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Nokia 6 (2018) Review

  Nabeel Akhtar

Nokia is back in the mobile phone competition, and this time round, it is making Android smartphones. Nokia, owned by HMD Global based in Finland, made one of the most affordable Android smartphones in 2017, i.e. Nokia 6, It has now released its successor for 2018 which is the Nokia 6 (2018), also alternatively known as Nokia 6.1 (2018) or simply ‘the new Nokia 6’.

Nokia 6 (2018) seems pretty much like its predecessor, as it features 5.5 inches display screen made of metal, and which is very thin. The phone runs on Android One OS and gets the future updates on timely basis. Moreover, Nokia 6 (2018) is also powerful as compared to its predecessor, because it is capable to record 4K videos. Above all, Nokia 6 (2018) price in Pakistan is just Rs. 29,900. The real question is, are there any loopholes in this great phone that you might look forward to before moving forward to purchase it? Let’s dig a bit deeper and check what Nokia 6 (2018) has got!

Design

nokia 6 2018 back camera

Nokia 6 (2018) has closed similarities in design department with its predecessor Nokia 6. The phone has got sold metal design construction involving sharp edges, and it has got a thinner profile and flat sides. Both the phones are not exactly the same anyway, as the latest one is relatively shorter, but both give the same feeling. On the whole, Nokia 6 (2018) design seems a bit durable, as the sharp edges in this phone provide it more of a masculine appearance. Still, we do feel that Nokia 6 (2018) design seems a bit conservative, especially when we look into the sleeker glass-and-metal construction of Motorola Moto G6 and its siblings, which overall provide a more premium feel.

With regard to colors, Nokia 6 (2018) will come with its signature black color featuring gold accents. Some of you might like it, but most of you would find it relatively more kitschy, but let us leave it as a matter of personal priorities. What is unfortunate is that this is the only color option that is currently available in Pakistan at the time of this writing. Another color option was white, which has been sold out.

When we look at the rear side of the phone, we have a single camera, which bulges slightly to the outer side. Right beneath the camera is the round fingerprint scanner. You will find it to be a bit smaller, so you might make a few missed unlocking attempts before you set your finger right on to the reader, as the finger would not fit properly in the beginning for sure. Using the phone with a case would exacerbate this issue even further.

Similarly, the button on the sides are built from metal. They appear quite solid. A peculiar thing about these buttons is that they seem a bit too recessed and are not pleasantly clicky just like in other devices. Other than that, the phone also has just one speaker on its bottom side, along with which there is USB-C port used for syncing and charging. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack positioned on top of the display, which can be used with the wired earphones.

The new Nokia 6 (2018) is not IP68 certified, so you will have to be careful when close to water and dust.

Display

In case of Nokia 6 (2018), the biggest compromise that you would have to make is the display quality.

Even when the relatively bigger top and bottom bezels surrounding the screen display do not bother us, the problem in the display comes with the considerably seen blue tint, where the colors in it seem noticeably washed out. Unlike other competitor devices, you will not have any option vis-à-vis screen modes to choose from in this phone, so you will only have default settings. There will also be a noticeable motion blue when you scroll through the menus. It is not yet known whether this is due to the lower amount of refresh rate or something else, but it will be one important thing that you will notice here.

Yet, the display screen will not be much terrible as you might expect it to be. It is just that the competitors have raised the bars even when maintaining this price range, and whose screens look better. Still, this display will not be equal to the higher standard set by the rivals. Some of the screen issues can be noticed in the detailed display benchmarks given below.

Display Measurements and Quality

Interface and Functionality

Nokia 6 (2018) will essentially be an Android One phone. This means that you will be getting a purer version of Android OS in it, where there will be no bloatware, and in the future, you will be getting the software updates in faster pace.

This is a good thing, as the cleaner Android will be featuring flat Material Design visual style and will be running smoothly. Further, it will also be reacting to the gestures and taps in swift manner.

Similarly, the apps that you will be having in it will all be the stock Google apps with the considerable addition of FM Radio.

Processor, Performance and Memory

Processor is one of the most important upgrades in Nokia 6 (2018) in comparison to the previous year’s Nokia 6. This phone will be running on Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chipset. Nokia 6, on the other hand, was running on Snapdragon 430 SoC.

Moreover, Snapdragon 630 chipset will be featuring octa-core CPU along with 8 Cortex A53 cores, which will be running at the speed up to 2.2GHz. The phone will additionally have 3GB RAM. Additionally, the installed chipset is of good quality, as it will keep the pace of apps steady and will offer sufficient performance to the gamers as well.

The performance would not however be record-breaking, as this is not a flagship phone, but Nokia 6 (2018) will definitely fulfil your expectations at moderate level. The phone will have 32GB as well as 64GB internal storage options, while the price difference will be about Rs. 4,000 in two variants.

Internet and Connectivity

Nokia 6 (2018) will be compatible with all the GSM carriers in Pakistan, i.e. Mobilink and Zong etc. The phone will be featuring hybrid SIM card slot, which means that you will either use two SIM cards, or you will use one SIM card along with a microSD card.

When it comes to the connectivity options, you will be getting GPS, BeiDou, Bluetooth 5.0, Glonass and NFC for the wireless payments.

Camera

Nokia 6 (2018) will come with 16 MP camera on the rear, where there will be f/2.0 lens. On the front, it will have 8 MP wide-angle camera.

The camera app can be opened quickly through double pressing the lock or power key. The camera app itself is also quite straightforward. There will be dual camera shooting mode in it as well, in which you will be able to split in half for taking the photo or recording the video together with front as well as rear cameras. This will actually result in the split-screen view, which Nokia calls as ‘bothie’, where the main concept is that you are able to shoot yourself as well as the person standing in front of you.

There will be only two other modes in this camera, i.e. pro mode and panorama. Through these modes, you will be able to manually focus, choose white balance, ISO, and shutter speed as well as exposure compensation values.

Image Quality, Selfies and Video

Generally, we were disappointed with the camera installed in Nokia 6 (2018) after taking only a few photos. The camera was pretty slow in focusing, and the photos were also not looking great anyway. However, when we downloaded the same images to investigate their quality further in the larger screen, we were quite amazed. The photos taken in daylight were pretty nice, and the colors were really impressive. The color balance was perfect, and the images gave a Nikon-like feel.

Additionally, when it comes to selfies, the image quality would again turn out to be good given the phone being mid-range and price-wise affordable. In case of bright lights, the images will burn out, hence the level of dynamics will not be that high. However, there is extensively sharp details for the photos and the colors are also pleasing, so we must appreciate the front camera.

When it comes to video quality, the faster chipset will actually allow Nokia 6 (2018) capture the 4K videos at 30fps. This is a major upgrade in this phone when compared with the last year’s Nokia 6 featuring the availability of video recording of up to 1080p resolution.

However, there will be one compromise with the 4K video in this phone, i.e. absence of optical image stabilization. There will also not be proper software stabilization, and hence the videos recorded in 4K mode will appear quite shaky. The video quality be good if you are able to maintain extra still and steady. Continuous auto-focusing would however be slow and will actually lead to burn out. Hence you will need to avoid the shooting in brighter spots.

You will also be able to shoot videos in 1080p, in which you will be getting software stabilization, which will do a good job and file sizes would also be smaller. But again, you will not get the extensive levels of details and clarity as is found in case of 4K videos. You will additionally have Bothie videos option as well. Our test shows that it will work pretty fine and nice.

Call and Sound Quality

There were not many glaring issues in case of call quality in Nokia 6 (2018). You will be able to hear the call sound from the other end in sufficiently louder manner, and the sound will appear clean to the earpiece.

Nokia 6 (2018) will be featuring one speaker on the bottom, which will work pretty nice. It will however not be great as the other dual speakers featured in high-end smartphones released in 2018. Still, the sound quality will be crispy, clear and loud, and you will enjoy listening the sounds. If you want to get best sound quality, then you should plug in headphones or use external speakers. There will also be 3.5mm headphone jack available for you if you want to plug in wired headphones.

The earbuds coming in the box pack will not be very good to be honest, so it is recommended that you use better quality headphones for long term usage.

Battery Life

Nokia 6 (2018) will pack 3,000mAh battery, which is same as that of Nokia 6 battery capacity. We however wondered whether the upgraded chipset will have any impact on the battery life. In order to check that, we ran battery tests, and we found that this phone lasted for 8 hours and 14 minutes. This turned out to be a lower score in comparison of Nokia 6, which lasted for 8 hours and 52 minutes. The Nokia 6 (2018) battery score is relatively short of other affordable phones, but overall you will not be troubled in 24-hour usage of the phone. However, Nokia 6 (2018) will definitely not be a phone, which will be lasting for 48 hours within single recharge. Fortunately, owing to the fast-charging capability, this phone will be fully charged in 1 hour and 51 minutes. Wireless charging feature will however not be added in this phone.

Price and Alternatives

Nokia 6 (2018) to the mid-range category of smartphones, which are quite popular in Pakistan. This range begins from Rs. 25,000 and goes till Rs. 35,000. There are many other phones recently released by other manufacturers belonging to this category. Hence, if you do not like this phone, then you can go for the alternative options.

The main alternative would be Huawei P20 Lite, which was released in April, 2018. Huawei P20 Lite price in Pakistan is Rs. 35,999. This is an incredible and stylish smartphone, which also has innovative design concept. Additionally, this phone scores well in battery and camera benchmarks as well.

Another alternative is the upcoming Xiaomi Mi A2, which will be available from next month in Pakistan. Xiaomi Mi A2 price in Pakistan will be about Rs. 29,000, i.e. about the same price as that of Nokia 6 (2018). This is also a phone that comes with Android Go OS edition. So, these two options are quite good when compared with the phone in consideration.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, Nokia 6 (2018) comes with some welcoming improvements and modifications as compared to its predecessor phone. It has faster processor, ability to shoot 4K videos and fast-charging capability. This will hence be a much better phone.

However, there will be one big compromise in case of this phone which is its display. The screen will appear blueish along with the washed out colors. We do know that this mid-range phone will not do wonders for most of us, but still the screen would be a real deal-breaker for most of us. While the competitors have raised the display standards, Nokia 6 (2018) would still be lacking in this area.

But still, if you are able to bear that, then performance and camera in Nokia 6 (2018) will definitely impress you and turn you into a big fan of this phone.

Care to know about MPC rating of Nokia 6 (2018)? – It’s 8/10!

 

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2 Comments

  1. No way. I think I will just stick with the older Nokia 6 as it is still the best Android phone to me!.

  2. Nokia 6 (2018) is even better than Nokia 7 plus. But altogether, Xiaomi Mi A1 will be the real deal, and Mi A2 above all would finally cut the chase for me!

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