MWC 2017: Nokia outs refurbished 3310 plus three pure Android smartphones

We’ve all been hearing about the comeback of the bulgy-yet-sturdy Nokia 3310 in this year’s Mobile World Congress at Barcelona. It sure did, drawing flocks of curious and nostalgic people to the booth that dwarfed many of the previously stellar exhibits and announcements—including Samsung. There is more to the licensee HMD’s Nokia booth this year than the refurbished 17-year old phone, though. Enter the Nokia 3, 5, and 6.

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Nokia 6

A note before we go on: The Nokia 6 has already been released exclusively in China last January. It appears at the MWC, however, because of the global release, particularly particularly in India, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

The Nokia 6 veers away from the traditional Microsoft operating system and instead runs on pure Android 7.1.1 Nougat. This dual-SIM, fingerprint sensor-equipped unibody slab of aluminum features a 5.5-inch Full HD display wrapped in 2.5D Gorilla Glass. Under the hood, the Nokia 6 runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 paired with an internal storage of 32GB expandable up to 128GB via memory cards, up to 3GB RAM, and a 3000mAh non-removable battery. It also features 16-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front cameras.

For design enthusiasts, an Arte Black special edition model, reminiscent of the iPhone 7 Plus Jet Black color, is set to be available. The Arte Black model features a bump in the internal storage and memory—from 32GB to 64GB and 3GB to 4GB, respectively.

Nokia 5

A little step down from its bigger brother doesn’t mean that Nokia’s scrimped out on the specs for Nokia 5. This 5.2-inch HD smartphone runs also on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and features fingerprint sensor. The Nokia 5 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, 16GB built-in storage expandable up to 128GB, 2GB of RAM, and a 3,000mAh battery. For imaging, the Nokia 5 is equipped with a 13-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front cameras.

Nokia 3

Nokia continues the trickle to entry-level positioning with the Nokia 3, a smartphone equipped with 5-inch HD screen on a polycarbonate body with a metallic frame. Running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat, this phone has MediaTek 6737 chipset, 16GB storage expandable up to 128GB, 2GB of RAM, and a 2,650mAh battery. The Nokia 3 also has 8-megapixel rear and front cameras.

Nokia 3310

While pure Android operating systems on the Nokia 3, 5, and 6 plus the Arte Black edition of the biggest of the brood prove to be quite interesting for the struggling brand, the major takeaway was, of course, the 3310. This year’s version introduced major tweaks from the original look.

The Nokia 3310 (2017) now sports a curved 2.4-inch QVGA color display to aid better readability under sunlight. It also features new colors: the glossy Yellow and Red alongside the matte Dark Blue and Grey. While the keypad retains the feel and style, the new versions sports a four-way navigation key with a select button at the middle flanked by two big buttons that are further split in half—this alters the original 3310 functional keys layout.

There are a couple of changes inside as well: updated Nokia S30 OS, new UI that “echoes” the former style, flashlight, and support for microSD—after all, this new rendition has camera to take photos with and an headphone jack for your music fix!