Nokia has always been a brand closer to most of our hearts. Of course, for most of us in the early and mid-2000, we started our journey with a basic Nokia phone. Nokia was also one of those brands that started the early smartphone revolution. After Microsoft acquired Nokia's handset division in 2013, the company had been out of the market for close to three years. After all these years, Nokia is back in the smartphone game with an Android smartphones — something that Nokia loyalists had been waiting for since Google introduced Android OS. Making its grand comeback, just yesterday HMD launched the Nokia 6 smartphone in China that runs Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box.
However, with market dynamics completely changing over the years, Nokia and HMD will need more than the brand name and legacy to succeed. The Nokia 6 packs in 'decent' hardware, but the oomph factor that would crave Nokia fans to go gaga over the brand's comeback is missing. To be honest, I'm disappointed in the Nokia 6.
The smartphone not only lacks the much-needed punch, but also does not offer anything special than what its competitors are offering. For once, smartphones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and LeEco Le 2 offer better hardware for less, Lenovo Z2 Plus and LeEco Le Max2 offer top of the line hardware for around the same pricing of the Nokia 6. In fact, smartphones like the Honor 6X and Coolpad Cool 1 Dual that are priced lower than Nokia 6 offer some USP in the form of dual rear-camera setup. With Nokia 6 being just like any other mid-range smartphone, here are five things we expect from the upcoming Nokia smartphones. ALSO READ: Blast from the past: These are our favorite Nokia phones till date
Design Innovation: Design has always been a strong point of Nokia phones. Take an example of the early phones such as the Nokia 3310 — it had a nice design, sturdy and durable body that made it near impact resistant. The Nokia 2100 featured a semi-transparent matte plastic, feather light body and white backlight under the keypad. The Nokia 3650 with circular dial pad, the Nokia 3250 with swiveling bottom half to reveal MP3 controls for play / pause, go forward and back, the Nokia Communicator with geometric box-like design, the Nokia 6810 with an unusual fold-out QWERTY keyboard and more. And who could forget the gaming centric N-Gage and N-Gage QD?
In fact, look at the Nokia N-series, the N90 with 270-degrees swivel design to transform into a clamshell phone or a camcorder, the N92, N95 and more – Nokia has always set the bar with innovative designs. More recently, Nokia experimented with polycarbonate shells in bright neon colors, which made them stand apart from the crowd.
However, the same is missing from the latest Nokia 6. It features a metal unibody design along with a sleek and slim form factor; however, there is no design innovation here. We saw Nokia going all crazy with its whacky designs in the decade between 2000 and 2010, but as a Nokia fan, it's sad to see the latest Nokia phone lacking 'innovation' that I've always seen. In the current competitive market, where price vs specifications war has been cut-throat, HMD and Nokia need to seriously bring in that innovation to the table. Nokia has been one of the brands that had dared to be different in the past and it can do the same going forward. ALSO READ: Nokia 6 vs Redmi Note 3 vs Le Eco Le 2 vs Coolpad Cool 1 Dual: Price, specifications, and features compared
PureView Camera: Besides innovative designs, Nokia has also been known for its camera prowess. Be it the phones with VGA camera, or the N-series or Lumia-series running Windows Phone OS, camera has been a key pitch. Not because of the megapixel count, but because of the superior quality results the camera could offer. Besides Carl Zeiss optics and camera sensor, the software that does the post processing of the image plays a crucial role, and Nokia has been good at it.
In fact, Nokia was the one to bring optical image stabilization (OIS) to smartphones with the Lumia 920. It allowed for taking sharper, blur-free photos even with shaky hand movements. With the Lumia 920, Nokia also focused on low-light photography and the smartphone truly excels at it. I still have the smartphone as a spare device and occasionally use it for clicking photos. The one thing that I admire about the Lumia 920 is that despite being four-years old, it gives tough competition to the recent camera smartphones. ALSO READ: Nokia 6 with 4GB RAM, Android 7.0 Nougat announced: Price, specifications and features
Then there were PureView 808 running on Symbian OS and Lumia 1020 running on Windows Phone OS – both featuring 41-megapixel PureView cameras, and there is no need to talk about the quality of photos they can capture. If I had to say something about these devices, I'd say – they are 'cameras' disguised as 'smartphones'. With all that being said and done, the same thing is missing from the Nokia 6, and it needs to be addressed in the upcoming Nokia phones.
Software Experience: One of the reasons why Nokia has been a people favorite is the fact that the phones are easy to use – thanks to the simple software. Be it the black-and-white phones, Nokia Asha-series, or Symbian OS, people never really faced issues getting used to the User Interface (UI). Nokia can very well go with 'Pure Android' OS, just like the Nexus and Pixel-series. It will make software update process easier, but the Nokia centric addition in the form of customizations to even better the UI will be missing. It will be sad to see Nokia not putting in its two-cents to distinguish its smartphones from the ones already available out there. But at the same time, Nokia also needs to work on delivering updates faster, so that users don't miss out on the latest features and security updates.
Hardware: In this era of specifications battle, customers choose a smartphone not just on the brand name but also looking at the hardware. When you're out spending money, you'd obviously want a smartphone that is powered by the latest hardware, and also an assurance that it will be future proof. Take an example of the Nokia 6, it is giving a pre-cursor as to what we can expected in 2017 — that being, 4GB RAM + 64GB onboard storage to be seen on most upcoming devices. However, when we talk about the SoC, its rather disappointing to see Nokia use a decent Snapdragon 430 octa-core chipset rather than going for Snapdragon 650/652 which we have seen on smartphones priced lower than Nokia 6.
Addition of fingerprint sensor on the home button is also something that we have already seen, but it's time to move away from the current technology to ultrasonic ones. Also, take a look at Lumia 920, Lumia 1020, Lumia 1520 and so on, all these featured Wireless Charging technologies, something that we haven't seen on many Android phones, except the Galaxy S6-series, Galaxy S7-seires and the Galaxy Note 5. Addition of wireless charging and fast charging technology, and more could really get Nokia in the game.
Target Every Segment: Now this is one core area that could open the 'door to success' going forward. Nokia has always had its phones in every price segment, be it the basic feature phones and Asha-series for entry level users, the N-series in the higher end segment and more, there was something for everyone. Brands like HTC and Sony tried to replicate the same, but it lost the battle to Chinese smartphone brands such as Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Lenovo and others. Currently, Samsung is the only brand having its smartphones right from the sub-Rs 5000 level, and going all the way up to Rs 60,000 price bracket. Also, the presence – both online and offline, along with a number of service centres across the country has helped it gain people's trust. Nokia had done the same during its glory days, and doing the same again is what could help customers buy Nokia smartphones once again.
I am glad to see Nokia make a comeback and hope it manages to go back to its glory days. What do you think about Nokia making its comeback? Let us know in the comments below.
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