The Nokia 6 was launched in China as Nokia's first Android phone under the new HMD company; pre-orders amounted to 1.3 million in the first 4 days, and it sold out almost instantly in China, leaving HMD playing catch-up.

Now comes the turn of the rest of the world as the Nokia 6 leads the charge globally. This isn't a flagship handset, this isn't aiming to take down the Samsung Galaxy S8 or iPhone 7, this is designed to cut into the lower segment of the Android market at a price that's difficult to ignore. 

The Nokia 6, launched as a global device at Mobile World Congress 2017, is joined by the Nokia 5 and the Nokia 3, as part of the three-pronged strategy to Nokia smartphones back on the agenda and into the hands of the mass market.

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Mid-range specs are the order of the day, but as Juho Sarvikas, chief product officer at HMD told us, it "goes beyond the specification."

The aim is to offer superb quality in a device that's affordable to many. As such, the Nokia 6 is hewn from a solid block of aluminium before being anodised and polished. There's sculpted Gorilla Glass to the front sitting atop the 5.5-inch display.

In terms of power, you have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset and 3GB RAM, paired with 32GB of storage. That's a small step down over the Chinese version, but Nokia has also introduced an Arte Black special edition handset that restores those figures to 4GB/64GB. That's the one you want. 

So it's a full HD display and a mid-range chipset, but you do get microSD card support in a dual tray, so it could be dual SIM if you wish.

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There's a 16-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front camera. There's no Zeiss branding or PureView chatter sadly, so we're yet to see how this camera really performs. 

It's all topped off with a 3000mAh battery. 

Importantly, Nokia isn't pre-loading anything into this phone except for the camera app. There's absolutely zero bloatware. This is pure Android Nougat, with Google Assistant. It's as close to the Pixel as you'll find on a phone. 

Tempted? You should be, as the Nokia 6 will be hitting store in Q2 for just €229 for the regular edition (3GB RAM, 32GB storage). The special edition Arte Black version (pictured here), is only a little more at €299.

Local pricing and exact release date are yet to be confirmed, but pre-orders open today.