Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 Android phones launched in India, prices start at Rs 9,499

NOKIA

HMD Global launched the Nokia 3, the Nokia 5 and the Nokia 6 Android-based smartphones in India on Tuesday. While the top-end Nokia 6 has been launched in India at a price of Rs 14,999 the Nokia 5 and the Nokia 3 will cost buyers Rs 12,899 and Rs 9,499 respectively. The Nokia 3 and 5 will all be available in offline stores and to sell these phones HMD Global has tied up with 400 exclusive distributors across the country. The Nokia 6 will be available online only through Amazon India.

The Nokia 6 will be available for registration from July 14, the Nokia 5 from July 7 and the Nokia 3 will be available from June 16. In other words, the Nokia 3 is the phone that will be going on sale in India ahead of the other Nokia phones. The Nokia 6 and the Nokia 5 are coming only in July. In the market, the Nokia 3 will compete with a number of phones from Samsung and Lenovo, and in certain places, where Xiaomi has started selling phones in offline stores, with the Redmi phones. 

Nokia and pure Android     

Although in terms of specifications the Nokia phones look competent they don't exactly blow away the other phones in the market the way a Xiaomi phone does. Instead, Nokia is relying on the overall experience to woo buyers in India. And that overall experience is something that the company is hoping to offer with three elements: design, the brand appeal and pure Android.

Of the three, the pure Android part is the most exciting because this is something that other phones except the Motorola phones don't offer. Most of the Xiaomi phones still use Android Marshmallow and by using clean and pure Android Nougat aka Android 7.1 in its phones Nokia is hoping to offer to consumers something that will make their smartphone experience better. At the same time, Nokia is also hoping that its design expertise will help it create phones that look different and unique in a market where almost every phones looks similar to the next one.

Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 specifications

The Nokia 6 is an all-metal smartphone carved out of 6000 series aluminum with chamfered edges and curved 2.5D Gorilla glass on the front. It has a physical home button on the front that also houses a fingerprint scanner, and is flanked by touch-based capacitive keys which are backlit. The power button and the volume rocker lie on the right, while the SIM card slot rests on the left. It comes with a standard Micro USB 2.0 port (and no USB C-Type) and also supports USB OTG. This is the top-end Nokia phone right now although rumours of a very high-end Nokia 9 and Nokia 8 have also come in the recent weeks. But those phones will also come with a much higher-price tags.