Chinese Electric Car Maker Nio Launches Android Smartphone For $890

Chinese electric car maker Nio has launched an Android-based smartphone, which was unveiled at its Nio Day event. This comes at a time when many smartphone makers are pivoting towards making electric cars, so it is unique for an electric car maker to go the other way round.

The phone, which costs $890 (₹71,300), meaning its starting price is more than the baseline iPhone 15, is being pitched as a rival to Apple's latest phone. This was hinted at by William Li, the chairman and CEO of the electric car maker, last year.

"The Nio Phone is the next step in our vision of creating a seamless user experience for our customers. It is a powerful and innovative device that will enhance the way our customers interact with their vehicles and with the world around them,” said William Li.

The phone features the latest Qualcomm silicon with the 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 at its heart. It has a 6.81-inch curved display with a 2K resolution that has been made by Samsung and a 120Hz refresh rate. The phone also packs a 5,200mAh battery, which is quite large by modern standards, beating out the size found in the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. It supports faster charging than the stalwarts with 66-watt wired charging and 50-watt wireless charging with 10-watt reverse charging.

Nio even revealed that its phone will be able to unlock its EVs even after its battery has been drained for 48 hours. Nio also revealed that the phone uses ultra-wide-band technology and can display itself as a virtual phone on the central screen of the Nio EV it is paired with, somewhat similar to Apple's AirPlay tech which is based on a combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. There are 30 car-related features overall built into the device.

The phone is being offered in a bunch of SKUs -- 12GB RAM with 512GB storage for $890 (₹71,300), 12GB RAM with 1TB storage for $990 (₹79,500), and 16GB RAM with 1TB storage for $1,090 (₹87,700). Nio has outlined that there will be a new version of the phone every year and hence there is also a cloud storage offering that has been built around it similar to iCloud. Nio is offering 1TB online storage for just $5 and also has an Apple Care-like service program for $96.

There are some serious cameras on this phone too with a triple 50-megapixel camera array with the inclusion of a periscope zoom lens and OIS and a circular LED flash module.

Nio is not the only electric car maker that has harboured ambitions for making a smartphone. Polestar, which is owned by the Geely group, has also outlined intentions of making a smartphone. Tesla has also been rumoured to be making a phone but that hasn't happened.

Nio showed off other cutting-edge technologies as well like its first LiDAR main control chip called Yang Jian. Its own vehicle operating system Tianshu SkyOS, Nio Link for panoramic interconnection, and its global enhanced navigation assistance NOP+ service.

While this happens Chinese smartphone makers like Xiaomi and Huawei have pivoted toward electric cars. BYD is helping Nothing manufacture its gadgets in India and famously Apple has been working on its autonomous electric car for a while. Consumer electronics giant Sony has tied up with Honda for its own electric car project as well after successfully showing off two iterations at CES in 2020 and 2021. It has plans to launch its first electric car by 2026.