Nokia phones, including the Nokia Nokia 3310
Not just smartphones were produced by HMD Global when the Nokia-branded phone business was taken on. The Finnish company also capitalized on the powerful effect of nostalgia by remaking some of the old classic Nokia feature phones. The Nokia 3310 was the first of such classic phones to be resurrected.
The 2017 Nokia 3310 had very little in common with the original, which was released in 2000 and featured a fresh and contemporary design. It had a color display, a rear camera with a resolution of 2 megapixels, a slot for a MicroSD card, Bluetooth, an optional dual SIM, and a larger battery capacity to power all of these modern features. In 2018, HMD Global also released a 4G model that could connect to the internet and function as a portable hotspot. The Nokia 3310 did retain the alphanumeric keypad common to most feature phones and also came preloaded with a modern version of the classic Snake Xenzia game.
Nokia 8
HMD Global’s first flagship smartphone was the Nokia 8, which was released in 2011. Released in August 2017, the Nokia 8 hit market shelves with a Snapdragon 835 processor, the same chip that powered two of its biggest rivals, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Google Pixel 2. The Nokia 8 also had dual rear cameras with Zeiss optics, a front-mounted fingerprint scanner, a 3090 mAh battery, and support for 18 W fast charging. It also had a sharp 5.3-inch QHD+ LCD panel. The Nokia 8 had some pretty interesting features. OZO 3D Audio is one of them, and it lets users record high-quality video audio. “Dual Sight,” which enables users to simultaneously record a video or take a photo with both the front and rear cameras, is another noteworthy feature. The Nokia 8 was a good first attempt at an Android flagship, still, it faced tough competition from the Galaxy S8, and Pixel 2, and the OnePlus 5T.Nokia 9 PureView
On the one hand, the Nokia 9 PureView may as well be the pinnacle of HMD Global’s release and, on the other, the device that brought HMD Global’s flaws to light. Before its launch in March 2019, the Nokia 9 PureView was already receiving a lot of attention when rumors of its penta-camera system first surfaced.
It did launch with mixed results. It had five 12MP rear cameras, three of which were monochrome and two which were RGB sensors. It also had a sixth 3D ToF camera and a 20MP front-facing camera. There was no ultrawide angle camera nor did it have a telephoto camera. Additionally, it lacked optical image stabilization when recording 4K videos at 60 frames per second. Among the other issues that plagued the Nokia 9 PureView, a major one was its in-display fingerprint scanner which initially didn’t work well. Following an update that was supposed to fix it, it got worse and could be unlocked not only with unregistered fingerprints but unusual objects such as a packet of chewing gum. Additionally, the Nokia 9 PureView received inadequate software support. For a flagship phone that launched with Android 9 Pie, the Nokia 9 only received one OS upgrade (to Android 10).
