Nokia’s Android comeback in the UK is finally happening, but on this evidence, it’s arriving with the handbrake on.
The Nokia 3 and Nokia 5 are now up for pre-order in the UK with aggressive pricing, clean Android Nougat, and classic Nokia branding. On paper, that sounds like a solid start. Look closer, though, and both devices feel like they’re playing it far too safe for 2017.
Pricing and Availability: Competitive, But Confusing
Let’s start with the basics. The Nokia 3 will officially go on sale in the UK on July 12 for £129.99. The Nokia 5 follows a week later on July 19 for £179.99.
Both phones are already up for pre-order on Amazon. The Nokia 3 comes in blue or white, while the Nokia 5 is offered in black, blue, or silver. That’s a decent, if not exactly bold, colour lineup.
Then there’s Clove. The same devices are listed there, but at higher prices: £149.99 for the Nokia 3 and £189.99 for the Nokia 5. Paying £20–£10 more for what’s effectively the same hardware and same launch window is a tough sell, especially in a part of the market where every tenner matters.
So yes, the sub-£130 and sub-£180 Amazon pricing is sensible. But the split between retailers and the lack of any clear reason for the premium on Clove just creates friction for people who are already shopping in a crowded budget Android aisle.
Nokia 3: Ultra-Basic Android for the Patient User
The Nokia 3 is the cheapest and weakest of the trio, and the spec sheet shows it. You’re looking at a 5-inch HD display, a MediaTek 6737 chipset, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of internal storage.
Storage is at least expandable via microSD, which is basically mandatory here given 16 GB disappears fast once you’ve installed a handful of apps and cached some media. The battery is a 2,650 mAh unit, which should be acceptable for a 5-inch 720p panel, assuming the software isn’t bloated.
Both the front and rear cameras are 8 MP. That screams “bare minimum” rather than anything remotely ambitious, but it is at least consistent. And the phone runs Android Nougat, which gives it a modern software baseline instead of the ancient builds some low-end phones still ship with.
The problem is that in 2017, the MediaTek 6737 with 2 GB of RAM feels like an exercise in user patience. This is the kind of setup that’s fine for messaging, light browsing, and emails, but will start to choke if you layer on social apps, media-heavy sites, or games. For £129.99, that might be acceptable for people just wanting a basic device. Still, for a brand trying to re-establish itself, this is hardly a statement of intent.
Nokia 5: Slightly Better, Still Playing It Safe
If you want something with a bit more headroom, Nokia’s pitch is the Nokia 5. It bumps the display up slightly to 5.2 inches, still at HD resolution, and swaps in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 430 processor.
You still only get 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage. That’s the same RAM and storage configuration as the Nokia 3, just paired with a more familiar and generally better-supported Qualcomm chipset. The battery grows to 3,000 mAh, which, combined with HD resolution, should help with endurance.
Camera-wise, the Nokia 5 steps up to a 13 MP primary shooter on the back, with an 8 MP selfie camera on the front. On paper, that puts it above the Nokia 3 for photography, but again, nothing about these numbers suggests Nokia is trying to outgun more aggressive budget competitors.
The Nokia 5 also runs Android Nougat, which is good, but expected. In this price band, not having Nougat in mid-2017 would be a red flag. So Nokia is clearing the bar, not raising it.
Where Is the Nokia 6 – and Why That Matters
The biggest gap in this UK launch is actually the phone that isn’t here: the Nokia 6. There’s still no word on when it will be available in the country. It’s not listed on Amazon or Clove at all, though expectations are that it will show up online eventually.
That absence hurts Nokia’s momentum. The 3 and 5 cover the budget and lower mid-range segments, but they don’t give the brand a halo device in the mid-tier to point to. Without the Nokia 6, the story Nokia is telling UK buyers is, effectively, “we’re back — but only if you’re shopping at the lower end.”
It also means anyone hoping for a more capable, still-affordable Nokia Android phone in the UK has to keep waiting, with no timeline. For a company trying to regain relevance, that’s a strange way to reintroduce itself.
Missed Opportunity in a Brutal Mid-Range Market
Strip away the nostalgia, and the Nokia 3 and 5 look like conservative, safe devices that will live or die on pricing and brand goodwill.
The Nokia 3 at £129.99 undercuts a lot of better-specced phones on raw performance, betting that some users will trade speed for a clean Android Nougat build and the Nokia name. The Nokia 5 at £179.99 has a more respectable Snapdragon 430 and a slightly better camera, but still sticks with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB storage, which are already tight in real-world use.
The disappointment isn’t that these are terrible phones – they’re not. It’s that for a company trying to reboot in the Android era, this first proper UK wave feels like Nokia aiming for “good enough” instead of trying to stand out.
There are no bold spec choices, no clearly differentiated features, and no flagship-adjacent device in sight. Just two competent, bare-bones handsets, one of which is being quietly marked up by a UK retailer for no obvious reason.
If Nokia wanted to signal that it’s serious about Android in the UK, the missing Nokia 6 and ultra-safe hardware choices on the 3 and 5 don’t exactly scream confidence.
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