SAMSUNG 49-INCH QLED GAMING MONITOR

After years of missteps, it’s safe to get a Nokia again. Well, if you’re on Android.

In other gargantuan display technology news is the new Samsung. It’s curved, of course, and sports all the QLED hallmarks like Quantum Dots and HDR, but raises the bar with AMD Radeon Freesync 2 support. The official word is 1 ms response time, connection dependent. It’s essentially two 16:9 panels side by side, so your split-screen productivity also gets a much-needed shot in the arm.

$ 1 500, SAMSUNG.COM

PEOPLE DON’T LIKE

taking out cellphone contracts anymore. Odd then that the one reason for getting into the twoyear lock-in is now attacking the low end of the market. The tale of Nokia’s return is one of a slavish devotion to build quality and the quality of the customer experience, as well as placing the aftermarket responsibility in the hands of the people who hold those contracts. Let them tell it in their own words:

AARTO NUMMELA, CEO HMD GLOBAL

“Personally I have to say that the Nokia 5 is the most Nokia phone out of all of these because of how we captured the humanness in the design. It’s a pure 3D shape, which is very difficult to manufacture because it’s like a pillow with the back also curved. Then we did amazing radio innovation with it. We made the antenna lines disappear. Nokia has always been driving innovation. Also the performance is really good. We’re focusing on the things that matter the most to consumers. We went to our partners to solve three consumer pain points. One is the clutter, the different skins that are sometimes hard to use and the preloads (bloatware). Then the security concerns. And then the updates. We wanted to resolve all of these and we told this promise to all the retailers and operators. We didn’t have any pushback.”

FLORIAN SEICHE, PRESIDENT HMD GLOBAL

“Google has done a great job to stay on top of the security problem by bringing out regular updates. The challenge is that most of the Android manufacturers have put their own software on top with customised skins or other preloads. We have the opportunity now, starting from fresh, to do it right. We built our whole strategy around the user experience and decided not to deviate from that pure Android experience, which also makes it more operationally feasible. It’s a significant investment for the consumer and for us as well and the updates will come from Nokia. We’re trying to do it as immediate as possible. ”

SHAUN DURANDT, GENERAL MANAGER HMD GLOBAL SOUTH AFRICA

“We’re going to leverage very heavily on the operators as our repair partners. The aftersales service has the ability to tarnish the brand, so we’ve treated that really seriously. It’s a great revenue spinner for the operators and it gives them end-to-end ownership of the customer, which is really important to them. It gives them the ability to keep the customers on the network as long as possible and quickly resolve any issues.”