Can you still buy a smartphone from Nokia and Motorola in Malaysia? | Ask Us Anything #54

Welcome back to another episode of Ask Us Anything, where we gather your questions from the internet and answer them.

In today’s episode, we find out what happened to Nokia and Motorola, which banks and cards support Samsung Pay, and if Android Auto uses hotspot data.

Are Nokia and Motorola dead?

Even though it’s a rare sight to see someone using a smartphone from Nokia or Motorola, well in Malaysia at least, both brands are still in the market and you can buy a smartphone from both brands officially in Malaysia. Compared to mainstream smartphone brands, Nokia and Motorola have a limited selection of smartphones available in their catalogue.

Motorola has a flagship offering with the Edge 30 Pro powered by a now dated, but capable Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the popular Moto G series offering entry-level and mid-range options.

Nokia meanwhile does not have a flagship offering in Malaysia and is more focused on the entry-level to the upper-midrange categories. Out of the seven models Nokia offers for the Malaysian market, six are below RM1,000 while only the Nokia X30 5G is priced at RM2,099.

Now, did you know that both brands are no longer owned by the company that established them?

In 2011, Motorola split into two companies. Motorola Mobility will handle consumer-oriented products like smartphones while Motorola Solutions will cater to enterprise-grade products. A year later, Motorola Solutions would be acquired by Google and eventually sold to Lenovo in 2014. Present-day Motorola smartphones are manufactured by Lenovo and its partners.

Nokia, on the other hand, only sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2014 which included the license to use the Nokia brand for 10 years. In 2016, Microsoft Mobile sold its smartphone business, which included the Nokia brand licensing, to HMD Global, a Finnish company run by a former Nokia executive. Since HMD Global does not own Nokia, only the rights to use their mobile brand, the license to use the Nokia brand on smartphones and tablets must be renewed come 2024.

Which banks and cards support Samsung Pay?

Maybank was the first bank to adopt Samsung Pay when it was launched in Malaysia back in 2017. Since then, however, other banks now support Samsung Pay as well. According to Samsung Malaysia, the supported banks are CIMB Bank, Citi, Hong Leong Bank, HSBC, Public Bank, RHB and Standard Chartered.

That said, not all the cards offered by the banks will be supported on Samsung Pay apart from Maybank, where all its credit, debit and prepaid cards can be registered on Samsung Pay. CIMB Bank only supports credit and prepaid cards on the Mastercard network. Meanwhile, Citi, HSBC, and Standard Chartered only support credit cards.

Therefore, do check with your respective bank if your bank card supports Samsung Pay.

Does Android Auto use hotspot data?

Android Auto is a software feature that allows driving-related apps from your smartphone to be displayed on the car’s infotainment screen through a dedicated operating system. Since the apps are running on your phone, they will use your main data to access the internet.

Meanwhile, an Android head unit runs apps on its own operating system. Therefore, you will need to share your internet connection via hotspot to the head unit, thus using your hotspot quota.