018 and could be priced around 5,990 RUB (approx. Rs 6,550).

The rumoured specifications of the phone are: an HD (720x1280 pixels) display, possibly 4.5-inch or slightly bigger, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. There is no information available regarding the processor, but the Nokia device could be powered by either an entry-level Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 chipset or a MediaTek SoC, since both companies have announced their support for Android Go.

Meanwhile, Android Go (Oreo Edition) was announced by Google at its Google I/O 2017 conference last year and is mainly meant for low-end devices that run with 512MB to 1GB of RAM. In simpler terms, it can be viewed as a lighter version of Android Oreo. Google has also announced scaled-down 'Go' versions of many of its popular apps such as Google Go, Google Maps Go and a lighter version of its digital assistant app called Google Assistant Go.