While this year’s Consumer Electronics Show is just about wrapping up, HMD Global has decided to unveil some rather exciting news – its first Nokia-branded Android smartphone. The company has issued a press release and promotional footage of the Nokia 6, giving us the first sneak peak of what HMD Global has been working on since they acquired the exclusive brand licensing rights from Nokia. There’s only one catch – the smartphone will be launched only in China.
HMD Global cites the strategic importance of launching in the Chinese market given the potential growth of smartphone users expected in 2017. Furthermore, the company is banking heavily on the Nokia brand to bring success. They expect consumers to latch on to the premium build quality expected of a Nokia-branded phone and have also priced the device competitively within the Chinese market.
Meet the Nokia 6
A new Nokia 6 smartphone is seen in this handout image released by HMD to Reuters on January 7, 2017. HMD/Handout via Reuters.
The device features a 5.5″ FHD screen with a layer of 2.5D Gorilla Glass. Internally, the smartphone is running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor with an X6 LTE modem, 4GBs of RAM, and 64GBs of storage. There are also dual amplifiers on the device which are coupled with Dolby Atmos audio technology. The rear camera is a 16MP sensor with phase detection auto-focus (PDAF) and an f/2.0 aperture lens, while the front facing camera is a 8MP sensor. Finally, the phone is running on Android Nougat, which HMD Global states is “the latest version” so we’ll have to assume that it is on Android 7.1.
Further details regarding the device can be gleaned from the promotional video posted on Nokia’s website. We can’t say much about the build quality until we can actually hold the smartphone with our own two hands, but we did notice that the device features a micro-USB port (clearly visible at 00:35 in the video) rather than a USB Type-C port as we’ve grown accustomed to lately. But given the fact that this device is a Chinese-exclusive, it makes sense for HMD Global to opt for the older USB port. In addition, it appears the phone will feature capacitive navigation buttons rather than on-screen buttons, while the physical home button doubles up as the fingerprint scanner.
HMD Global will be selling the device through its exclusive online retail partner, JD.com, for 1699 CNY sometime “in early 2017”. This converts to approximately 250 USD, though we are unlikely to see the device priced exactly like this if, or when, it launches internationally.
We do hope that HMD Global eventually brings this device, or hopefully a device with better specifications, to other markets. Although many of us Android enthusiasts here at XDA have questions regarding whether or not HMD Global will commit to frequent updates or will not get in the way of development, there are also many people eager to see the revival of the Nokia brand and the design quality that has been missing in their absence.
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