Nokia 6 (2018) review: a flawed but impressive smartphone

Last year, HMD Global launched the Nokia 6, but the phone was pretty unappealing. It was not very expensive compared to products from competitors such as Xiaomi. Currently, the company has launched the 2018 version of Nokia 6 at ₹16,999 , which is comparable to Redmi Note 5 Pro and Honor 7X. So, if you are wondering whether to buy the new Nokia 6, check out our detailed Nokia 6 review of the new mid-range smartphone from HMD Global.

Nokia 6 (2018) specifications

First, let’s organize the basic contents on paper. The Nokia 6 is a mid-range smartphone with specs that, for the most part, match its price range. Here is the complete spec sheet for Nokia 6 (2018):

What’s inside the Nokia 6 box

The Nokia 6 comes in a typical Nokia box. It’s slim and wide and has Nokia 6.1 printed on it. Nokia may want to call it the Nokia 6.1, but I’d still call it the Nokia 6 (2018) or the new Nokia 6…same meaning. Anyway, you’ll find all the standard stuff inside the box.

• Nokia 6 (2018)
• Nokia fast charging adapter
• USB-C cable
• earphones
• SIM removal tool
• User manual

It has all the basics that most other smartphone boxes have. Except for the earphones. Xiaomi and OnePlus smartphones don’t have these features (many smartphones still have headphone jacks, isn’t it weird?)

Design and build quality: The best looking midranger

When I took the Nokia 6 out of the box, I was immediately struck by how well-built the phone felt in my hand . Seriously, you could compare this to phones that are way above its price range, but it’s still a good value. That ‘s very good.

You can compare this to phones that are way above its price range, but it’s still a good value. That ‘s very good.

The Nokia 6 is made from a solid block of aluminum, and it shows. It feels sturdy, sturdy and well made. We are confident that this product can withstand a large amount of impact before you feel the impact. There’s a lot to like about the way HMD Global built and designed the Nokia 6, including the fact that it doesn’t have a notch.

But there is another side to this proverbial coin. The phone has some really weird buttons. I found myself not being tactile enough and pushing too hard many times . Other than that, the fingerprint scanner placement feels quite awkward. Perhaps it’s because the camera setup is huge (which I think is unnecessary, more on that later), but I always find myself using the flash instead of the fingerprint scanner. Ta.

Additionally, it’s not a bezel-less design, so the lack of a notch is a blessing.

The phone definitely feels great in the hand and gave me a certain confidence that the OnePlus 5 didn’t have. Confidence that even if this thing drops, it’ll be fine, which is not something I can say about many phones these days.

Display: LCD, 16:9, bezel, still great

The Nokia 6’s display is another thing that impressed me. This is an LCD panel, and Nokia has chosen to keep the usual 16:9 aspect ratio (which is weird). There are bezels, but they’re not on par with the Redmi Note 5 Pro (except for the 18:9 aspect ratio, which makes the phone look more modern). Considering all this, we have no complaints about this phone’s display.

It’s bright (it feels brighter than the OnePlus 5 in the sun), has great color reproduction, and at 5.5 inches with Full HD resolution, it looks crisp. Once you start pixel peeping, you’ll obviously notice pixels, but no one actually uses their phone at pixel peeping distance anyway.

Since it’s an LCD panel, there are no viewing angle or color shift issues . I also don’t think there will be any burn-in issues.

Camera: No, no.

I’ll be honest with you. The new Nokia 6’s camera is clearly bad. There’s no other way to put it. It was half-baked, not decent, not just okay, just terrible, and I was very disappointed.

It was half-baked, not decent, not just okay, just terrible, and I was very disappointed.

The Nokia 6 (2018) takes decent photos in broad daylight, but then processes and ruins them. The image turns out to be over-processed, over-saturated, and generally has a lot of sharpening done to it. Redmi Note 5 Pro’s camera is much better than this.

Even the front camera on the Nokia 6 (2018) is disappointing. Images taken with this 8MP f/2.0 camera on the front are very soft in focus, with very little detail in most areas, and in some cases (especially with backlit subjects in low-light conditions) ), the camera’s illumination will be blown out of proportion.

The situation is even worse in low light. There will be noise, the camera won’t be able to capture enough light, and your photos will easily reflect that the camera is struggling when the lighting isn’t quite right (when the lighting isn’t quite right) (Believe me, I know).

Additionally, the Nokia 6 doesn’t have dual cameras, so there’s no portrait mode. I don’t even understand why there’s no dual camera. Why is there such a large area dedicated to camera and flash if there is no dual camera? Is it just for the Zeiss brand?

In my opinion, the Redmi Note 5 Pro with its dual camera setup takes much better photos than the Nokia 6 and is definitely the winner in the camera department.

Performance: Benchmarks can be misleading…sometimes

The Nokia 6 is powered by a Snapdragon 630, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and has an Adreno 508 for your graphics needs. On paper, this phone is significantly inferior to the Redmi Note 5 Pro, especially considering the price, but in real-world performance, the Nokia 6 is impressive.

The phone is still not late. There are no dropped frames, no delays in starting apps or services, and everything works perfectly fine. I think a big part of why this phone is better than I expected is because of stock Android.

I have tried many things on this phone including games and yes, PUBG Mobile was one of them. The game has switched to low graphics by default, but I’m not shocked. With just 3GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 630, games run nice and smooth, even though the low settings were as expected. There are occasional frame drops, but the frequency is low so I have no complaints.

Basically, the Nokia 6’s performance is top notch (I’m not kidding) and I have no complaints about the phone’s performance so far.

User Experience: Stock Android, need we say more?

From a user experience perspective, the Nokia 6 comes with stock Android 8.0 Oreo, which is great. Sure, it doesn’t have as many features as the likes of MIUI or Samsung Experience UI, but stock Android has a simplicity and charm that Android skins usually lack. Additionally, Android One provides timely security patches and guaranteed updates up to Android Q. This is great.

The fingerprint scanner works well enough, apart from its awkward location. It’s certainly not one of the fastest, but it’s not noticeably slow either.

Battery: better than expected

The Nokia 6 has a 3,000 mAh non-removable lithium-ion battery, and while it looks a little small on paper for a phone with a 5.5-inch LCD display, the Nokia 6 (2018) is very It will last a long time. I’m serious. Voodoo I don’t know what HMD Global did with this, but the Nokia 6 easily lasted me over a day without fail.

Additionally, it has fast charging support (using the included fast charger), which allows you to charge from 10% to 100% in just over 1 hour and 30 minutes . However, in case of an emergency, it can go up to 50% in just 30 minutes, which is great.

connectivity

When it comes to connectivity, the Nokia 6 uses a hybrid 3-choose-2 SIM card slot that can accommodate either a nano SIM and a Micro SIM, or a nano SIM and an SD card, depending on your preference.

Nokia 6 (2018) also supports WiFi b/g/n/ac. Plus, it comes with Bluetooth 5.0 for a better and more reliable Bluetooth connection.

Edit: This article (and the official Nokia website) has previously mentioned that there is no “ac” support on the Nokia 6. The official website has now been fixed and we have updated the review to reflect the same. Thanks to David Ward for bringing this to our attention.

Advantages and disadvantages

The Nokia 6 (2018) is an impressive phone in most ways, but like everything ever made, it has its strengths and weaknesses. Here’s what Nokia 6 (2018) has and what it lacks.

Strong Points:

• excellent build quality
• great design
• USB-C
• bright display
• headphone jack
• No notch
• Above-the-line performance
• Excellent battery life and standby time

Cons:

• scary camera
• Not bezel-less
• Unnaturally placed fingerprint scanner
• Buttons don’t feel tactile enough

Bottom line: buy for everything but the camera

The Nokia 6 is in a price range that competes with Xiaomi’s budget model, the Redmi Note 5 Pro, and at this price, the Nokia 6 will definitely face some competition. It all boils down to this. If the camera isn’t that important to you, the Nokia 6 won’t disappoint you. It has a great build, great design, USB-C, a beautiful display, and stock Android . Also available offline.

However, the Redmi Note 5 Pro easily outperforms the Nokia 6 (2018) when it comes to cameras, but that’s mostly only when it comes to cameras. Equipped with dual cameras, the quality of photos will be better.

If your budget is around ₹17,000 and you care about real-world performance rather than numbers on paper, I think I’d go for the new Nokia 6 (but be careful about the camera). Everything about this phone works really well and some features are better than I expected, so I’m sure it won’t disappoint you.

Buy Nokia 6 (2018): ₹16,999