Nokia brand licensee HMD Global is now the new home of Nokia phones | Hacker News Reader

Nokia brand licensee HMD Global is now the new home of Nokia phones

nokia.com

43 pointschang230113 comments

I recently got one of the [Nokia classic phones][1] and frankly, it's such a breath of fresh air. I know, I know, I'm being nostalgic and it can't possibly replace my iPhone but it does do several things much more efficiently.

I can load an SD card with lots of podcasts and music and have a player that'll last an entire week. If I have a new file, I can load it on via Bluetooth in the morning before I leave for work. Sure it's not that fast, but for just one 10-minute MP3 at 192 kbps, it's okay.

I have my work iPhone if I need 4G on the go, but when I want to disconnect a little, it's perfect!

Well done Nokia/Microsoft for keeping these phones alive. And for shipping them with Snake preinstalled ;)

[1]: http://www.nokia.com/en_int/phones/nokia-130-dual-sim "Nokia 130"

Do any of these support North American GSM bands? I remember looking through them last year some time, and every one I looked at only had 900/1800.

Not sure; I'm in Europe. But I've read on forums that some (all?) of these don't work with American frequencies.

Edit: Found it! [Manual][2] says "You can only use your device on the GSM 900, 1800 MHz networks."

[2]: "http://download-support.webapps.microsoft.com/ncss/PUBLIC/en...

  "Software release: Series 30+"

Erm... utter crap. Original S30/S40 was ok, but that mediatek crap is essentialy unusable.

I can't help thinking that this company thinks the Nokia brand still has way more pull and cachet than it actually does. I could be wrong, but I don't think slapping Nokia on an otherwise bog standard OEM Android device is likely to win over many hearts and minds.

Here's to hope it's not just the brand they're going to slap on and into it.

EDIT: looking it up, it seems like HMD Global has been formed as a result of buying back parts of Microsoft Mobile and employs veteran Nokia staff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMD_global). Looks that much more promising.

I hope they do have developer friendly phones. If anyone from Nokia/Android team is reading please tell your managers to release kernel source, allow unlock-bootloader. The ROM community needs a new OEM after lenovo/motorola's backsies.

LOTS more information here on the proposed models and specs:

Nokia WILL Return in 2017 With Two New Android Phones: Specs, Hardware & Release Date Rumours - http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-phones/nokia-c1/23369/n...

Also if you haven't yet already, you should really try their Z launcher for your apps. I switched a few months ago and have been really impressed with it: https://www.zlauncher.com/

I'm super stoked to see Nokia getting back in the game regardless of what platform they're going to be on.

I am curious about your experience with zlauncher. Does it work well for on the run and one handed use?

yeah it does.

The cool thing is that it does learn your usage patterns, so depending on the time of day, you'll see different apps in your launcher - so I rarely have to input letters and search for different apps. When I do have to do a search, the letter recognition is good enough where I can do it with one hand and I get what I'm looking for 95% of the time on the first try.

I have a OnePlus Two with a 5.5" screen which is pretty big, but I'm still able to use it one handed pretty easily.

Nice to see the icons from my N9 resurrecting: http://www.hmdglobal.com/about/

(kind of at least).

I've been using my Nokia 6310i for a few weeks now, after three broken Androids and one broken iPhone. I have no intention of getting another smart phone.

Please build a non-smart, monochrome, small screened, long battery life, 4G Nokia.

I would ditch my smartphone immediately if this dummy Nokia phones could run Viber for example.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com