Nokia 6

Nokia comes out from the hibernation.

Nokia is back in the market after a long hiatus, with their Nokia 6.
A mid-range Android smartphone first released in the Chinese market, Nokia 6 is the first phone to carry the Nokia branding since 2014, when Microsoft took over Nokia.

While one has to acknowledge that the phone sold out in the first flash sale, but we really don’t know why that happened. Clearly the specs didn’t drive the sales — maybe curiosity or nostalgia came to it’s rescue.

Given the specs we’re about to relate, you might agree that the Nokia 6 does not fare up to those of the current competition.

First up, some good words — the design of the phone is charming; it packs in an all-metal unibody and is made from the same aluminium that is found on an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus. It is a good looking device.

That said, Nokia has been pretty creative with its phones in the past, and this, even though good looking, is quite a standardized phone, and that might be disappointing for some.

The phone comes with a 5.5 inch Full-HD IPS display, which integrates quite well with the phone’s design. Even though the display might not be up there with the leading devices in terms of screen sharpness, but an everyday user will hardly be able to tell the difference.

The phone runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 for a processor, which in the days of Snapdragon 820, does not sound impressive, in the least. The processor may easily handle all your everyday tasks, but it’s like saying a moped will get you to your destination — wouldn’t you rather have a motorcycle, or a the very least, a scooter??

Other devices in the market right now that carry this chipset are the Lenovo K6, Asus ZenFone 3 Laser, and the Xiaomi Redmi 3s, all of whom are going to be competition to the Nokia 6 — so, shouldn’t HMD (the owners of Nokia’s brand name) have sprung for something a bit higher than the competition?

The phone comes with 4 GB RAM, something that seems too fast be turning into the standard for upper-mid-range phones. There’s 64 GB of internal memory, giving a nudge to most phones in the competition bracket. In addition, there’s also a microSD slot, with 128 GB of additional storage.

There’s a 16 megapixel rear camera, and an 8 megapixel front shooter. This stands quite at the part with the market standard for this year. The phone also packs a fingerprint scanner within the home button under the display on the front of the phone.

So, the Nokia 6 is the first Nokia phone to carry a biometric reader.

The phone is the second Nokia phone to run Android, succeeding the quite disastrous attempt with Nokia X. It ships with Android Nougat, the latest version of Android available in the market. And unlike the previous time, when the OS was highly modified, the Nokia 6 has a better, leaner version that most Android users would like.

A dual SIM (GSM+CDMA) smartphone, the Nokia 6 runs on a 3,000 mAh battery — again a little bit underwhelming.

The phone and it’s specs seems to be inclined to sending a clear and a rather promising message, one that nonchalantly hints that Nokia’s focus will be fixated on the essential features that users and consumers seem to love and only want. It seems that bells and whistles are currently not in the basket of goodies that Nokia’s carried to the market. Just basic ingredients, for this round.

The Nokia 6 is priced at USD 245 for now and is currently only available in China. We can expect it to hit European markets soon, as more Nokia devices flow into the market over the year.

Perhaps one of the most important things you need to keep in mind is that even though the phone carries the name Nokia, it is not from the same company that we have known as a benchmark within the cellular phone industry. The phone has actually been manufactured by HMD Global, a Finnish company that consists of ex-Nokia employees, and that carries a license to use the Nokia brand name.

A word of advice for HMD Global and Nokia would be that if it really wants to stay long in the market, it will need to be a lot more competitive.

Better hardware mix coupled with the legendary Nokia durability standards will help it’s new devices better attempt to fill the big shoes of Nokia’s legacy, and people’s memories of it.

Originally published at chip-monks.com.