The return of the king? Nokia 8 and 9 series

Mobster
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The Nokia 6 is a really good phone for £199 and it has been kept bang up to date. It is on Android 7.1.1 with the August security patch. Fingerprint scanner works brilliantly and the screen is great.

I have high hopes for any future Nokia phones and I understand the Nokia 7 will be announced on the 16th August.
 
Soldato
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Sadly they seem distinctly "meh" with little to differentiate themselves from any other phone, which ironically is why Nokia (the original company, not HMD who are just using the Nokia brand name) decided not to go Android in the first place. They just seem to be yet another Android clone 99% identical to any other with a few cosmetic changes to the shell and missing Nokias original global manufacturing and support assets.

Shame really and seems a missed opportunity although it's hard to see now how any manufacturer can differentiate when they all fundamentally use the same OS, chipset and form factor.
 
Associate
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Well, if they can keep up the quick software updates, they could differentiate themselves by serving their customers better than anyone else. I think these flagships may play it a little safe to gain some traction; the interesting models will likely be the next ones.

It's a shame the 6 has the Snapdragon 430 rather than the 625 and the camera isn't better; apparently the build quality for the price is exceptional. I'm looking at that and the Moto G5 Plus and will have to go the Moto route unless somthing better comes up.
 
Mobster
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Build quality on the 6 is indeed brilliant, feels like a tank. It's too big for me though, I prefer a screen smaller than 5.5 inches. Bezels are quite large although not huge.

I'll probably get to the 5 since it has the same CPU. Shame the speaker is worse (sound on the 6 is also brilliant with Dolby Atmos and earpiece and bottom speaker used - really loud, clear and bassy).
 
Soldato
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Sadly they seem distinctly "meh" with little to differentiate themselves from any other phone, which ironically is why Nokia (the original company, not HMD who are just using the Nokia brand name) decided not to go Android in the first place. They just seem to be yet another Android clone 99% identical to any other with a few cosmetic changes to the shell and missing Nokias original global manufacturing and support assets.

Shame really and seems a missed opportunity although it's hard to see now how any manufacturer can differentiate when they all fundamentally use the same OS, chipset and form factor.
Samsung are a great example of how to differentiate to the mass market - by brand recognition. This is one thing that Nokia (HMD) have in their favour.
 
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Well, if they can keep up the quick software updates

Indeed. If they can get a new version out within 30 days or so then they're still much quicker than anybody else.
Unfortunately the design of this phone isn't that great. Massive chin and forehead on it. I'll stick with my G6. But I'll be keeping my eye on Nokia phones next year.
 
Soldato
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Samsung are a great example of how to differentiate to the mass market - by brand recognition. This is one thing that Nokia (HMD) have in their favour.

If they added a few of the original 'Nokia' features it could add to the charm of their new handsets:
1) The adult and child hand on boot with 'Nokia - Connecting People'
2) A modern rendition of Snake
3) A theme which resembles their old interface
4) Original ringtones and alerts

The nostalgic factor could be fun! That and frequent, timely software updates could really persuade me!
 
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Why are manufacturers insistent in including measly 3000mah batteries?

Lenovo and Xiaomi amongst others has proven it's very possible to get decent sized 4000-5000 mah batteries without sacrificing the look and feel of handsets.
 
Associate
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Sadly they seem distinctly "meh" with little to differentiate themselves from any other phone, which ironically is why Nokia (the original company, not HMD who are just using the Nokia brand name) decided not to go Android in the first place. They just seem to be yet another Android clone 99% identical to any other with a few cosmetic changes to the shell and missing Nokias original global manufacturing and support assets.

Shame really and seems a missed opportunity although it's hard to see now how any manufacturer can differentiate when they all fundamentally use the same OS, chipset and form factor.

Yep.

The launch of the Lumia 800/900 was awesome, colourful matte polycarbonate when at the time everything else was shiny boring black or white.

Windows Phone 7 was absolutely killer too, and half the reason why the Lumia 800/900 was so exciting - I reckon if it was launched 6 to 8 months earlier, Windows Phone would be top dog these days - More app makers would've made apps for them and the rest would be history. "But muh apps" was seriously the only real complaint back then, sure the Lumia 800 only had limited one day battery life, but it was more than comparable to the half day battery life handsets of the day!

Comparing the performance/battery life of the HTC One M8 to the One W8 really displays how great and lightweight it was.
 
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I had a long play with Nokia 3 this morning, setting up exchange accounts and cloud drives on it. A lovely phone to touch and feel, a premium device for under £100, 720P screen was clear & bright, Dual band 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz wifi connectivity, 9 LTE bands so good 4G roaming coverage and 2GB of on board ram and 16GB storage, running stock Android with august 2017 security updates already BUT the Mediatek MT6737 SOC 1.4ghz quad core processor just cannot cope, it is slow to open apps, opening the camera takes 3-4 secs, and the phone just isn't responsive.

It looks and feels like a premium phone but performance sadly lets it down.
 
Soldato
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I was keen on the Nokia 8 but got sick of waiting so got a G6. I do like the look of the phone and also like that it's near stock Android with a few added features (how all OEM's should do it) so hopefully next year their phones will have a better design.
 
Associate
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I had a long play with Nokia 3 this morning, setting up exchange accounts and cloud drives on it. A lovely phone to touch and feel, a premium device for under £100, 720P screen was clear & bright, Dual band 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz wifi connectivity, 9 LTE bands so good 4G roaming coverage and 2GB of on board ram and 16GB storage, running stock Android with august 2017 security updates already BUT the Mediatek MT6737 SOC 1.4ghz quad core processor just cannot cope, it is slow to open apps, opening the camera takes 3-4 secs, and the phone just isn't responsive.

It looks and feels like a premium phone but performance sadly lets it down.


It surprises me that it lags with a 1.4Ghz quad core, those and beasty specs compared to phones only a few years old. Good old resource hungry Android.
 
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It surprises me that it lags with a 1.4Ghz quad core, those and beasty specs compared to phones only a few years old. Good old resource hungry Android.

Just installed the latest 7.1.1 update on the Nokia 3, so it has 5th August security updates, kernal dated 21st August - 3.18.35, this has helped a little with speed of apps of opening, have installed a 16GB Sandisk card. Also the storage used and unused is now shown correctly in settings. It is using approx 1.5GB of the 2GB ram so it appears to be a bit of resource hog. Also the wifi craps out znd needs to be re-connected, I have switched to a static IP and we will see if that helps it stays connected. If Nokia keep up the promise to bring prompt updates by running a virtually stock Android and then this will surely help sales of the high end devices like the 8.

Also the FM radio is very good, reception is excellent using a cheap pair of headphones as the aerial.
 
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