Florian Seiche, CEO of HDM Global, confirmed at a press conference at IFA 2019 that a Nokia-branded 5G smartphone would be launched in 2020.

"We want to bring 5G to everyone," said Seiche, promising that the company would deliver an affordable by premium 5G handset and confirmed that Nokia is working closely with Google and Qualcomm to bring this handset to fruition.

It's not the first time that HMD Global has committed to 5G, with Juho Sarvikas, chief product officer previously telling Digital Trends that the aim was to have a 5G handset in 2020 at half the price of current offerings. 

When might we actually see such a handset? The obvious announcement would be at Mobile World Congress 2020 in February/March, but it's also likely that we'll be getting better hardware support from companies like Qualcomm to make that possible. 

Currently, most of the 5G phones have a flagship grade core chip with a separate 5G modem - but Qualcomm previously said it was working on integrated solutions, with the modem on the same chip, making it cheaper and easier to work with. Samsung has also recently announced an integrated solution of its own.

The range of 5G handsets that have been announced so far have been restricted to the high-end. The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, Oppo Reno 5G, LG V50 5G all come in at premium prices, with devices like the Samsung Galaxy Fold 5G and Huawei Mate X 5G pushing that even higher. 

The cheapest 5G handset around is likely to be the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, but that's all set to change in 2020 as 5G roll-out continues, the next-gen connectivity becomes a lot more mainstream and companies like Nokia get involved.