Will Nokia make the return?

Younger readers will hardly remember, but Nokia was once considered one of the most successful mobile phone manufacturer in the world, was even the market leader from 1998 to 2011. The 3310 is still considered entirely indestructible to this day and lives on as a meme years after its release. Today Nokia presented their new line-up on the sidelines of MWC 2017 in Barcelona. Will Nokia return to old strength?

Learned from the mistakes?

Since Nokia 2014 the mobile division Microsoft sold, there is hardly a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Windows Phone was and is a slow seller. The Lumia series from Nokia received decent ratings but was only bought as a budget variant. In 2016, Nokia merged with the French company Alcatel-Lucent and has been operating together under the well-known brand name ever since. Nokia recently attracted attention with the 3310 remake and the Nokia 6, which was only released in China. Today the Finns presented their new Smartphone Line-Up - based on Android and in cooperation with the manufacturer hmd who licensed the Nokia brand in the smartphone segment. The press conference could be followed live, with 42.000 viewers tuning in on Facebook at peak times. This shows that interest in Nokia is still there.

The new Nokia line up

First, it was announced that the Nokia 6, already released in China, should now be available in the rest of the world. Nokia claimed customer satisfaction in Asia was 97% and their first stocks sold out in 23 seconds. The Nokia 6 has two speakers and is Dolby Atmos certified. It is made from a block of aluminum and is said to cost €229. In addition, the new Special Edition Arte Black was presented, which features black piano lacquer on the back and expanded memory (up to 4GB RAM / 64GB internal) and should cost €299.

In addition, there is the somewhat more compact Nokia 5 with a new antenna design for €189. It will be available in four understated colorways including black, blue, silver and copper.

Also new is the Nokia 135, which is very cheap at €3. In contrast to the rest of the line-up, the Nokia 3 is made of polycarbonate. Only the frame of the device is made of aluminum.

Pure Android and Google Assistant on board

Very interesting: Nokia emphasized that each of the devices should be delivered with the pure Android Nougat operating system. That means: fast and regular security updates as well as version upgrades and so far only on the pixel Smartphones available Google Assistant. This puts Nokia behind LG, which also accommodates the assistant in the new G6. All smartphones are scheduled to appear in Q2 2017. With the shown lineup, Nokia visibly does without a new flagship and disappointed us a bit with that. The new strategy appears to be entry-level premium design. Certainly a smart move. We enthusiasts often forget that the entry-level range under €300 is the largest market.

The Nokia 8, which has already been made known by leaks, is still a long time coming. However, the announcement of pure Android without annoying additional interfaces and the Google Assistant let us hope that the Nokia 8 will also be a very interesting smartphone. With the prices just published, it should be in the range of 400 to 500 euros. Since Samsung's new S8 will probably break the magic 800€ wall, Nokia could pull off a real coup.