Nokia's XR21 rugged phone goes official with IP69K certification

Nokia just ventured into the rugged smartphone world with its Nokia XR21 smartphone with MIL-STD-810H military-grade and IP69K certification, which is the highest IP protection against water and dust. In fact, the "9K" at the end denotes that the Nokia XR21 can withstand close-range, high-pressure and high-temperature spray downs.

The display gets some of the hardest Corning protection currently available - the Gorilla Glass Victus glass sheet. Sitting behind it is a 6.49-inch IPS LCD screen with FHD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. It also works with gloves and wet hands.

The Snapdragon 695 SoC is in charge, coupled with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The back has two cameras - 64MP f/1.8 main one and an 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide unit. At the front is a 16MP f/2.5 selfie camera.

The phone draws power from a 4,800 mAh battery supporting 33W charging, but unfortunately, the XR21 ships with Android 12 out of the box. The good news is that Nokia promises 4 years of monthly security updates and 3 major Android OS upgrades. a

The handset will be made available in Midnight Black and Pine Green colors starting from £499 in the UK. The actual release will commence sometime in early June, but there's no word on international availability for now.