Why You Can Trust CNET Nokia G50 phone is the company's latest affordable 5G offering
For $300, Nokia's G50 offers 5G, a big battery, fast charging and two years of software upgrades.
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The Nokia G50.
Nokia has a new 5G smartphone making its way stateside soon.
Announced on Wednesday, the $300 Nokia G50 is the brand's latest affordable 5G phone that Nokia is billing as future-proof. Apart from 5G, the midrange line comes with a 6.82-inch HD Plus display, three rear cameras and a large battery compatible with fast charging.
The launch of the G50 phone lineup marks the expansion of Nokia's budget-friendly 5G portfolio. In April, Nokia's exclusive brand licensor, HMD Global, unveiled even cheaper Nokia-branded lineups: the C and midrange G series, which come in at between $100 and $200, as well as the the Nokia X20. But affordable 5G is a hotly contested arena, and Nokia's recent entrants will likely face stiff competition from Samsung's wide-ranging smartphone offerings.
The Nokia G50 runs on the modest Snapdragon 480 processor, which is backed up by 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and a microSD card slot. Nokia says the G50 will work with Android 11 out of the box, and promises three years of monthly security updates and two years of OS upgrades. It's also worth noting that the G50 will run on T-Mobile's slower but more reliable 5G sub-6 network, but not Verizon's ultra-fast but less reliable millimeter wave network.
US preorders started Wednesday on Nokia's website.