HMD Global, the Finnish company that now owns the rights to manufacture Nokia phones, has announced that the new Nokia 6 will be coming to the US in early July. The press release says the phone will initially be sold exclusively through Amazon. There’s a distinct difference between a phone being sold exclusively on Amazon and a phone being a Prime Exclusive Phone, which is a phone that Amazon heavily discounts in exchange for adding lockscreen ads, but it’s starting to look likely that the Nokia 6 will be newest device to be offered through the Prime Exclusive Phone program.
I received a tip last month that the next Prime Exclusive Phone would be the Nokia 6. This phone was revealed in January as “the first Nokia smartphone powered by Android” but has officially not been released in the US yet. I couldn’t verify the tip at the time, so I didn’t post about it, but now that we know Amazon and Nokia have at least teamed up to sell the phone, it seems plausible that the relationship between the two companies might go deeper.
The Nokia 6 has been well-received thus far and seems like a very good mid-range phone. It features a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, 3GB of RAM, 16MP rear-camera, 8MP front-camera, 32GB of storage, microSD card slot, and a 3,000mAh battery. The Nokia 6 runs a completely pure version of Android Nougat without any added junk from the manufacturer.
HMD Global says the Nokia 6 will have a retail price of $229 and be available in silver and matte black. If the phone does join Amazon’s Prime Exclusive Phone program, I’d expect that version to be priced between $179 and $189. That would make it a solid contender to the $185 Moto G5 Plus, which joined the Prime Exclusive Phone list earlier this year. If things do pan out that way, it’ll be difficult choosing between the two phones. On one hand the Moto G5 Play slightly outperforms the Nokia 6 in benchmarks, but the Nokia has 1GB more RAM, better cameras, and better build quality.
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So odd to see a Nokia phone again. (after the whole Microsoft initial by-out craziness years back).
Looks nice. A lot of people are trying to get me to switch to Apple. Are iPhones that much better?
In my opinion, anyone who says one is vastly superior than the other is just a fanboy. They can each do mostly the same things, just in different ways, so it mostly comes down to preference. Since most people prefer what they’re used to, it’s common to find people who insist their phone is superior.
I try to force myself to switch from one to the other every time I’m considering an upgrade, so I stay familiar with both platforms. In my experience, Android is more flexible and iPhone is simpler (in a good way). If you have an Android device and find yourself regularly frustrated with it, you may prefer the iPhone, just expect to lose some flexibility.
Then there are masochists like me who stick with Windows Phone despite the lack of new devices or apps. I work with iOS and Android as part of my job and it has only diminished my desire to own either of them.
Hopefully someone releases a device that changes my mind before my Lumia Icon actually dies.
Seems like it will only work as a complete smartphone on T-Mobile network. Too bad, it looked like a nice piece of kit.
Good point. I missed that and should have included it in the post. Looks like it’s missing two of AT&T’s LTE bands. It’ll probably still work well on AT&T, but it’s certainly not ideal.
“The Nokia 6 runs a completely pure version of Android Nougat without any added junk from the manufacturer.”
Does that junk include things like T-mobile’s HD Wifi calling and possibly other features that seem to be unavailable to me on my amazon fire phone. Who would be releasing the software upgrades, and are they trustworthy to continue the upgrades? Although Amazon still provides support for the fire phone, you are basically screwed if you use the Google play store. I have also never found a users group where users can provide solutions to common platform problems that worked for them. My calling and messaging features have been broken for months by something downloaded from the play store. Amazon will help with a factory reset, but if you install play to get the useful apps, you’re on your own. I wanted to go with the S8 (not unlocked), but don’t want to pay full price, and cant do a B1G1. considering the Nokia as a inexpensive alternative to get me back up and running.
From T-Mobile Press Release …
“For T-Mobile customers, LTE-U is all goodness—delivering even more capacity and faster speeds. And there’s no need to turn on or download anything. It just works for T-Mobile customers in LTE-U locations with compatible smartphones!”
Currently the S8 is the only current compatible smartphone. Would this not be available on a Unlocked S8?
The specs would have been more compelling a year ago. The software situation seems positive, though.
Just an FYI: The higher grade of Moto G5plus has 64 gigs of storage and 4 gigs Ram. Was $229 on Amazon. Cheaper G5PLUS is also available at Costco.
It’s too bad a 5″ phone is so hard to find with these specs and cost. The 5.5″ just doesn’t fit in my pockets as well. I’m sticking with the Blu phone for awhile longer it appears, unless they decide to upgrade it. Would like a better camera.
That Phone looks nearly as dated as the 3510. And, that Galaxy Home Button… How original!
Also 1Gb of RAM?! Lol if this is the best Nokia can come up with, they’ll be under in under a year again. Which is a real pitty, all things considered. This may be only considered as a budget Device. But even the cheaper, NOT the cheapest! per se, But those Devices within the 150-300$ range all have at least twice the RAM upwards of 4GB of the stuff. So why would I want to this with its forced Lockscreen Ads again?
It has 3GB of RAM. The 1GB mentioned is how much it has more than the Moto G5 Play.
Oh ok sorry I must have misread it then.
If Amazon is going to lock down the bootloader and prevent rooting, then this phone has got to be completely unlocked and work on every carrier.
Interesting. What is Nokia’s policy on unlocking it’s bootloader. That is the biggest ? when it come to budget phones that get very little support from manufacturers.
Right now the Z981 is the best hardware for budget phone for under $100. It even easily compares with most phones under $400. But with ZTE’s horrible FW updates. And it’s fully looked/preRooted tied down FW. It flushes all the great things about the Z981 away. This budget phone manufacturers should at least make it so folks can cook their own ROM’s for this devices that get horrible manufacturer support.
Wish this Nokia had a back fingerprint button on this phone. Seems to be the best design for easy one hand unlocking. Don’t understand the devices that have this on the bottom front.
My bottom line for an phone of any price now is:
1. Unlockable bootloader.
2. Rootable & custom Rom’s.
3. 6″ Screen (Maybe 5.5″ will be enough, maybe)
4. Back fingerprint scanner/button.
5. Mid-High level camera.
Along of this will eventually be all down to how popular this device becomes, and if someone will be able to find a way to actually unlock it. I think historically this is how it usually went. Of course an OEM like Nokia could theoretically make this very simple, but probably won’t. The only, decent stuff I had that was as simple as a fastboot command to unlock it. Were all either Google, or nVIDIA stuff. Thinking of the Nexus 7, Nexus Pick, and the Shield TV.
That said flashing a hacked Bootloader onto a Samsung Device is also fairly simple. Although it ends up taking someone to actually build a working hack to do it.
Remember the Nokia X? That was an android phone (without google play) released shortly before Microsoft bought Nokia.