HMD Global announces military-grade, “life-proof” Nokia XR20 smartphone

Remember the indestructible Nokia 3310? The rough and tough phone was known for durability in the old days. Well, HMD Global announces its brother to the masses for the modern world. Nokia XR20 is a rugged smartphone with MIL-STD-810H compliance and three years of promised OS updates promised by the company.

Looking at the specs of the XR20 phone, it doesn’t seem new at all. In fact, it borrows most of its specs from the Nokia X20. The new specifications include IP68 rating, MIL-STD-810H compliance, Gorilla Glass Victus, and a few more. In addition, Nokia says that this phone has the toughest screen yet on their smartphones.

Speaking of the MIL-STD-810H compliance, it is the test standard most commonly used to determine if a product can withstand the effects of difficult environmental conditions. Version H represents the eighth version of this military test standard. Even though MIL-810H is a military standard, many commercial products are tested for it. You can read learn more about it here.

Unlike Nokia X20, the phone comes with only two rear camera sensors, a 48MP main sensor, and a 13MP ultrawide sensor, both with individual LED flash. For selfies, there’s an 8MP front-facing camera with fixed focus. Nokia X20 has a depth sensor and a macro lens which is missing from this phone.

Nokia’s “rugged” smartphone has a battery of 4,630mAh which promises to provide juice to the phone for up to two days. For charging, you can either use an 18W wired or a 15W wireless charger.

The ruggedized casing of the Nokia XR20 enables the phone with IP68 water and dust resistance and can withstand a 1.8 meters drop. Nokia uses Gorilla Glass Victus for protection, and the screen can be used with gloves or wet fingers. The 6.67-inch is using IPS LCD technology with 550 nits of brightness levels. The phone supports 5G and has two storage options. A 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant will be available in the US for $549; however, a 4GB RAM and 64GB variant will be available in the UK for lb399. The phone storage can be expandable via microSD.

Speaking of the operating system, Nokia promises to deliver three years of OS updates to an already installed Android 11. In addition, the company also promises to deliver four years of monthly security updates. Just like in Nokia X20, XR20 uses a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. In addition, there’s another button on top of the phone which is customizable with any action or app with the user’s choice.

Nokia XR20 is available in Granite Grey and Ultra Blue for $549 in the US. The phone will be available on August 24, 2021.

Specs of Nokia XR20:

Other than Nokia XR20, HMD Global also announces Nokia 6310, Nokia C30, and audio accessories.