What on earth happened to the Nokia X71?

SirFaceFone

The X71 was released for Taiwan and China back in April this year. It had pretty much the same specs as the 7.2 (same SoC, main camera, battery, etc. excluding the new circular layout on the back) but with a better punch hole camera and way slimmer bezels.

So what happened? I was under the impression it will be released globally eventually.as either the 7.2 or 8.2, but current leaks suggest that the 8.2 will have a popup camera, not a punch hole one. Was the X71 supposed to be the 7.2? Nokia anew recently claimed that the official 7.2 was supposed to be the 6.2 and the official 6.2 was the 5.2. I wonder if it will it be released globally as a plus version or maybe it's destined to be a China-exclusive device like the Nokia 7? Either way I'm disappointed that HMD is taking so damn long to react to market trends, that's for sure.

madbilly

Hi @SirFaceFone,

The X71 was probably the last Nokia phone made by FIH and released shortly after HMD went "multi-ODM". I think that FIH (through TNS) were strongly in charge of Nokia marketing and distribution in China and Taiwan so that is why the phone was only released in those markets (I don't know why not HK though), and HMD decided it didn't want to do anything further with FIH so didn't release it globally.

Which in my opinion is a big shame and a missed opportunity. I actually miss the design language that the FIH phones had and their construction was very solid, probably more confidence inspiring than HMD's phones from other ODMs (except the USB sockets!). Nowadays you can still find FIH's phones with Sharp branding, if you're interested (FIH own Sharp).

Cheers 🙂

SirFaceFone

https://community.phones.nokia.com/discussion/comment/172384#Comment_172384

Good points, but I think the ODM fiasco last year is more a result of FIH dropping them due to HMD bleeding money rather than the other way around though.

madbilly

Hi @SirFaceFone,

Well we'll never know the truth, but it's clear that it was a loss making business for FIH Mobile.

Cheers 🙂

singhnsk

https://community.phones.nokia.com/discussion/comment/172585#Comment_172585

And with the software and component quality chosen by FIH Mobile, it also wasn't of much profit for HMD and TNS (for after sales) either.

I believe the new devices are demanding a lesser after sales and are also seeing a lower ratio of customer returns as compared to what happened during the time FIH had the most control.

madbilly

Hi @singhnsk,

You're probably right, but if HMD continue to ship lowsy software updates I think more people will return their phones saying that it's not working properly and that will add to costs again.

Cheers 🙂

singhnsk

Hi @madbilly that's indeed right. They are just lucky that we in India cannot just return our phones to the retailer and we need to find a way with the manufacturer for a fix. Else they'd have already left India given the scale of their SW and HW issues 😂