Nokia 6: All we know about the device

Stipe | 14/01/2017 | Nokia, Phones | 1 Comment

HMD Global, the exclusive licensee of the Nokia brand, introduced their first Nokia-branded Android smartphone on January 8th, the Nokia 6. Nokia 6 is also chronologically the 6th Nokia device running Android, and 6 is considered a lucky number in China (that’s why it’s called Nokia 6), where the device will be exclusively sold via JD.com. The sales are expected to start on January 19th, for a retail price of 1699CNY (€233, $245). More than half a million people registered for the device, and almost 10.000 preordered before JD.com closed the preorders.

Nokia 6 has a unibody casing made from series 6000 aluminum. HMD stated that the manufacturing process for Nokia 6 takes more than 10 hours, with the device being 5 time polished for better scratch-resistance. The dimensions are 154 x 75.8 x 7.85 mm, but the thickness goes slightly up to 8.4mm when we include the camera bump. The declared weight is 169g which is acceptable for todays 5.5 inch screen aluminum case smartphones. Device’s design is sharing the same elements from some old Nokia devices (Nokia Lumia 1020, Lumia 830 and 930), but also following industry trends. We discussed the design of the Nokia 6 in detail here.

The build quality of Nokia 6 is one of the main sales points of the device. HMD promised that the upcoming Nokia device will truly represent what Nokia stands for, mainly thinking about the best build quality on the market. Early hands on videos, and tests show that Nokia 6 is an extremely durable device. The Chinese media even cracked nuts, and did drop tests with the device, but Nokia 6 survived it all, showing that it really is a Nokia device (descendant of the Nokia 3310).

Apart from its high-quality build, the Nokia 6 features a display before found only on high end devices. The 5.5-inch FullHD LCD display is made in “Hybrid In-Cell” Tehnology, which basically means that the screen is thinner, with better color reproduction, higher brightness, and usually found in thinner devices. We wrote more about the 6′ screen technology here. The device also features 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 curved glass protection.

On the back of the device we have a 16MP camera, while on the front there is an 8MP camera. In first, we were skeptical about Nokia 6’s camera, because it is a mid-range device, and we did not know how much the Finnish Nokia is involved in the development of Nokia 6. We were fortunately proved wrong. The camera uses PDAF (phase detection auto focus) Technology, has 1 micron size pixels, f/2.0 aperture and dual-LED flash for true color definition. PDAF means that the camera has small sensors that detect when an image is in focus when the light hits the center of the sensors. This is a fast auto-focus technology, and like the Hybrid In-Cell Display, prior Nokia 6 it was reserved only for high end devices. How good the camera is showed a comparison with OnePlus 3T, for which photo quality GSMArena.com said: “The result is impressively sharp and pleasant looking images and we really can’t ask for more out of a €440 handset.” Nokia 6 produced better images in a camera comparison against OnePlus3T, while being almost twice cheaper.

Inside Nokia 6 we can find the Qualcomm 430 processor coupled with 4GB RAM. The SoC is 64-bit, like the Android 7.0 Nougat OS, which means full utilization of the built-in RAM, and solid performance and battery, even though the processor is a low-mid range one. Geekbench showed solid performance of Nokia 6′ hardware, being in the range of device with higher-end processors. Of course, benchmarks are not a reliable way for determining device’s performance, but the first reports from China didn’t state any performance issues, in contrary. Many say that with the Nokia UI, and almost no bloatware, the device runs very well.

Furthermore, Nokia 6 comes with a non-removable 3000 mAh battery, which should last a whole day of usage, thanks to the lower-end, but energy-friendlier CPU, and Android Nougat’s aggressive battery saver regime. On board we have 3.5mm headphone jack, NFC, 4G LTE support, fingerprint scanner, but no USB Tip C port (instead MicroUSB2.0), and no wireless charging support. The 6 features 64GB of internal memory, and MicroSD card support (up to 128GB). The device comes only as a Dual-SIM variant, having one slot for the nano-SIM, and the other for either MicroSD card, or second nano-SIM. Dual-speakers are there too, with Dolby Atmos Technology for amazing sound.

Specifications:

Aluminum unibody
5.5-inch LCD FullHD Hybrid In-Cell Display, with 2.5 Gorilla Glass 3
16MP back and 8MP front camera
Snapdragon 430
4GB RAM
64GB internal + MicroSD up to 128GB
3000mAh battery
Dual speakers with Dolby Atmos
Fingerprint scanner
Android 7.0 with HMD’s 2-year update guarantee
1699CNY/233€/245$

Nokia 6 is currently China exclusive, with the software being adapted to the Chinese market. The global version of the device, coupled with some more, is expected to be announced on MWC 2017 in Barcelona next month.