Nokia

Nokia might have been the king of the mobile market in the past, but its brand never saw the same success or ubiquity in the tablet market. All throughout its tumultuous recent history, there have only been four tablets under its name, including the pocket-size Nokia N800 and N810 "Internet Tablets." That unlucky history doesn't seem to have fazed HMD Global, which has licensed the name for mobile devices. In its coming October event, it might be unveiling not just a new mid-range phone but its first Nokia-branded tablet as well.

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There was a time when Google planned on putting Android on feature phones, sometimes called dumb phones to contrast with the more predominant smartphone breed. Lacking touch screens, Android would have needed to be driven using physical D-Pads and buttons as well as using voice commands. Google eventually settled for integrating Google Assistant into another operating system designed specifically for those very low-end phones. That arrangement seemed to have worked well for quite a number of those phones, including Nokia-branded ones, but Google Assistant is reportedly missing a few features now without any explanation or warning.

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Most smartphones today seem to be built to be replaced rather than repaired. While many boast strong water resistance and durable materials, accidents can still make short work of those expensive products. When it comes to repairing them, there are times when it might be easier to actually replace the device and restore from backup. Taking apart a regular phone for repairs can already be a daunting task, and it seems that the Nokia XR20 "life-proof" rugged phone lives up to its name in that regard, at least in some contexts.

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A new set of Nokia earbuds were released this week by the folks at HMD Global. This is the company that owns the Nokia brand, and the company that handles the rights to the name for products of all sorts. The Nokia brand earbuds revealed this week are relatively basic in their abilities - but they very likely out-perform their price points at between $30 and $70 USD.

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Android can be found almost anywhere, especially in unofficial ports and sometimes strange places. It's still primarily an operating designed for smartphones, particularly ones that have a minimum set of hardware capabilities to be considered "smart." There was a time, however, when it seemed that Google was working on bringing Android further down the mobile food chain, running on something that's considered a "feature phone" by today's standards. That never came to pass, but a new video shows what could have been had the Nokia 400 launched with Android for Feature Phones running inside.

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As it promised, HMD Global has just announced a phone that it says won't ever need a case. That's primarily because the Nokia XR20 is an honest-to-goodness rugged phone. Unlike similar phones from the likes of CAT, however, the mid-range phone won't make you feel awkward pulling it out of your pocket in public. The company, however, is going the extra mile and announcing other phones, including a modern take on the highly popular Nokia 6310 classic.

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Smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung tend to design attractive, thin, and lightweight devices that are also fragile. That means the vast majority of smartphone users take their beautiful and expensive phones and cram them inside cases and never look at the actual phone again until they are trading it in on a new model. Smartphone users around the world have wished that devices were rugged enough to live life without a case.

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The Nokia brand has survived the test of time and multiple generations of mobile devices, though it has had some help from HMD Global. The Finland-based company revived the Nokia name with dozens of smartphones and feature phones. Although it has quite a number of devices under its care, HMD still has to make a new Nokia flagship worthy to stand with other premium phones in the market today. That might still be coming later this year, but it's becoming a guessing game what that 5G phone will actually bring to the table.

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HMD Global has made great strides in reviving the Nokia brand in the Android world. Whether it's successful or not is still debatable but, so far, it has definitely played the part of a good Android maker, especially when it comes to its commitment to Android updates. Now there are whispers that its honeymoon phase with Android might be over and is courting another partner, one that would see an upcoming Nokia X60 and X60 Pro run Huawei's shiny new HarmonyOS instead.

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MediaTek may have overtaken Qualcomm as the biggest mobile chip vendor for a few quarters but its presence in the US is still comparatively small. Most of the phones that are sold in that prime market run on Qualcomm's myriad Snapdragon chipsets, but there have been some exceptions here and there. One such exception will be the Nokia G20 that will be coming to the US next week after journeying through Europe. Its MediaTek processor won't be its selling point, though, and buyers will most likely be more attracted to its price tag.

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Once upon a time, pre-releases of Android's next version were available only to a limited few. Of course, Google's own Nexus phones, later Pixels, had first dibs on any development version but some big names in the Android empire also boasted that preferential treatment. Almost like a testament to Android's more open development strategy, a number of manufacturers have all but simultaneously announced the availability of Android 12 beta for some of the phones, some companies you might not have expected to just that early into a development preview in the first place.

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HMD Global isn't just making Android phones with Nokia's name on them, it is also making feature phones with Nokia's name on them. The company has been reviving Nokia's most iconic handsets and nothing probably gets more iconic than the clamshell form-factor that is always depicted on TV and movies back in the days. That revival arrived with the Nokia 2720 Flip back in 2019 and that same phone is finally arriving in the US as the Nokia 2720 V Flip, courtesy of Verizon.

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