Can Nokia 3, 5, 6 survive competition from Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo devices?

HMD Global has released its feature mobile phone Nokia 3310 in India but it is yet to bring its much-awaited smartphones namely the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6. It is reported that the handsets will be launched in India in the first week of June.

The Finnish company has a huge fan base in India but it appears like it will face a stiff competition from Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo, Lenovo and OPPO, which have witnessed a reasonable growth in terms of sales in the first quarter of this year.

Also read: Most-awaited devices in second half of 2017: Nokia 9, iPhone 8, Galaxy Note 8, OnePlus 5

According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Q1 report ending March 2017, China-based vendors managed to get 51.4 percent share of smartphone shipments in India and 142.6 percent growth over the same period last year. Meanwhile, share of homegrown vendors dropped from 40.5 percent in Q1 2016 to 13.5 percent in the Q1 2017.

Samsung tops the list of smartphone companies in India with highest share at 28.1 percent, followed by Xiaomi with 14.2 percent, Vivo with 10.5 percent, and OPPO with 9.3 percent.

Now, the question is whether HMD Global's Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 will survive the competition from these Chinese brands that are known for budget and mid-range smartphones. Well, only time can tell this but what we know is that the new Nokia phones are impressive as far as specifications are concerned. On top of that, they are expected to be aggressively priced to attract price-conscious Indian consumers.  

For now, let's have a look at what these handsets have to offer:

Nokia 3: It is budget smartphone priced at €139 (around $147 / Rs 9824). It sports a 5.0-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a 720x1,280 pixels (294 ppi pixel density), powered by a Mediatek MT6737 processor, and runs Android 7.0 Nougat operating system. It also features a 2GB RAM, a 16GB internal memory (expandable up to 128GB via microSD card), an 8MP main camera with f/2.0 aperture, autofocus, LED flash and 1.12 µm pixel size, an 8MP front-snapper with f/2.0 aperture and autofocus, and a 2,650mAh battery.

Nokia 5: This mid-range smartphone comes with a price tag of €189 (around $200 / Rs 13,357). It has a 5.2-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 720x1,280 pixels (282 ppi pixel density), a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, an Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system, a 2GB RAM and a 16GB internal memory (expandable up to 128GB via microSD card). It also features has a 13MP main camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash, 1/3" sensor size and 1.12 µm pixel size, and an 8MP front-snapper with f/2.0 aperture and 1.12 µm pixel size, and a 3,000mAh battery.

Nokia 6: The device sports a 5.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 1,080x1,920 pixels (403 ppi pixel density), powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, and runs Android Nougat operating system. It has a 3/GB/4GB RAM, a 32GB/64GB internal memory (expandable up to 128GB via microSD card), a 16MP main camera with f/2.0 aperture, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash and 1.0 µm pixel size, an 8MP front-snapper with f/2.0 aperture and 1.12 µm pixel size, and a 3,000mAh battery fast battery charging technology.

The Generic version of Nokia 6 is priced at €229 (around $243 / Rs 16,183), and the Arte Black version is priced at €299 (around $317 / Rs 21,131).

[Correction: A previous version of the story said Nokia 3310 hasn't been released in India. The story has since been corrected]