The Nokia 6. This is a pinkish version.

The Nokia 6. This is a pinkish version.

The bottom buttons are capacitive, with a home button/fingerprint button on the bottom.

The bottom buttons are capacitive, with a home button/fingerprint button on the bottom.

Notice that this is one clean, smooth swath of aluminum.

Notice that this is one clean, smooth swath of aluminum.

The bottom buttons are capacitive, with a home button/fingerprint button on the bottom.

Notice that this is one clean, smooth swath of aluminum.

Antenna lines are in the top and bottom, and that's a headphone jack on top.

There are power and volume buttons on the side.

Here's a silver version.

The software is stock Android. Here's the Google Assistant.

The app drawer.

Recent apps.

The Quick Settings panel.

The Settings.

The "about" screen. This phone is already on the March security patch.

BARCELONA, SPAIN—We’re at Mobile World Congress, where a ton of new smartphones are launching, but MWC is also serving as the debut of a brand-new Android OEM. That company is HMD, a new Finnish upstart that seems like it was purpose-built to undo thedamage Microsoft did to the Nokia smartphone brand. The company is made up ofa ton of old-guard Nokia employees and has licensed the Nokia brand for smartphones.

Unfortunately, HMD didn’t announce a high-end flagship smartphone at its MWC event. It did bring the Nokia 6, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3, which all start with a Snapdragon 430 and work their way down the spec totem pole from there. This is a brand-new OEM, though, so a look at the Nokia 6 will help us get to know HMD a bit better.

Even at this low end of the smartphone spectrum, HMD is doing wonders for phone build quality. The company is impressively using an aluminum unibody with a nice chamfer around the back perimeter. The Nokia 6 is a rock solid device that maybe feels a little light, but that is hardly worth complaining about at its price point, a mere €229 ($242).

For specs, we have a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, a Snapdragon 430, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 16MP rear camera, an 8MP front camera, and a 3000mAh battery. There’s also an SD card slot and dual speakers.

The device was previouslyannounced as an exclusive for China, but now HMD says it’s rolling the product out “globally” in Q2.

I’m a bit disappointed with the capacitive navigation buttons, given that seemingly everyone,even Samsung, is switching to onscreen buttons now. That decision does allow for a front fingerprint reader and home screen combo, however. There’s also a MicroUSB port on the bottom. It’s an older standard, but that seems to be one of the tradeoffs for this low price point.

The Nokia 6, 5, and 3 are all refreshingly loaded with stock Android. HMD has a customized camera app, and the “Download” and “Settings” icons have been changed, but other than that, this is pureAOSP.

The company is also saying all the right things when it comes to the software. HMD actually said the phrase “pure Google” during its press conference, also saying it wants to create a “pure, secure, and up-to-date” line of devices. The company is promising “monthly security updates across the entire portfolio,” and “fast updates.” We’ll have to see what “fast updates” really means, but the demo models were running Android 7.1.1 and the (not yet released) March security update. The phones will also all ship with the Google Assistant enabled out of the box.

In a world where nearly every manufacturer messes with Android and slacks off on updates, HMD’s software strategy instantly makes its entire lineup worth paying attention to.

The big takeaway from the HMD/Nokia collaboration? Everything sounds promising, as HMD is saying and doing all the right things—and I can’t wait to see what a high-end HMD device looks like. After thedeath of the Nexus line and Lenovomessing up Motorola, could HMD/Nokia be the standard-bearer for good, cheap, stock Android devices?