Nokia dual-core phones may be coming sooner than we thought. The Finnish phone maker will use ST-Ericsson’s dual-core NovaThor chips in its upcoming Windows Phone devices, reports PCWorld. Qualcomm previously supplied chips to Nokia handsets like the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, its first WP7 devices. ST-Ericsson must be giving Nokia a discount. According to the chip maker, it’s processors will “enable Nokia to extend Windows Phone devices to new price points and geographics.” We assume this means a lot cheaper phones for some of the smaller regions in Asia.
This is all assuming Microsoft can get its act together and release the appropriate updates to Windows Phone that will allow manufacturers to use dual-core processors and 4G LTE high speed data connections. Despite the fact that iPhone 4S supports dual-core and Google’s Android OS supports both dual-core and LTE devices, Microsoft remains woefully behind in this area. We don’t expect dual-core WP7.5 devices to be announced until at least January at CES.
If the price of phones is something on your mind, an ST-Ericsson spokesperson said that the company’s U5500 chip–800MHz dual-core–could be used to make a smartphone that costs under $200 before carrier contract subsidies. Most high-end dual-core phones cost anywhere from $500 to $700. Consumers only end up paying about $200 or $300 because wireless carriers build the high price of the phones into their expensive two-year contracts.
