HMD Global will support its first-gen Nokia phones for another year

XDA

HMD Global will continue to support its first-gen Nokia phones for another year

By Aamir Siddiqui

Published Aug 15, 2019

HMD Global is extending its promise of providing security patches to first-gen Nokia phones from two years, to a quarterly release in the third year.

Back in February 2017, HMD Global announced the re-entry of the Nokia brand with the international launch of the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 smartphones. This was followed up by the Nokia 8 in August 2017 and the Nokia 2 in October 2017. HMD Global executives mentioned in an interview that OEM skins on top of Android aren't the way it should be and that the customers deserve to have the latest security patches from Google as soon as they are made available. Nokia phones were also promised to receive two major updates and two years of regular security updates. By and large, HMD Global has delivered on the promise, providing timely patches and Android version upgrades across the Nokia device lineup. Now, the company is announcing its intention to surpass this promise, by providing an additional year of security patches.

The Nokia 8, Nokia 6, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3 will receive quarterly security patches right through to the end of their third year of launch, and these security patches will include the changes made in previous patches too, obviously. The switch over to a quarterly patch release timetable will begin from September 2019 until September 2020 for the Nokia 3, and from October 2019 until October 2020 for the Nokia 5, Nokia 6 and Nokia 8.

Nokia 8 XDA Forums | Nokia 6 XDA Forums | Nokia 5 XDA Forums | Nokia 3 XDA Forums

Unfortunately, for the Nokia 6 Amazon version in the USA and India, security patch support will conclude in October 2019. Similarly, for the low-end Nokia 2, security patch support will conclude in November 2019. Most OEMs do not bother being timely and regular for updates for their low-end devices, often even backtracking on their update promises; to Nokia's fair credit, they did keep their word right till the end, and the low-end phone just misses out on the additional new promise.

Alas, Nokia smartphones are not perfect. Mario appreciated the idea of a Nokia flagship with solid hardware and consistent stock Android updates back in 2017, but with the rider that these phones should also offer bootloader unlock options. Only certain Nokia smartphones can have their bootloader officially unlocked, and certain others can be unlocked through unofficial means. But as a blanket statement, one can conclude that HMD Global does not intend bootloader unlocking to be a standard feature, similar to Huawei and Honor smartphones.

Source: Nokia Community