Nokia 2 is up for pre-order in the US at $99

The entry-level Nokia 2 smartphone that was unveiled in late October in India is the cheapest one to be launched by HMD so far. The device has already been up for pre-order in select markets such as Russia and South Africa. Now, it looks like the U.S. is the next market that will receive this smartphone.

The Nokia 2 has been listed for pre-order in the U.S. at online retailers Amazon, Best Buy and B&H. Wherever you intend to buy this smartphone from, it will be priced at $0.99. The Nokia 2 will be an unlocked unit and it will be compatible only with the GSM-based carriers in the country such as T-Mobile and AT&T and a few other MVNOs that use their networks. This means that the Verizon and Sprint consumers can't use the Nokia 2, claims a PocketNow report.

While we talk about the availability of the smartphone in the U.S., we have not clue on when the Nokia 2 will be released in India. The company announced that the smartphone's pricing in India will be announced in the coming days. Also, it was revealed that HMD will make the Nokia 2 available across 1,00,000 offline stores all over the country.

Like the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5, those were initially released offline and later made available online, we believe that the Nokia 2 will also be released as an offline-only model at first and then moved online in the country.

To refresh on its specifications, the Nokia 2 bestows a 5-inch HD 720p LTPS display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection and 1:1300 contrast ratio. Under its hood, this smartphone makes use of a quad-core Snapdragon 212 SoC paired with 1GB RAM and 8GB default storage that can be expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card.

The Nokia 2 boasts of an 8MP main camera with LED flash and autofocus and a 5MP selfie camera with fixed focus. Running Android 7.1.1 Nougat, this smartphone uses a 4100mAh battery touted to last up to two days. The Nokia 2 is preloaded with Google Assistant making it the first entry-level smartphone to have the digital assistant. The other goodies of the Nokia 2 include 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS and a 3.5mm audio jack. The device has been launched in three color variants and has the IP52 rating as well.