This is what HMD needs to fix most with Nokia smartphones

The Nokia brand has changed hands a few times in recent history, but HMD Global has been at the helm for the last half-decade. In that time, we’ve seen the brand hit highs and lows. The Nokia 9 PureView, for instance, was probably the company’s most anticipated device before it launched in early 2019 but has become the center of controversy for the firm this month. HMD confirmed the phone would not be upgraded to Android 11 as initially planned.

This also made us wonder what our readers think HMD needs to improve Nokia devices. To this end, we published a new poll asking for our audience’s opinion. The results are now in.

See also: Five years on, HMD Global’s handling of Nokia is a tale of squandered potential

What does HMD need to address most with its Nokia smartphones?

Results

Nearly 6,700 readers voted on this poll after it dropped on December 3. Five options were available, but one stood out head and shoulders above the rest. More than a quarter (27.3%) of respondents believe “software updates” are HMD’s most significant issue with Nokia smartphones. As the most current issue, it makes sense that this tops the list of issues. But it was also initially one of HMD’s strong points.

Not too far behind, with 21.6% of the vote, is Nokia’s “lack of flagships.” Coming in third is “pricing,” with 18.4% of the support. “Design and build quality” and “camera quality/features” received a combined quarter of the vote (25.6%).

Surprisingly, many readers feel that HMD has more pressing concerns than those listed as fixed options. More than 7% of respondents effectively added their gripes in the comments. Peruse some of them below.

Your comments

• Kano: Just make the damn phones cheaper. Simple as that.
• Seela: No average consumer would consider a Nokia. There are so much better options at the same price point. That’s how bad it is.
• RedRailgun: The lack of meaningful hardware updates like processor and memory/storage combo. Most of their entry-level and mid-range phones are lackluster, using SD 400-series on every iteration of their phones. The HD+ displays are so outdated and looked blurry on bigger screens.
• Kuduthoist: They should improve everything. I had a 7.2 and it’s a smartphone designed for bugs. Design is pretty cool tho. It did not worked as a smartphone for me. Put the smart part apart even the phone part didn’t even worked well. Airplane mode turns on automatically every time I want to make a call when the phone’s ringing answer button doesn’t appear sometimes… I think Nokia users can write books explaining what’s wrong with their phones. Terrible job done by HMD Global.
• Thalapathy Thalapathy: They must get competitive with other brands on all fronts and also try to maintain an aggressive price to performance ratio. This would be a real deal as Nokia, Asus and Motorola are the only stock options available for most people around the world. And an aggressive price will bring back Nokia to the playing field.
• SubX: Umm.. they need to fix everything. These phones are rubbish. From poor build quality to design and software, everything is sub-par.
  Never a decent flagship phone and even then, with the crazy specs of all their phones, they would most likely be underwhelming too.
• DBS: As much as this will annoy the writers and some readers of tech blogs, none of those things is the main culprit of HMD’s failure. The biggest reason people have stopped buying HMD phones after the first wave is this: “pure Android”. The market is very clear. Consumers do not like stock Android. Not a single phone running stock Android was ever a success. Even Google knows this or they wouldn’t have the “Pixel Experience” skin for their own failed iPixels. Old time users of Nokia phones expect more from the software. And the reality is stock Android can do LESS than bloody SYMBIAN! Not even Windows Phone. Symbian. If HMD wants to even try to get back consumer interest they need to do what literally everyone else did: ditch Android One and invest in their own Android skin.

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for your votes and comments. Be sure to drop a comment below if you have more to say about the poll or HMD’s Nokia tenure.