Nokia smartphones back in New Zealand - Nokia 8, Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6

Forums › Android › Nokia smartphones back in New Zealand - Nokia 8, Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6

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24 posts

Geek

# 1892794 30-Oct-2017 19:08

The question was posed earlier in this thread, but apparently unanswered so far.

Are o/s or security updates for these Spark-sold Nokias controlled by Spark, or directly from Nokia, or from Google?

Therefore if used on a different network than Spark, would the device ever receive updates?

Oubadah

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Ultimate Geek

# 1892796 30-Oct-2017 19:11

NedLudd:

The question was posed earlier in this thread, but apparently unanswered so far.

Are o/s or security updates for these Spark-sold Nokias controlled by Spark, or directly from Nokia, or from Google?

Therefore if used on a different network than Spark, would the device ever receive updates?

I was on no network when I set up the phone, and it immediately saw and let me install the October 1st Android update. Now I'm on Vodafone, so if that makes any difference I guess I'll see soon.

I don't think Spark controls the updates. EDIT you said "Spark-sold" but I think this is the same. It had a Spark sticker on the box, and Noel Leeming's stock arrived on the same day as Spark's.

PS. Thanks, Android, for not having Apple's moronic "must have SIM inserted to set up the phone" requirement.

Interestingly there was no English: New Zealand language option, just US, UK and Aus.

paulspain

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# 1892827 30-Oct-2017 21:19

Nokia told me the updates are NOT controlled by Spark.

Paul Spain
Founder: Gorilla Technology, NZ Tech Podcast, Cloud Labs, UFB.org.nz

freitasm

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# 1892829 30-Oct-2017 21:22

@paulspain: Nokia told me the updates are NOT controlled by Spark.

Interesting because this is what I got from them: "We guarantee timely monthly updates and work closely with operator partners to ensure a seamless delivery."

They didn't deny operator involvement. I understand it may not be delivered by an operator but it may need to be approved - which is how other OEM work anyway.

Oubadah

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Ultimate Geek

# 1892832 30-Oct-2017 21:38

I'm seeing weird inertial scrolling behaviour in Chrome. If I swipe above a certain speed the momentum isn't carried. I don't see this on the One M7 with the same version of Chrome. The scrolling works normally in the Settings app etc. on the Nokia, it's just Chrome that's behaving weird. Any ideas? This isn't some kind of "feature" in recent versions of Android, is it?

NikT

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# 1893238 31-Oct-2017 16:42

freitasm:

@paulspain: Nokia told me the updates are NOT controlled by Spark.

Interesting because this is what I got from them: "We guarantee timely monthly updates and work closely with operator partners to ensure a seamless delivery."

They didn't deny operator involvement. I understand it may not be delivered by an operator but it may need to be approved - which is how other OEM work anyway.

This is always an interesting debate since different parties use the same words to mean different things.

The US process is the one most commonly reported by the tech media. There, the telcos operate their own OTA servers, and deploy OTA updates when they feel like it/their comparatively arduous processes have been satisfied. This can take a long time, e.g. the criticial September security patch with the Blueborne fix was just rolled to several key Samsung flagships on Verizon today, at the end of October.

Meanwhile, here in NZ (and most of the rest of the world), the manufacturers operate their own OTA servers and deploy OTA updates at their own schedule. For devices which pass regulatory telco certification, i.e. the vast majority of phones sold in NZ, this occurs after ~1 week of compliance testing per OTA to make sure the phone can still do the basic essentials like calling, texting, civil defence cell broadcasts, making emergency calls, and generally checking that nothing is woefully broken.

So Nokia's updates are not 'controlled' by Spark, but they will be signed off before deployment. Incidentally Apple goes through this process too despite a widespread belief that they don't.

Product Manager @ PB Tech

https://pbtech.co.nz/smartphones

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# 1895185 4-Nov-2017 12:17

For those wanting to test Android Oreo, Nokia has launched the Beta Labs.

Oubadah

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Ultimate Geek

# 1895188 4-Nov-2017 12:26

My Nokia 6 is automatically turning on and off bluetooth for no apparent reason. Also, it turns out that I'm not the only one with that Chrome scrolling issue. The wait for for patches begins.

I'm returning my unit because of the ports. They're worse than I had initially thought. As I mentioned, the Micro-USB port is misaligned, and the hooks on the plug were cutting through the plastic rim at an alarming rate. The headphone jack is nasty. Rough insertion, and then metal-biting-metal feeling on removal. It's tearing up the nickel plating on the end of the plug. Jesus Christ Nokia, you were so close. Beautiful, perfect construction ruined because you cheaped out on the ports.

One more thing that cheapens the phone just a little bit is the fact that you can see the backlight through the SIM ejection hole and around the side buttons.

1eStar

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# 1895254 4-Nov-2017 16:02

I hope you realize these aren't actually Nokia phones. They're just labelled as such. Buying a brand name and sticking it on yourself doesn't change your DNA. You would have hoped they had applied some Scandinavian engineering to their product, but alas this doesn't seem to have occurred.

Oubadah

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Ultimate Geek

# 1895255 4-Nov-2017 16:15

I got a replacement phone, and exactly what I feared would happen has happened. I traded faulty ports for screen defects, only it's not backlight/uniformity issues but rather a shocking number of bright pixels (~8).

My 14 days no questions return period is up now (pretty sure it doesn't get reset after a replacement), and I don't think I can be bothered trying to point out tiny pixels to oblivious Noel Leeming employees under bright fluorescent lighting. Any return now is going to mean a manhandled refurb.

That's it for Nokia and me I think. Yet another device with great potential ruined by non-existent quality control.

gzt

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# 1895309 4-Nov-2017 19:32

1eStar: I hope you realize these aren't actually Nokia phones. They're just labelled as such. Buying a brand name and sticking it on yourself doesn't change your DNA. You would have hoped they had applied some Scandinavian engineering to their product, but alas this doesn't seem to have occurred.

They have many Nokia people, with manufacturing outsourced to foxconn. Does contain some Nokia dna: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMD_Global. Imo it's a reasonable package at that price point in the market. The monthly updates at that price point for instance.

Being a less important market I sometimes think we get a few leftovers from earlier instead of the later manufacturing runs. I have no knowledge of production runs for any product and my comment is not directed at Nokia. Pure speculation on my part.

Any clues to the manufacturing date on the one just received?

Oubadah

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Ultimate Geek

# 1900964 14-Nov-2017 20:22

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gzt: I can't see any numbers that look like DOMs on the boxes of my units.

Follow up on the updates discussion: It's now half way through November, and my units are still on the October 1st Android update. Not sure what to expect though. For all I know, that October 1st Android update could have arrived on the 29th of October. Seems a bit late though.

General update: I'm giving up on the Nokia 6 for a few reasons, the primary one being HMD Global's poor QC.

Quality Control Issues:

- Jacks: I've had 3 units so far, two with misaligned USB ports. The headphone jack on the first unit was defective but even the "good" headphone jacks on the other two units were iffy. So for that particular part it goes beyond QC; it's just a cheap, crappy part.

- Pixel Defects: The one unit that had a properly aligned USB port had an unreasonable number of bright pixels, but most people probably wouldn't notice.

- Leaky Backlight (minor): On two of the units there were specks of backlight visible in 1-2 positions in the black area around the screen. Although there were no backlight issues (bleed, clouding) within the actual screen area of any unit, they could really do with fixing the general leakiness of the backlight. I don't know why it should be visible around the screen or through the sides of the phone as I mentioned before.

- Factory Manhandling (minor): The shell of my last unit has several small scuffs on the beveled edge around the screen.

Software Niggles:

- Broken inertial scrolling in Chrome (Not present in older versions so will probably be fixed, although even when it was working it still felt "off").

- Bluetooth turning itself on and off.

And then I discovered that Google's doze fetish has resulted in gimped notification capabilities in Android 7, so that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I shall stick with my iPhone for the time being.

I'm depressed by this because I liked the phone. Design (aesthetics) wise, it was as near to perfection as any phone I've ever seen (I don't like rounded edges, odd-shaped screens etc.)

Oubadah

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Ultimate Geek

# 1904248 19-Nov-2017 22:37

NedLudd:

The question was posed earlier in this thread, but apparently unanswered so far.

Are o/s or security updates for these Spark-sold Nokias controlled by Spark, or directly from Nokia, or from Google?

Therefore if used on a different network than Spark, would the device ever receive updates?

My Nokia 6 had the 6 November 2017 update available when i checked* today. I hadn't checked in the last few days, so it could have arrived before that (it has a Vodafone SIM in it BTW). The global TA-1003 apparently received it on the 11th: https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6_global_version_gets_november_security_patch-news-28209.php (ours is the TA-1033)

*The first time triggered Check for Update it didn't see anything, but I checked again and the update appeared

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# 1904249 19-Nov-2017 22:39

Android updates are dependent on model, not the SIM card in use.

qwerty123

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Master Geek

# 1906523 23-Nov-2017 15:45

freitasm: Android updates are dependent on model, not the SIM card in use.

I believe it depends on the both, model/region and carrier. I bought TA-1025 model from Amazon which is for Americas region and was not getting any updates with neither Vodafone nor Spark SIM, just stuck on June security patch. So I chatted with Nokia support guys and they told me OTA updates require carrier authorization to be pushed onto the phone, contact your carrier support, etc. So I tried to do factory reset and init the phone without SIM card installed, that helped to upgrade to August security patch level, but no further.

Recently I managed to upgrade my TA-1025 manually from SD card by downloading OTA update zip files one by one. In order to get download links I intercepted OTA requests with MITM proxy, forged & replayed them. I changed carrier's MCCMNC from Vodafone to another one (tried a couple of different carriers until got the links when used O2 Germany MCCMNC).

My guess is OTA servers check whether carrier has authorized an OTA update for specific model. If no carrier's MCCMNC passed, i.e. no SIM inserted, then OTA servers assume some "generic" carrier for the phone's region.

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