Nokia 6 (2018) Review: A Flawed But Impressive Smartphone

Last year, HMD Global launched the Nokia 6 and the phone was pretty impressive. It didn’t stack up much next to the offerings of competitors like Xiaomi. Now the company has released the 2018 version of the Nokia 6. ₹16,999, and getting the likes of Redmi Note 5 Pro and Honor 7X. So if you are confused about buying the new Nokia 6, this is our detailed Nokia 6 review of HMD Global’s new mid-range smartphone to help you decide:

Nokia 6 (2018) Technical Specifications

First, let’s get the basics out of the way, on paper. The Nokia 6 is a mid-range smartphone with features for the price… mostly. Here is the full spec for the Nokia 6 (2018):

What’s Inside the Nokia 6 Box?

The Nokia 6 comes in a typical Nokia box. It’s got the Nokia 6.1 written on it, thin and wide, and although Nokia would like to call it Nokia 6.1, I’d still call it the Nokia 6 (2018) or the new Nokia 6… interchangeably. Anyway, inside the box are the standard stuff:

• Nokia 6 (2018)
• Nokia Quick Charge adapter
• USB-C cable
• headphone
• SIM removal tool
• User guide

All the essentials you’ll find in most other smartphone cases. Except for headphones; You won’t find them on Xiaomi or OnePlus smartphones (although many still have headphone jacks.. weird huh?)

Design and Build Quality: Best-Looking Mid Ranger

When I took the Nokia 6 out of the box, I was immediately struck. how good this phone feels in the hand. Seriously, I could compare this to phones well above the price range and it would still hold its own; her he is good.

I could compare this to phones well above the price range and it would still hold its own; her he is good.

The Nokia 6 is made from a solid block of Aluminum and it shows. It feels solid, solid and well built, and I’m sure this thing can take a bunch of bumps before you feel them. There’s a lot of good things about the way HMD Global built and designed the Nokia 6, including the lack of a notch about it.

However, there is another side to the famous coin. there is a phone really weird buttons; they’re not tactile enough and a few times I’ve found myself pressing them too hard. Other than that, I find the fingerprint scanner rather awkwardly placed. It’s probably due to the large camera setup (I find it unnecessary; more on that later), but I found myself constantly pressing the flash instead of the fingerprint scanner.

It’s also not a bezel-less design, so thankfully it doesn’t have a notch because that’s just too bad.

The phone definitely feels great in the hand and has given me a kind of confidence that my OnePlus 5 lacks. Confidence that this thing will be fine even if it falls, and that’s not something I can say. About a lot of phones these days.

Display: LCD, 16:9, Bezels, But Still Great

The screen on the Nokia 6 is another thing that impresses me. It’s an LCD panel, and Nokia has chosen to stick with the usual 16:9 aspect ratio (which is weird). There are bezels, but no more than the Redmi Note 5 Pro (except that this phone is used with a more modern-looking 18:9 aspect ratio), and with all that, I have no complaints about the screen on this phone.

It’s bright (feels brighter than my OnePlus 5 in the sun), has great color reproduction, and looks sharp at 5.5 inches with Full HD resolution. You will notice the pixels if you start observing the pixels openly, but no one is using their phone at pixel-watching distance anyway.

It’s an LCD panel, so no problem viewing angles, or discoloration and I doubt there will be any burning issues with that either.

Camera: Oh my god, no.

I’ll be really honest with you guys; The camera of the new Nokia 6 is very bad. There is no other way to put it. It’s not sketchy, it’s not bad, it’s just bad and I’m very disappointed.

It’s not sketchy, it’s not bad, it’s just bad and I’m very disappointed.

The Nokia 6 (2018) takes beautiful photos in broad daylight, but then processes and ruins them. Images become over-processed, oversaturated, and there’s a lot of overall sharpening going on here. Redmi Note 5 Pro’s camera is much better than that.

Even the front camera of the Nokia 6 (2018) is disappointing. Images captured with this 8MP f/2.0 shooter on the front have super-smooth focus, often almost non-existent detail, and sometimes (especially with backlit subjects in low-light conditions) the camera blows light out of proportion.

In low light the situation gets worse. There is noise, the camera can’t capture enough light, and the pictures easily reflect the camera strain when the lighting isn’t quite in place (which lighting rarely happens. Believe me, I know).

Also, the Nokia 6 does not have a portrait mode as there is no dual camera. I don’t even understand why it doesn’t have dual cameras. and if not, why is there such a large area devoted to the camera and flash? Is it only for the Zeiss brand?

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

Performance: Comparisons Can Be Misleading… Sometimes

The Nokia 6 has a Snapdragon 630, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, while the Adreno 508 satisfies the graphical needs. On paper, this phone is far behind the Redmi Note 5 Pro, especially if you factor in the price, but in real world performance the Nokia 6 is great.

The phone still didn’t lag on me. No frame drops, no lag in launching apps and services, everything works perfectly, and I think stock Android may be a big part of the reason this phone is performing better than I expected.

I tried many things on this phone including games and yes PUBG Mobile was one of them. The game defaults to low graphics and I’m not shocked. With only 3GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 630, the low settings are what I expected, but the game runs nice and smoothly. There is the occasional frame drop, but it’s so infrequent, I’m not complaining about it.

Basically, the performance on the Nokia 6 is top notch (no pun intended) and I have no complaints about the phone’s performance so far.

User Experience: Stock Android, Need I Say More?

In terms of user experience, the Nokia 6 runs stock Android 8.0 Oreo and that’s great! True, there are not as many features as you can find in MIUI or Samsung Experience UI for example, but stock Android has a simplicity and charm that Android skins often lack. Plus, with Android One you’ll get timely security patches and guaranteed updates up to Android Q, which is great!

The fingerprint scanner works well enough, aside from the awkward positioning. It’s certainly not one of the fastest out there, but it certainly isn’t slow enough to really notice.

Battery: Better Than Expected

The Nokia 6 has a 3,000mAh non-removable Li-ion battery, which on paper looks a bit small for a phone with a 5.5-inch LCD screen, but the Nokia 6 (2018) is extremely long-lasting. I am serious. I don’t know what HMD Global is doing about it, but the Nokia 6 easily got me through the day without fail.

It also has fast charging support (with the included fast charger in the box), 10% to 100% in a little over 1 hour 30 minutes. But for emergencies you can go up to 50% in just 30 minutes and that’s great.

connection

When it comes to connectivity, the Nokia 6 uses a hybrid 3-choice-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 has WiFi b/g/n/ac support. It also has Bluetooth 5.0, which means better, more reliable Bluetooth connections.

Edit: This article (and the official Nokia website) mentioned earlier that Nokia 6 does not have ‘ac’ support. The official website is now fixed and we’ve updated our review to reflect the same. Thanks to David Ward for bringing this to our attention.

pros and cons

The Nokia 6 (2018) is a phone that fails to impress in most ways, but as with anything ever made, it has its pros and cons. Here’s what the Nokia 6 (2018) does and where it lacks:

Pros:

• Excellent build quality
• great design
• USB-C
• bright screen
• Headphone jack
• no notch
• Above performance
• Excellent battery life and standby times

Cons:

• scary camera
• not frameless
• Strangely placed fingerprint scanner
• Buttons are not tactile enough

Conclusion: Buy For Everything But The Camera

The Nokia 6 is at a price point where Xiaomi is competing with the budget kingpin, the Redmi Note 5 Pro, and at this price the Nokia 6 definitely faces some competition. That’s all, if the camera is not that important to you, the Nokia 6 will not disappoint you. owner great build, great design, USB-C, nice screen and stock Android. Also available offline.

However Redmi Note 5 Pro easily beats Nokia 6 (2018) when it comes to cameraand mostly only when it comes to the camera. It has dual cameras and photos usually come out better.

If you’re on a budget of around 17,000 yen and you care about real-world performance, not numbers on a page, I would prefer the new Nokia 6 (but be warned about the camera). The phone does everything really well and does some things better than I expected, so I’m sure it won’t disappoint you.

Buy Nokia 6 (2018): ₹16,999