We all know about Nokia’s dominance, subservient and re-entry in the smartphone market. Now Nokia is finally back in a fully-fledged way. Their recently launched smartphones have Nokia’s key philosophy. Will this be enough for the company to re-dominant the market?
Nokia 6, probably the best one of its first phase of smartphones offers immersive build quality. In fact, the device has the best choice of materials and design under INR 15,000. The all metal unibody design is not something new, but Nokia makes it look and feel better than the competition.
The specifications for Nokia 6 are a slight bummer (mainly processor) as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 is an entry-level Octa-core SoC, Paired with 3 GB LPDDR3 RAM and 32 GB onboard storage. The device offers a dual Hybrid solution (SIM + SIM) or (SIM + micro SD).
We still condemn Nokia engineers regarding their choice of processor, the one reason to go with SD 430 might be the cost-cutting strategy. According to Nokia, they have re-engineered the SoC to get its complete potential. As we have used the device for the review process, the device performs day-to-day task like a breeze, however, when it comes to high CPU or GPU needed tasks, the device stutters. Even with the entry 2D arcade games like subway surfer or temple run. The 5.5 inch 1080p IPS LCD grade screen is protected by sculptured 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 3, the display can go up to 4000 nits of brightness and can come down to as low as 1 nit brightness (works well in the night).
The finger print sensor on the Nokia 6 is an added advantage. It is a capacitive type active scanner and recognises the finger almost always (wet fingers do not get registered). The scanner is a bit slower one compared to the competition devices as it takes one complete second to unlock the device.
On to the camera, the 13 MP rear-facing camera with PDAF is an average sensor. The device can capture photos with great details and accurate colours in the natural lighting condition. In the low light, the camera takes an additional second to focus the object and photos come out to be too grainy to our liking. On the other hand, the front facing 8 MP camera offers autofocus feature, which is not seen in the most of the budget smartphones. In terms of video recording capability, the main camera can record video footages up to 1080p resolution and the front camera can only do up to 720p. As smartphones like Huawei Honor 6X and Moto G5S performs far better in the photography department, we can say Noki 6 is an average skilled photography smartphone.
The stock Android Nougat 7.1.1 gives one more star to the device. The well optimised almost stock lookalike software adds more fun to the actual device usage. The device does receive Google’s monthly security updates time to time and as promised, this will the one of the few third-party OEM to receive Android Oreo. The 3000 mAh battery on the Nokia 6 does last for a complete day. However, the phone still uses old-school micro USB port for charging and data syncing, which is a slight bummer.
Additional features like NFC, Dolby Atmos digital sound, dual stereo speakers make this phone special. The main speaker does get slightly distorted at the higher volumes. The Indian version of Nokia 6 doesn’t have a LED notification light.
Conclusion: Nokia 6 is a great smartphone, it has all the features than one can expect from a smartphone. However, it is not a beast when it comes to the highly demanding tasks. The cameras are average and the stock Android is a welcome addition. Nokia 6 is a great phone, for those who do basic stuff like calling, chatting, basic social media usage and casual gaming.