Amazon is Selling the Nokia 6 to Prime Members for Just $180 (with Ads)

Amazon is Selling the Nokia 6 to Prime Members for Just $180 (with Ads)

Yesterday, I noted that Amazon will sell the Nokia 6 for $229 starting next month. But Prime members can save even more, assuming they don’t mind some lock screen advertising.

“The new Nokia 6, the debut Android device in the U.S. from HMD Global, initially available only on Amazon and the first Nokia phone in the Prime Exclusive Phones lineup, will be available for only $179.99, saving Prime members $50 off the full retail price,” an Amazon press release reveals in one of the more convoluted run-on sentences I’ve read in a while. “Prime Exclusive Phones have been consistently featured in the top 5 best-selling unlocked phones list on Amazon and are among the top rated unlocked smartphones available on Amazon.com.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

So what’s happening here?

The Nokia 6 is a mid-level device with a Snapdragon 430 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of expandable storage, and a 16 MP rear camera. It will be sold exclusively in the U.S. via Amazon—at least for now—and will retail for $229.99, which seems like a reasonable price. (Yes, it is unlocked.)

However, we learned today that Amazon Prime members—who pay a $100 annual fee for two-day shipping and numerous digital benefits—will be able to purchase this same phone for just $179.99, a savings of $50.

Caveats? You bet: Like Kindle e-readers and tablets, and other Prime Exclusive Phones, this version of the Nokia 6 will come with what Amazon says are “personalized offers and ads, including personalized deals and product recommendations, displayed on the phone’s lock screen.” Plus it will include a “Prime Exclusive Phone single sign-on experience,” and several Amazon apps for watching movies and TV shows, listening to music, enjoying photos, and accessing cloud-based documents.

Can you remove these ads from a Prime Exclusive Phone? Yes, but you have to pay for that privilege. This price varies by device, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess the cost will be $50.

You can find the Nokia 6 on the Amazon website in both Prime Exclusive version and normal versions. Both are available for preorder now and will ship on July 10.

 

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 8 comments

  • kjb434

    Premium Member
    27 June, 2017 - 9:49 am

    <p>While not common for most users, I wonder if rooting the phone and replacing the OS with stock Android would work?</p>

    • ben55124

      Premium Member
      27 June, 2017 - 12:49 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#132823"><em>In reply to kjb434:</em></a>If this is like the Amazon offers on Moto G, the phone is carrier unlocked, but the bootloader is locked. So don't go for the offer discount if you don't agree to offers. In my opinion the offers are a fair tradeoff. It is just an extra tab on your lockscreen that is easy to ignore — especially with a fingerprint reader where you often never see the lockscreen. Also system updates are rare on the Moto G and I suspect that is partially due to having get certified by Amazon.</blockquote>

      • jrickel96

        27 June, 2017 - 8:16 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#132873"><em>In reply to ben55124:</em></a></blockquote><p>You can unlock the bootloader, but that can brick the phone if you make a wrong move. There are mods to do it. I bought a Blu R1 from Amazon to play with and was able to unlock the bootloader and load a custom image. </p><p><br></p><p>Moto is pretty terrible with updates as it is and no one really knows how good the "new" Nokia will be with updates.</p><p><br></p><p>It's like just about any Android phone – you never know how frequently or if you will get updates. The Nexus and Pixel lines are exceptions. Most OEMs have no interest in doing much when their next phone comes out because they'd prefer you buy it as the update. </p><p><br></p><p>Truth is if you want guaranteed updates for several years, buy an iPhone.</p>

  • euskalzabe

    27 June, 2017 - 10:03 am

    <p>My main worry with prime exclusive phones is system updates. Since there's more OS personalization and "stuff" in them, seems quite likely that updates will come, at the very least, a while after Nokia releases them.</p>

  • goodbar

    Premium Member
    27 June, 2017 - 10:03 am

    <p>If these Prime Exclusive versions came with Alexa as the default personal assistant, that would be interesting…</p>

  • Brian Devins

    27 June, 2017 - 11:27 am

    <p>If ads are only shown on the lockscreen that wouldn't be terribly intrusive.</p>

  • Bats

    27 June, 2017 - 3:32 pm

    <p>I am not going to be surprised if Nokia ends up being a major phone carrier from hereon. The brand name is highly revered worldwide, along with Motorola and Sony.</p><p>If this does become the case, I wonder how Microsoft will feel. I have said this before in one of Paul's posts when he was working for the Supersite…the only reason Microsoft and Windows Phone had any "traction" in the mobile space was because of the Nokia name. When users realized that their phones were not really Nokias, but Microsoft Windows phone, they ditched it like a hot potato.</p>

  • jdmp10

    27 June, 2017 - 4:38 pm

    <p>It was reported that this "US" version of the Nokia 6 is only fully compatible with T-Mobile, doesn't have the full AT&amp;T bands, more than likely will be limited to 3G on AT&amp;T. Also HMD's promise of timely Android updates probably won't apply on this Prime version. Just wish they would have put a more decent SoC in it. Even being a Nexus like experience, that SoC is just very underwhelming and is sure to be a point of daily frustration for anyone that is remotely a power user.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC