New Nokia smartphones available in the UK on June 30th

When Nokia reformed its mobile handset division under the name HMD Global, and announced its Android-based Nokia 3, 5 and 6 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, it did not set a hard date on the release of its devices in local markets – except for China – leaving checking up regularly with distributors to find availability around the world.

In fact, the company has been amiss with providing any more information on when the phones will arrive in other markets, ever since the MWC event in late February. Despite the specs and pricing guidelines have been widely announced on the company website and the rumours continue to flourish on upcoming Nokia 8/9 high-end phones, the company has been notoriously quiet about delivery.

It has now come to light that Nokia distributors plan to stock up on the Nokia 3 and 5 in the UK by the end of June, the literal end of the quarter. Unfortunately there is no news of the release of the Nokia 6, which seems to have taken a back seat on deliveries. UK distributor Clove is already taking pre-orders for some models, and it seems that it will be sticking to the pricing structure proposed by the manufacturer, with a delivery date of June 30th.

In this new range of smartphones, HMD Global seems to have gone back to basics and drawn on a number of inspirations for its Nokia-branded smartphones introducing pure Android handsets, allegedly without bloatware, with a focus on handset design and robustness – the latter was the main reason for which Nokia phones became ubiquitous. A bit of Apple product design, with some Nexus no-nonsense approach, and a spattering of old Nokia goodness – that's what the phones are shaping up to be.

Nokia, which is probably one of the most iconic mobile phone brands to ever have faded into obscurity, severely mismanaged the transition from feature phone to smartphone, betting everything on the success of Symbian OS and later Windows Mobile. The company failed to make a mark against the rising tide of iOS and Android, and ended up selling its mobile phone division to Microsoft, during Stephen Elop's tenure (himself having just jumped ship from Microsoft), and after a semi-successful romp with Windows Mobile-based handsets.

The Nokia 3, 5 and 6 are low-to-mainstream products, but should sell in good volume and deliver the company's message, we gather. If you want to see them in action, you can head on to the HMD Global website for some candid photos and vids.

KitGuru Says: If you're an old brand-loyal fool trying to relive Nokia's glory days, the time may be at hand. The handsets are a world apart from the old brick-phones, but so far that aluminium unibody is looking sleek, provided Nokia delivers on the final product. Otherwise, it'll be another flash in the pan.

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