HMD Global acquired exclusive licensing rights to produce phones and tablets with the Nokia name badge. As we near the end of the 10-year exclusivity of the licensing deal, let’s review HMD Global's progess in the consumer electrics space. How it started; and how it’s going.
It started with a bang! In 2017, Nokia released the 3, 5, 6, and 8. Those early releases were impressively well-built. In fact, there is a video on userupdate about the Nokia 6 in 2023 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JIxKHknYdE). Check out that video and see how well-built the Nokia 6 is.
By 2018, some of HMD Global’s issues and sore points began to emerge. Several of these were covered in an earlier blog post here on userupdate. Read an excerpt below.
“Where does one even begin? HMD Global ushered in the revival of the Nokia brand and it hasn’t been going so well for HMD Global or the customers trying to get their hands on these new Nokia phones. Nokia customers have been plagued with a host of issues..."
These issues include but are not limited to:
1. Janky USB-C ports, that are doomed to fail within weeks or months, are present on almost every Nokia model.
2. Just about everything about the “flagship” Nokia 9 Pureview, like the unusable in-display fingerprint reader, for example.
3. Promised but undelivered camera app updates
4. Later-than-expected delivery of Android system updates
5. Late security patches, and
6. Questionable VFM (value for money) due to middling specs for the price.
Let’s review some of those points which were written a few years ago. Touching on point 1: It’s not clear whether or not the faulty USB port issues have been solved yet. What is clear is that it definitely affects Nokia’s 2018 and 2019 phones. Reports of this manufacturing flaw seem to have subsided in regards to the newer phones released since 2020, but so have Nokia device sales. Take what you will from that correlation.
Point 2: Nokia 9 Pureview, will forever have its legacy as a deeply flawed phone. At the same time, it also has a legacy as being Nokia’s most ambitious and premium flagship phone to date. It’s a love-hate kind of thing. Truly the best thing HMD Global has ever made. Yet the fingerprint sensor is still bad and was never fixed via updates as promised. The phone never got its final OS update to Android 11 as promised through the AndroidOne program. The stock camera software still hangs and freezes without any update to fix it. In the end, the phone was abandoned and outmoded by HMD Global, and all they could do was offer customers a discount if they buy a Nokia XR20. The story of the Nokia 9 Pureview is a rather sad one.
Point 3: It’s unclear whether or not HMD Global has improved the camera app. However, based on the Google Play review score and some of the comments that are left by the app’s users, it ain’t looking too good. See the app on Play Store: (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hmdglobal.camera2&hl=en&gl=US).
Point 4 & 5: Time after time, Nokia has fumbled over its monthly update schedule. No other example of this is bigger than the saga of the Nokia 5.3. The 5.3 is still on Android 11. It’s not that HMD Global hasn’t tried. They did. They pushed an update to Android 12 for the 5.3 in the fall of 2022, and then a month later they pushed a November security patch update to Nokia 5.3 owners, which resulted in widespread reports of bricked phones. See the leading bug report on Nokia’s community here: (https://community.phones.nokia.com/discussion/66312/warning-do-not-factory-reset-nokia-5-3-bricked-phone) The debacle was so bad that Nokia paused all updates to Android 12 for the 5.3, so if a 5.3 owner was fortunate enough to not update their phone, they were stuck on the last stable version of Android 11. This issue is still unresolved as of January 2023, and Android 13 was already released months ago. For phones on the AndroidOne program, this is honestly disappointing.
Point 6: HMD Global, still hasn’t improved on the value-for-money front. For example, the recently released Nokia X30 costs roughly 450 to 500 Euros. It begs the question: Is HMD Global even aware of what competing brands are offering for 500 Euros? At this price, for the money they are asking for, just get a Samsung A52s 5G, Samsung A53, Samsung A53 5G, Google Pixel 6a, or the Nothing Phone 1 instead, or any of the following smartphones. There are too many phones in the midrange segment offering better value for money.
All in all, customers are still furious with HMD Global. Nokia forums are full of comments with owners proclaiming they will never buy a Nokia phone again. I still wouldn't go as far as to tell userupdate readers to avoid HMD Global Nokia phones. Personally, it would be really nice to see HMD Global succeed with Nokia. However, I would advise shoppers to be extremely cautious when buying a Nokia Phone released after 2018, because these phones have a bad reputation in terms of build quality, reliability, and longevity. Nobody should buy dud products.
If you need recommendations, here’s a big tip: never buy an HMD Global Nokia phone at full price, MSRP. Straight from launch, these devices are often grossly overpriced. My advice: wait a few months for a price decrease, wait for a sale, buy refurbished, or buy used. 2017 devices like the 2017 Nokia 6 and Nokia 8 can be easily recommended. The Nokia 8 Sirocco also gets a solid recommendation, if you can find one. They are extremely rare devices.
The Nokia 7 Plus and the Nokia 8.1 can also be recommended, but many of those devices have been plagued with faulty USB Type-C port manufacturing defects, so shop with caution. The 9 Pureview gets a recommendation solely because it is the most powerful phone HMD Global has produced to date, but like the other 2018 Nokia phones, it is also plagued by faulty USB ports. It’s a lottery, maybe you get a faulty port, maybe not, but the odds are not favorable. The 2020 Nokia 5.4 and 8.3 5G also look good, but they are unfortunately too costly for what they are. If you are looking, you can find all of the aforementioned models for sale on Ebay or AliExpress
HMD Global is still trying to find its footing. To be fair, the new 2022 Nokia X30 looks like a very good effort from HMD Global that we haven’t seen in a while, but HMD Global still misses the mark in terms of competitive pricing. The X30 suffers from the aforementioned Point 6 big time. It has questionable value for money due to middling specs for the price. Nokia has had many missteps in the last 7 years. HMD Global is running out of time to turn the company’s fate around, and the outlook for such a happy outcome is rapidly vanishing as the 10-year exclusivity deal reaches its end.
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