Nokia's first Android phones will continue receiving security updates for another year

By Babu Mohan
published

What you need to know

  • HMD Global has announced that its first Nokia-branded smartphones will receive quarterly security updates till the end of the third year.
  • The Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 6, and Nokia 8 were initially promised two years of regular security updates.
  • Sadly, the Nokia 6 variant sold by Amazon in the US and India will no longer receive security updates after October 2019.

HMD Global introduced its first Nokia-branded Android smartphones in February 2017. The initial lineup included the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 6. A few months later, the company announced its first flagship phone, the Nokia 8.

In its first year, the company promised that all four smartphones would receive regular security updates for up to two years. The company has now decided to surpass its pledge by promising (opens in new tab) an additional year of quarterly security updates for all four phones.

The Nokia 3 will be the company's first smartphone to start receiving quarterly security updates from September 2019 until September 2020. Nokia 5, Nokia 6, and Nokia 8 will begin receiving quarterly security patches from October 2019 until October 2020.

However, the Amazon version of the Nokia 6 that is sold in the U.S. and India will not be eligible to receive quarterly security updates after October 2019. HMD Global has also confirmed that security patch support for the Nokia 2 will conclude in November 2019.

Most Android OEMs deliver security updates to their devices only for up to two years, so the Finnish company certainly deserves credit for not just keeping its promise but also surpassing it. Nearly all Nokia-branded smartphones launched by HMD Global since last year are part of Google's Android One program, which guarantees major OS upgrades for two years and security updates for up to three years.

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Babu Mohan
Babu Mohan
News Writer
5 Comments
  • Well they have to try and differentiate themselves in some way.
  • Fantastic. Glad to hear it. That makes me even happier to have purchased their device and will certainly play part in my decision to upgrade to another Nokia when the time comes and stick with HMD Global for the long haul. Word to the wise though. If you do decide to go above and beyond the promised OS upgrades and security patch updates, don't abandon sections of your customers based on the variant of the device they purchased or the market they are in. Creating an unecessary backlash based on an unwanted bad customer experience is not good business practice. Other than that, except a few hiccups and issues here and there, so far the experience of having a Nokia handset once again, coupled with Android One, has been a good one. So HMD Global... don't foul it up!!!
  • They might want to start with my Nokia 3 that's stuck on 8.0 and security update Nov 2018 despite claiming it should have 9.0 already
  • Well say what you want about Nokia. The August security patch has already been delivered. Yep. Downloaded it and everything. It actually arrived about August 14 or 15th...but some people didn't even notice...😆😀 including myself...
  • For all HMD Global's faults and mistakes, the decisions they did get right was going with Android One, and focusing on updating their phones consistently, even phones that aren't on the Android One program are still being updated and especially in the mid-range segment that's pretty rare as those phones are usually abandoned by the likes of Motorola, Asus, Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei and loads more or users of those phones facing long wait timea for these updates and this is the main reason I bought my Nokia 8.1, for Android One and Nokia's fantastic track record with updates and I'm already on the September security update. But I sorry about HMD Global going forward as apart from the 7 Plus and 8.1, they haven't produced a good phone and with that said I'm going to get a Pixel 3a XL early next year but I will continue to buy Nokia phones as secondary phone and backup phones because of Nokia's proven track record with updates and Android One.