Display pictures on Glance screen and other tidbits from Nokia 9 PureView user review
A Nokia 9 PureView buyer from Russia decided to make a relatively lengthy user review of his device, covering all the details and also revealing some interesting stuff about the device.
Nokia 9 user Aleksander Bobovnikov posted on VK.com a lengthy user review of the device. Maybe the most nostalgic revelation from the review was the possibility to have an image on Nokia 9’s Glance screen. It’s not as simple as a process on old Lumia devices where this was quite a popular feature, but if you download the Pixel 3 live wallpapers and set them up using Google’s wallpaper app, the images appear on Nokia 9’s Glance screen.
Did you know that in Nokia 9 PureView in the Glance Screen mode can display not only the clock and date, but also pictures?) For more details on this and other features, read the big review: https://t.co/Qd61qvxCzs@sarvikas @NokiaMobile @NokiamobBlog @nokia_anew @Nokiapoweruser pic.twitter.com/Cn3YGSfNBL
— Бобовников Александр (@bobovnikovalek) June 29, 2019
As it was pointed out in the comments, the Glance screen image using Pixel 3 Live wallpapers can be set on other Nokia phones too, but just on the ambient display (if they support one). As far as I know, only Nokia 9 PureView, Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 8 have Glance screen, while other phones have something called Ambient display that can’t stay forever on the screen. If you want to try the wallpapers, you can download an APK from here and after installation, head to the Wallpapers app and “Live wallpapers” category to set it up.
Another interesting thing about the Nokia 9’s Glance is the way Nokia mobile prevents burn-in. One of the negative sides of OLED panels is the burn-in effect, meaning that pixels from the UI get “burned” into the display, basically staying there on the screen as a “ghostly” image the whole time. All the pixels displaying the Glance on Nokia 9 move every 2 minutes and the screen flickers every minute.
While we are at the screen, it’s good to point out again that the 9 PureView has an excellent display. Alongside impressive brightness and sunlight contrast ratio measured by GSMArena, Aleksander measured the PWM indicator. Pulse-Width Modulation, or PWM, is one of the ways display makers can use to adjust the display’s brightness. PWM is considered to be an easy (or cost-effective) way to control the brightness, but it has serious drawbacks, such as flicker that may cause eye strain and headaches, explains oled-info.com. The 9 PureView has a PWM indicator of 10.2% as measured by the reviewer, while the OnePlus 7 Pro has 15.3%. Value above 10% is regarded to cause the “eye strain and headaches” more noticeably. I’m no expert in this, but if anyone knows more about this topic, it would be interesting to hear you out in the comments down below.
We already wrote a lot about the way Nokia 9 PureView’s camera works, and how it basically gives excellent daylight results, with most natural color reproduction on the market judging by the reviews and user photos shared online, but the biggest negative in terms of quality is lowlight photography, where, for some reason, Nokia 9 uses in auto mode a shutter speed just up to 1/30s and an ISO of 6400. If you use Pro mode, there is no HDR, so the camera will shoot only one photo per sensor (instead of 4 in HDR mode). There are rumors out there that a dedicated night mode might soon arrive for the PureView, but it’s just rumors.
In the review Aleksandr compared the Nokia 9 PureView to Xiaomi’s Mi 9 and the Pixel 3 XL. While the Mi 9 isn’t really regarded as a camera champ (frankly, as far as I know, no Xiaomi device is), the Pixel 3 XL is by some called the best camera phone on the market. In direct comparison, Nokia 9 PureView proved quite well. In daylight conditions one can argue that 9 gives better photos and is better in handling the details in shadows and highlights, thanks to the unique camera setup, but the low light conditions is where the Pixel shines and 9 fails. We also have to mention that Nokia 9 isn’t a point and shoot camera smartphone and a number of users won’t have the time and nerves to wait 10 to 20 seconds for a photo that doesn’t look spectacularly different for the purpose of sharing on social media. That’s a drawback of using a different photography approach. Depth map, RAW support and huge RAW data enthusiasts can work with is a plus for the 9.
Edited photos from 9 PureView from Twitter #teampureview
As I mentioned, the review is quite lengthy and if you’re interested to see more photo samples, video samples and find out some other details like the modem with LTE Cat.16 support or OZO Audio recording with 4 and not 3 mics, do check out the full review at VK.com.
