Nokia 6.1 Review-The Best Answer to "Which Android Phone Should I Buy?"

As a person who spends a lot of time with smartphones, I'm often asked, "Hey Ron, what Android phone should I buy? The high-end answer is usually easy: buy a Pixel phone. But not everyone is willing to shell out $ 650 + for a smartphone, especially the types of casual users who ask for advice. Beyond the flagship smartphones, things are getting harder within the Android ecosystem. Motorola under Google was great to build a non-flagship phone, but since the company was sold to Lenovo (which emptied the update program), it was hard to find a decent phone that was not not super expensive.

Enter Nokia HMD phones, a full line of cheap smartphones ranging from $ 100 to $ 400. HMD has recently launched the second generation of its range, with phones like the Nokia 2.1, 3.1 and 5.1. We recently spent time with the most upscale phone in this series which is one of the few HMD devices to be sold in the US: the Nokia 6.1. And for $ 269, you get a pretty spectacular package from a Snapdragon 630, a 5.5 inch 1080p display, Android 8.1 stock, quick updates, and a metal body.

The fall of Nokia and the rise of HMD

As this is the first Nokia HMD phone we have tested, it is probably good to immerse yourself in the history of HMD first. Believe it or not, this company was specifically created to be "the home of Nokia phones".

Once upon a time in a post-iPhone world, Nokia hired a Microsoft executive to be the new CEO of the company. Nokia has become an exclusive manufacturer of Windows Phone. Many bad Microsoft-centric business decisions have been made by the Microsoft Microsoft Executive. In the end, Nokia's value fell so low that Microsoft ended up buying Nokia's phone division.

Thus, Nokia becomes a telecommunications company that does not manufacture phones, Microsoft gets a manufacturer of phones and a 10-year license to use the Nokia brand. the director of Microsoft had to go home to Microsoft.

Microsoft's internal phones were ultimately not enough to rescue Windows Phone, and when the platform died, the end of Nokia phones seemed imminent. With Nokia phones in trouble, a mysterious company called "HMD Global" appeared. With Foxconn's FIH Mobile subsidiary, HMD quickly began buying back what was left of Nokia's old assets. Eventually, branding, software, patents, licenses and 4500 employees were divided between the two companies. HMD became the worldwide licensee of the Nokia brand for phones, and had an agreement to manufacture in the new fortified FIH Mobile.

But where did this mysterious "HMD" society come from? If you're like me (and you've been following this kind of industry news for some time), whenever an old brand is uprooted by another company, you assume that it's a Chinese company looking to penetrate larger markets. Motorola, Blackberry and Palm roughly match this story. But obviously, this fate has not occurred Nokia-HMD is not trying to wear the Nokia brand as a parched bullet. HMD is different .

The similarities between HMD and Nokia are so numerous, it is almost suspect. HMD, like Nokia, is a Finnish company. Almost all HMD executives are former Nokia employees. The seat of HMD is actually on the other side of the street from the headquarters of Nokia. HMD is not Nokia, and Nokia does not hold any investment in HMD, but it seems unlikely that two companies can be closer while being legally and financially distinct.

Up to now, HMD has stood out as a smartphone company saying all the good things when it 's going on. is the software. Most manufacturers are trying to redefine Android with heavy skin that offers little value to consumers, but HMD has pushed a "Pure Android" angle for its software. It also focuses on quick updates, promising "clean, secure, and up-to-date devices." Today, HMD is also one of the few companies to focus on low and mid-range smartphones.

HMD also sells feature phones, an initiative that is still moving major units around the developing world. With its plethora of Nokia DNA, HMD has even managed to make interactive phones interesting by resurrecting the legendary Nokia phones of the past. Until now, we have seen remakes of the Nokia 3310 "brick" phone and the "banana phone", the Nokia 8110.

In its latest round of financing, HMD was rated at more than one billion dollars. In 2017 – the first year of operation of HMD – the company has shipped 70 million Nokia branded phones (ie smart phones and multifunction phones) with commercial operations in more than 80 countries. Between smartphones, feature phones and a series of second-generation devices, there are already some twenty Nokia phones manufactured by HMD. This is not a useless template spam either; Nokia's seven current smartphones each hold a single price, ranging from $ 100 to $ 700. It's an absolutely outrageous amount of progress for a company that's only a year and a half, again, that's curious. This does not seem like a start-up business at all. One has the impression that someone has gone into an old Nokia dusty factory, turned on the lights and started releasing phones again.

Despite all of its progress, the impressive magnitude of HMD has not yet translated into a profitability loss in 2017. However, this is only one year, and it seems that HMD has made a good start. The company definitely seems much more stable than the latest billionaire smartphone startup, Andy Rubin's Essential. Compare the first year for each: HMD diversified and launched, like, 12 phone models at a price range. Essentially put the farm on one high-end smartphone, it was not selling well, and now the company seems to be turning around the sewer.

For now, the only bad thing I can say about HMD is that it was difficult to get these Finnish phones in the United States. The Nokia 6.1 is one of the few HMD phones that has made the jump to America so far, but there is good news on this front. We plan to get more HMD devices in the US this year than last year.