Nokia 6 (2018) First Impressions Review: An Outstanding Built Housing a Smooth Performance

HMD Global has unveiled the rebranded version of its last year's budget offering, the Nokia 6, today at an event in Delhi. The smartphone was also the company's very first offering for the year when it was launched back in January. The new Nokia 6.1, as it is called, comes as an Android One device by Nokia and hence sports a stock Android smartphone experience. Just how different is the new Nokia 6.1 from its previous version and how it fairs as a smartphone in 2018, we find out in this first impressions review.

What is different?

The new Nokia 6.1 carries some modernistic upgrades over its predecessor. For instance, Nokia has done away with the capacitive touch keys and the device now uses three touch keys in its place at the bottom bezel. Even the built of the smartphone has been improved, thanks to a new metal unibody design made of 6000 series Aluminium. The fingerprint sensor is now sported at the back of the smartphone in a small and elegant circle, in comparison to its front placement in the older model.

Watch: Nokia 6 (2018) First Look at MWC 2018

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Nokia 6.1 Design

While the top bezel of the Nokia 6.1 is optimally trimmed and neatly sports the 'Nokia' logo adjacent to the front camera and the earpiece, the bottom bezel still has prominent thickness. This accounts for a 16:9 aspect ratio for the smartphone's display, a feature not very desirable in the era of 18:9 displays. The design, however, tries to make up for the lost appeal with its rounded edges covered with a copper-Gold lining throughout, giving it an elegant finish.

Nokia 6.1 carries the legacy of Nokia smartphones with its bulky, sturdy feel to the hand. Weighing at 172 grams, the device sports more of a squarish feel than the elongated design found in most of the smartphones these days. The smartphone carries only two hard keys placed neatly on the right, the volume rockers and the power button.

All in all, the Nokia 6.1 sports a very elegant design that can easily be flaunted just by carrying the smartphone in your hand. The striking colour scheme on top of the metallic finish and cautious placement of components like the hard keys and ports make up for the lack of an optimal display size.

Nokia 6 (2018) hard keys placement.(Image: Sarthak Dogra/ News18.com)

Nokia 6.1 Performance

Nokia 6.1 is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM. The combination makes the new Nokia 6 quite a competitive device and much capable to cater to those seeking a powerful performance from their smartphone. It is ideal to play games, perform multitasking operations and perform one's daily tasks smoothly.

The Nokia 6.1 runs the latest Android Oreo out-of-the-box. Even more, the smartphone is an Android One device by Nokia, meaning it gets regular Google security as well as feature updates. Moreover, the smartphone comes with an easy-to-use near stock Android UI with no bloatware to affect its performance. This is an ideal condition for a budget smartphone to deliver its maximum performance.

Nokia 6 (2018) Display.(Image: Sarthak Dogra/ News18.com)

Nokia 6.1 Camera

HMD Global boasts of its collaboration with Carl-Zeiss optics for most of its smartphone range. Nokia 6.1 is no exception to this. The device comes with a 16-megapixel primary camera with Zeiss optics and dual-tone flash, offering a 4k video recording capability i.e. on papers. In reality, the camera performance on the new Nokia 6 is equally impressive and delivers good quality images and videos. Distant parts in an image can be observed to be out of focus though.

Nokia 6 (2018) Camera.(Image: Sarthak Dogra/ News18.com)

Verdict

The new Nokia 6 is an impressive smartphone on many fronts and looking at it, a nostalgic vibe of the early Nokia handsets can be experienced, mostly thanks to the sturdy and bulky built that seems to guarantee the robustness of the phone. It is elegantly designed, delivers a smooth performance with no bloatware, and is impressive on the optics front as well.

To sum it up, the all new Nokia 6 (2018) is definitely worth more than a consideration at its price point of Rs 16,999.

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