Nokia's back, baby!

Alright kids, sit down, and let me tell you a story.
Back in my day (hell, even before that), Nokia was the god of the phone market. No one made better phones than them. They were, accessible, easy to use, and in some cases, unique and creative as heck. They ran the operating system known as Symbian. It was so user-friendly, people still use their devices today (mainly lads who don't want to switch to a smartphone).
But in 2011, Microsoft got in a partnership with Nokia that almost meant the end of them (they, of course, didn't know that at the time). They had to start making phones running exclusively Windows Phone. Their sales deteriorated. Windows Phone, while not a bad OS per se, was very limited and quite bad compared to the competition (Android and iOS). For many years, Nokia was regarded as the company that was great back in the day, but was going away.
UNTIL NOW.
In 2014, Nokia sold its mobile and devices division to Microsoft and stopped this madness. In 2016, former Nokia executive Jean-Francois Baril founded HMD Global, and entered into a partnership with Nokia to start making Android phones. And not just any Android, they are all running stock Android! They've decided not to bloat their devices and make the OS into an ugly mess, like most other OEMs. They chose to provide a clean and up-to-date version of Android, running on great devices, ranging from cheap ones running Android GO to high-end phones.
And that's not all! When they stopped making feature phones, a lot of other companies tried to take over, but I have yet to see a single phone that matches Nokia's quality. I felt bad about not being able to buy Nokia feature phones at most places anymore, because they are great for a secondary phone or for elderly people. As a matter of fact, my grandma's old phone (a Nokia 3310) stopped working, and we had to get her an Alcatel phone that she still doesn't like. But Nokia started making feature phones again, too! So far, they've released two, and grandma was very happy to hear these news.

TL;DR: Nokia started making good phones again. Both feature phones and smartphones. The smartphones run stock Android.
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I had a Nokia 3250 back in the day. It was a beast. It even had a semi working GBA emulator on it, on which I finished metroid zero mission. People to this day don't believe me I've done it.
 
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I still use my Nokia XpressMusic 5130 sometimes. A couple years back, I was playing Pokémon Silver on it, and heard some 8 year-olds think I was holding a calculator.
 
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Oh, and I haven't even said the best part about their new feature phones. Google is supporting them with apps like Google Assistant.
Google Assistant on a feature phone, that is amazing.
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They're finally doing things right again.
Still, you can't beat Pixel/Nexus devices when it comes to stock Android. No OEM has the same level of support and updates.
 
@The Real Jdbye True, but Nokia devices are a great alternative to Pixels, because they are cheaper and well-known.
 
Not trying to be mean or anything but this isn't new.
Microsoft already had announced years ago that they would be killing Windows Phone and focus more on Android.
That and I've been seeing Nokia phones with Android for about a year and a half, brand new on shelves.
 
Yepi69 said:
Not trying to be mean or anything but this isn't new.
Microsoft already had announced years ago that they would be killing Windows Phone and focus more on Android.
That and I've been seeing Nokia phones with Android for about a year and a half, brand new on shelves.
I'm not saying it's new. I've even mentioned it all started in 2016 with HMD Global. I was going to make this blog post for a good while now, but I wanted to wait with it until it's visible that they are succeeding with their plan.
 
>locked bootloader
No thanks, I would be into them if they allowed for bootloader unlocking, I want my custom ROMs, damnit.
 
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Because they will stop updating it some day, furthermore, I might need some feature that needs root (which requires an unlockable bootloader in most cases) or some setup that requires a custom ROM (No GApps, Privacy Guard, themeing, etc.)
 
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AFAIK the only thing they have to release is the kernel sources, since it is GPLv2. Bootloader is often closed source magic that relies on stuff like ARM TrustZone.
 
Is it? Besides the graphical interface, I never saw any unique feature than fastboot lacks.
 
What Nokia needs to do now is to get back to designing some funky looking phones.
They can just use Android as their OS, and they're more than capable of using superb cameras.
Just optimize and support the software in the long run.
They really have a lot of fun-looking phones back in the day.
I bet Apple would be jealous if Nokia can first come up with a futuristic phone.
 
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At its core, Odin is just a layer of customization over fastboot, as well as the less powerful among the duo. For instance, there's no way to replicate "fastboot boot recovery.img" with Samsung's tool; either you flash a recovery, or you don't. The rebooting capabilities of Odin are inferior as well: you can only reboot to the Android OS, and need to interact via the volume button, should you wish to boot e.g. in Download mode.

Ultimately, though, the executable commands depend on what the bootloader itself acknowledges, and this holds for both fastboot and Odin.
 
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