Nokia 6, Latest Android-Powered Nokia Phone by HDM Global

After Nokia's failed attempt to win the market through Microsoft by making Windows Phones, Nokia took a break from focusing on phones which led Microsoft drop it's brand as well. It hasn't been a smooth ride for Nokia. But obviously the brand was too popular to die out. Nokia decided to license it's brand to any company that would still use and promote the Nokia brand and at least carry the legacy on with hope of Nokia picking it up again in the future. Basically a phone manufacturer would have to get rights from Nokia and whatever they may entail. In that sense the phone would be made by a different company but marketed as a Nokia phone with approval from Nokia.

This is where HMD Global comes in. HMD Global is a Finnish company that secured the exclusive license from Nokia to use the Nokia brand on the phones it's makes. HMD happens to contimue the Nokia story and has been making feature phones that carry the Nokia brand.

On the last day of CES 2017, an annual tech showcase event, HMD Global announced the Nokia 6. Essential, this is a Nokia phone made by HMD Global. Sadly though, this is only a Chinese only version for Chinese market. Obviously, it's the largest smartphone market and possibly a good move to see the reaction towards the phone before it hits the International market.

The Nokia 6 is a mid-range phone while many expected it to be a high-end phone, but build quality appears impressive. The phone is housed in a full aluminum unibody brushed to give a more premium look despite the price tag. It spots a 5.5” 1080p screen that has a curved 2.5D Gorilla Glass sheet on top with a resolution of 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels at 403 pixels per inch. In comparison with known high-end phones, lets say this display falls between the Galaxy S7 with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels and a PPI of 577, and the iPhone 7 with a resolution of 750 x 1334 pixels and PPI of 326.

Nokia 6 is powered by the latest but mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor with X6 LTE modem designed for excellent battery life and superior graphics performance. It comes with 4GB RAM on board and 64GB of storage expandable to 128GB via microSD Card.

It also spots a 16-megapixel primary camera on the rear with an f2.0 aperture and a 8-megapixel front shooter for selfies with the same aperture. It also comes with a built-in 3000mAh battery.

It's a dual SIM (GSM + CDMA and GSM + CDMA) smartphone that accepts connectivity options include GPS, Bluetooth, 3G and 4G. Sensors on the phone include Compass Magnetometer, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor and Gyroscope.

As far as software goes, the Nokia 6 runs the latest Android 7.0 Nougat, a little disappointing as 7.1 that comes with major security patches would have been expected on this new anticipated phone like this. Also, the Nokia 6 doesn't seem to be using Nokia's own Z Launcher, Nokia's own Android Launcher. It's understandable for the fact that it's made by HMD and not Nokia but we would all love to see Nokia have a little bit more of it's presence and signature features in a Nokia phone than just the branding. Hopefully that will come in the International version if it ever gets released.