Nokia XR21 leaks in full: The next rugged Nokia phone is coming soon

The Nokia XR20 was an important release for HMD Global in some ways, as the company embraced the rugged phone segment. Now, it turns out that a sequel is imminent, and it’s just leaked in full.

Respected tech outlet WinFuture has posted a slew of Nokia XR21 specs and renders. The images show a phone with what appears to be a similar plastic rear cover and thick bezels as its predecessor. We also get a look at black and green color options. Check out the images below, with more available via the source.

The outlet also posted plenty of specs, starting with the core features. Expect a budget-tier Snapdragon 695 chipset here, for one, which brings a CPU upgrade and a smaller manufacturing process compared to the older phone’s Snapdragon 480 SoC.

Other core specs include a 6.49-inch FHD+ LCD screen (120Hz, Gorilla Glass Victus), 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a 4,800mAh non-removable battery, and 33W wired charging. There’s no word on wireless charging just yet, but 33W wired charging would be a significant upgrade over the XR20’s 18W speeds.

It’s no surprise to hear that the Nokia XR21 will pack an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. However, one disappointment is that the device is said to ship with Android 12. This is particularly annoying as Android 13 has been available for roughly eight months.

Nokia XR21: What else are you getting?

As for camera details, the Nokia XR21 is tipped to arrive with a 64MP main camera and an 8MP telephoto camera (up to 8x digital zoom). Neither camera offers optical stabilization hardware, while the Snapdragon 695 doesn’t support 4K recording either. A 16MP camera is said to handle selfies and video calls.

Other details include a 3.5mm port, eSIM support, three years of major OS updates, and four years of security patches. We’ve also got an extra hardware key on the left-hand side (presumably for Google Assistant), while we can barely make out what might be a similar top-mounted customizable button as the older device.

We liked the previous phone but thought there was some room for improvement in our Nokia XR20 review. More specifically, we took umbrage with the horsepower, camera quality, fingerprint scanner, and lack of 5G on AT&T. It doesn’t seem like HMD is addressing performance in a big way as the Snapdragon 695 is still a budget-tier processor. But we hope to see improvements elsewhere nonetheless.

There’s no word on pricing, but the Nokia XR20 retailed for $550. So we hope to see the Nokia XR21 packing a similar or even cheaper price