Nokia's comeback: Nokia smartphones to exclusively use Zeiss

[captain_to_fire]

Sources: Anandtech, CNET and HMD Global

Quote

MD Global and Zeiss on Thursday announced that they had signed an agreement under which upcoming Nokia-branded smartphones will use Zeiss-branded optics exclusively. The companies said that they would co-develop imaging capabilities of future handsets, but did not elaborate when to expect actual devices on the market.

 

The collaboration announcement between HMD and Zeiss has a number of layers, all of which seem to be significant. First off, Nokia’s future phones will use optics co-developed with a renowned designer of lenses. The important upshot here is that HMD is actually investing in the development of custom capabilities for its Nokia phones. Second, the two companies are talking about “advancing the quality of the total imaging experience”, involving optics, display quality, software, and services, but do not elaborate. From the announcement, it looks like HMD will put R&D efforts not only into optics but will design its own software enhancements to improve imaging capabilities beyond those offered by vanilla Android. A good news here is that certain future phones carrying the Nokia brand are not going to rely completely on off-the-shelf hardware, software, and reference designs. Third, HMD announced that imaging is one of the areas that it considers important for its future smartphones. Finally, Zeiss will be used on Nokia-branded devices exclusively, which means that future halo smartphones from Microsoft (if the company decides to launch them) will have to rely on other optics. (emphasis is mine)

Take that Microsoft for your refusal to shut down your smartphone hardware division.

Quote

It's not the first time Nokia and Zeiss have teamed up. They also worked together back in the noughts on the Nokia N series, which preceded the more recent Lumia line. In the Lumia series we saw some experimental technology from the two that resulted in the PureView brand, which was all about lossless images, and a phone that boasted a staggering 41 megapixels.

It's unlikely we'll see anything like that again from HMD. "The answer is not to emphasize one number when it comes to megapixels," said Rantala. Dual cameras, on the other hand, are "a very interesting idea," he said. "That will give new possibilities for a player like us to possibly explore new experiences."

My initial reaction to this was:

 

Not Windows Phone, not Windows Phone...

Sorting hat: better be Android!!!

 

Nokia really shot themselves in the foot when they decided to use Windows Phone instead of Android back in 2011 when they launched their Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7.5 (aka Mango update). But during those times, Windows Phone is slowly getting attention to devs but later Microsoft decided to screw the people who bought a Lumia 800 not to get the Windows Phone 8 update. But with WP8 and the Nokia Lumia 920, it changed how smartphone cameras should be done in my opinion by adding optical image stabilization and a back side illuminated CMOS sensor with f/2.0 aperture.

Then in 2013, Nokia launched the behemoth Nokia Lumia 1020 with 41 megapixels. Reviews for the camera are quite positive and personally I once lusted for this phone but it was crippled by slow SoC and an abysmal developer support in the Windows Store as well as carrier exclusivity to AT&T. The dual core Snapdragon S4 Pro is struggling with post processing the pictures. There are reports of auto white balance and it takes one second to wait just to shoot another picture so yay for more shutter lag and crappy shutter speed even with well-lit environments. And this warthog of a smartphone as one tech reviewer calls it, it didn't made so much dent to the WP market share. 

Meanwhile, some people in the Windows Phone subreddit are still hopeful that Nokia will still continue to make Windows Phones. I don't think so son.

*these people are hilarious sometimes, just look at the other threads at /r/windowsphone. c/o @Daring, thanks for introducing me to this.

 

I remember that my classmate's Nokia N93 taking good pictures back when I was high school whereas I have to live with my Nokia 6680. I don't think this will make Nokia dethrone the top Android OEM but I would love them to have a comeback. I guess one thing they can do is match good hardware with good software experience like timely software updates and no carrier crapware and no undercooked features that works only half the time and no Windows 10 Mobile for god's sake. Microsoft bought Nokia's hardware division and later tossed it to trash. From what I can remember, Skype is one of the very few successful Microsoft acquisitions when they bought it from Tony Bates. 

Edited July 7, 2017 by hey_yo_

[Guest]

Did not vote because there was no option "yes, period."

[WereCat]

I don't know, the market is so oversaturated with smart phones, Nokia will have a hard time.

[captain_to_fire]

2 minutes ago, WereCat said:

I don't know, the market is so oversaturated with smart phones, Nokia will have a hard time.

How I wish Nokia just picked Android back in 2011

[NvidiaIntelAMDLoveTriangle]

Nokia is pretty much dead at this point. They made two fatal mistakes

The first mistake was refusing to the a smartphone for years, and second one was the Microsoft deal/acquisition which lead to them finally deciding to make smartphones after watching everyone else around them succeed with smartphones, but due to Microsoft, Nokia used the worst mobile OS ever created and most likely that ever will be created, Windows Phone.

[Linus_torvalds]

One option is missing from your poll. 

"Yes if they ship a Sailfsih OS Phone version."

SFOS team are the same old nokias part. And the OS itself is improved Meego/maemo. It's modern phone OS. Linux distro, Which can fight for it's place with iOS and Android and beat them all.

[Trixanity]

12 minutes ago, mate_mate91 said:

One option is missing from your poll. 

"Yes if they ship a Sailfsih OS Phone version."

SFOS team are the same old nokias part. And the OS itself is improved Meego/maemo. It's modern phone OS. Linux distro, Which can fight for it's place with iOS and Android and beat them all.

Wishful thinking. That's like saying Linux will take off in consumer space. We've heard that tune for over a decade.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

We've heard that tune for over a decade.

Close to 2 decades?

[WMGroomAK]

Am I the only one wishing for a Leica lens on one of these smartphones?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

make the phone I want that no one else is willing to make; robust with high capacity removable battery.

+

Or... Look at the side of my ghetto case mod.

[arnavvr]

fix for dark theme users please

[dalekphalm]

The fact that they are running Android is not a selling feature to me. There are a hundred Android phones to choose from. They are going to have to make one hell of a phone to tempt users - many of which don't even remember the Nokia brand.

 

Also the people saying Nokia should have chosen Android in 2011? Maybe... but they were going bankrupt. They needed the money that Microsoft was offering. I didn't see any other company jumping in and wanting to give them hundreds of millions of dollars to keep afloat.

 

Microsoft certainly didn't do the best that we could have hoped - they made some mistakes, but also faced many challenges due to people blindly sticking to Android and iOS, and app devs simply not giving a shit. Windows Phone 7 was very interesting when it came out, and Windows Mobile in general has slowly been getting better. There are still many issues, and it's not there yet (perhaps never will be), but alas, we'll see.

 

But the fact remains, Nokia's phone business wouldn't be here to jump back on Android, had Microsoft not acquired them.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

There is no "if it beats chinaphones in price/performance option by the time mine breaks" option, so I can't vote  

 

I may start using a non-smart Nokia phone any day now, though.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Considering how they ruined the 3310's name by launching that cheap POS, I'm really not expecting anything remotely interesting from that company anymore. 

Nokia to me looks like a generic company that bought the rights to the Nokia name and trademarks and is now milking it for all it's worth. 

 

[PlayStation 2]

How many times has Nokia tried to relaunch themselves? I lost count.

[LAwLz]

I don't really care about which brand the phone is. What I care about is how good the phone is. If Nokia makes a phone that appeals to be more than all other brands then I'll get it. Zeiss lens is not really a selling point to me though. Zeiss will slap their name on a ton of stuff of varying quality. Hell, even my webcam has Zeiss written on it.

 

28 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Microsoft certainly didn't do the best that we could have hoped - they made some mistakes, but also faced many challenges due to people blindly sticking to Android and iOS, and app devs simply not giving a shit. Windows Phone 7 was very interesting when it came out, and Windows Mobile in general has slowly been getting better. There are still many issues, and it's not there yet (perhaps never will be), but alas, we'll see.

People didn't blindly stick to Android and iOS.

Windows Mobile used to be one of the biggest smartphone OSes out there. It was a around back when iOS and Android were still not that mature (hell, Android was not even out when Windows Mobile 6.1 was out).

Windows Phone was the dominant smartphone OS, but people jumped ship to iOS and Android.

 

Then, several years after iOS and Android was released, Microsoft shat out Windows Phone 7 which was half-baked at best. It lacked a ton of things Microsoft said they would add in future updates. People got excited and Windows Phone managed to grab a bit of market share despite being several years behind Android and iOS in terms of third party software (since it was a brand new platform).

But those updates came very, very late. iOS and Android were quickly getting better and better, getting update after update like clockwork. Windows Phone? Microsoft treated it like a side project and barely released any meaningful updates for it to address the major issues it had.

Then Microsoft once again promised to be serious with Windows Phone 8, and completely dropped support for all old handsets.

Then they promised again to take it seriously with Windows 10 Mobile.

 

People did not blindly stick with Android and iOS. People got sick and tired of Microsoft constantly being behind and not taking the platform seriously, so they jumped ship, and those who jumped back got burned.

 

Microsoft only has themselves to blame for the failures of Windows on smartphones. It was not the customers' faults. It is 100% Microsoft's.

 

I mean, just read Anandtech's review from 2010. A big part of it is about how good Windows Phone will be on future products and how Windows Phone 7 is a "good start". Too bad Microsoft never bothered to leave the starting line until iOS and Android were almost at the finish line.

[NinJake]

I could care less about nice cameras. But if the phone itself is good, sure. Not going to vote until other options are added.

[suicidalfranco]

°looks at old N95 and N81°

 

If Nokia makes a come back, i want them to be the real Never Settle manufacturer and release a phone that scream "YOU DONT HAVE TO SETTLE FOR JACK SHIT BUD!" and answers the following questions like this:

Removable battery? "You got it fam"

Expandable storage? "AHAHAH, i said you don't have to settle, of curse it's there!"

Long lasting battery? "hmm hmm bae"

Top performance? "just like last night  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)"

Luxurious design? "a man always needs he's swag"

 

That of go back to roots and be the company that dint stick to one form and wasn't afraid to experiment weird concepts and ideas (proud owner of a N95, N93, 9300, 7710, N-Gage, 3650 and last, but not least, 1100)

[Nowak]

So I guess this means the magical Surface Phone that'll change everything won't be able to get a Zeiss camera :3c

[mrchow19910319]

I remembered I used to have a lumia phone. 

 

And the OS is buttery smooth and it is a decent phone. 

The only thing I can't tolerate is the app store. 

[scottyseng]

6 hours ago, mate_mate91 said:

One option is missing from your poll. 

"Yes if they ship a Sailfsih OS Phone version."

SFOS team are the same old nokias part. And the OS itself is improved Meego/maemo. It's modern phone OS. Linux distro, Which can fight for it's place with iOS and Android and beat them all.

I still have my Nokia N9 and some days I find it better than my Lumia 950. I still to this day keep swiping from the top of the screen down because I think it'll close the app...I think Nokia might've had something with the N9. I actually had to go back to my N9 on several occasions because the battery on my Lumia 950 swelled / died...I had bought several "OEM" batteries from ebay, but still, for the original battery to die after 9 months, that's pretty bad.

 

I personally want to buy a Nokia Flagpship or mid-high range phone (something higher than the Nokia 6) and be happy with it (Android or Windows). I don't use my phone much aside from calls, text, What'sapp, Instagram, and Line, but I expect to work. I hardly use my phone much anyway so I've been scratching my head as to why the 950 battery went bad so fast for me. I also think Microsoft needs to release a new Windows phone ASAP...I mean my 950 / the 950 XL is still the flagship. Where's the surface phone?

[Nowak]

45 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

I personally want to buy a Nokia Flagpship or mid-high range phone (something higher than the Nokia 6) and be happy with it (Android or Windows).

I don't believe Nokia will be making Windows devices anymore  

[scottyseng]

1 minute ago, Daring said:

I don't believe Nokia will be making Windows devices anymore  

Very true. I'd be happy to get a Nokia Android flagship though. I just really want their build quality (The Nokia 6 build is amazing)

[Nowak]

Just now, scottyseng said:

Very true. I'd be happy to get a Nokia Android flagship though. I just really want their build quality (The Nokia 6 build is amazing)

tbh, me too, especially if they keep up their promise of fast software updates. I don't want to rely on just one brand (Google Pixel) for the "fast Android updates" dream. Well-built phone + good specs + fast updates =  

[VerticalDiscussions]

Nokia with stock android and timely updates, flagship class = Instant buy for many.

 

Personally, would be very, very interested in that too.