Nokia 6.1 Plus (Nokia X6)

While Nokia 6 was a capable model, Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with some improvements that make it stand out in the mid-range battle. Priced at Rs. 15,999, Nokia 6.1 Plus follows the tradition of providing a durable look to its phone along with some decent hardware to keep the Nokia fans delighted.

Nokia 6.1 Plus may not be a stunner, but it is designed in a way that will set your eyes on it. On top of that, the exterior design hides some capable hardware underneath – arriving with a potent processor, great display and the wonderful, bloat-free Android One.

If you are an Android Purist looking for a reliable model, then you cannot go wrong with the Nokia 6.1 Plus.

The Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a glass front and back and an aluminum frame to make it a bit rigid. It comes with a notched display which comes with chunky bezels, and the Nokia logo present at the chin. The phone is designed to be compact and easy to pocket, though it is not easy to handle with one hand.

The Gloss Black model is smooth on the back and appears classy, but it does tend to attract a lot of fingerprint smudges. There are accents present around the fingerprint sensor, power button and volume button adding a bit of flair to the design.

At first, the low weight might seem lacking, yet the phone holds up well enough. There is a dual-camera setup placed on the rear which has a pill-shaped house. The USB Type-C port is fitted at the bottom. It does not come with a headphone jack.

The Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a 5.8-inch full-HD+ display with a 19:9 aspect ratio. The screen comes with the popular Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protecting it against scratches. The screen has limited bezels, so you get a lot of screen space to play with, though the phone does come with a thick chin.

The display is quite punchy, delivering vivid colors. It has decent viewing angles too. Brightness is good enough, and it is legible outdoors as well. Display-wise, the phone stands proud.

The single loudspeaker placed at the bottom delivers clear audio, but it downgrades from the stereo speakers that were present in the Nokia 6.

Nokia 6.1 Plus arrives with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 chipset which is one of the best processors of the 600 series. It provides a consistent experience with basic tasks like web browsing and social media apps as well as intensive tasks.

The loading time of apps is quick and multi-tasking is snappy. Graphics-intensive games tend to work well too, like Asphalt 9, which runs smoothly and does not experience frame-drops. However, it does lag in high settings.

The phone gets about 4,936 points on Geekbench which is quite impressive and stands well for the phone at this price range.

The Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a 16MP primary camera with an f/2.0 aperture along with a 5MP monochrome secondary camera with an f/2.4 aperture and dual-LED flash. The app has some features like AR stickers, dual-sight mode to superimpose the shots taken with the rear and front camera, AI-assisted portraits, as well as live bokeh.

The portrait shots turn out to be marvelous with excellent edge detection between background and subject. In daylight, the rear camera was able to capture a lot of details but the dynamic range was just average. Indoor shots were good, with the images being both crisp and detailed. However, the colors appeared a bit washed out.

Low-light performance was mixed. The details were passable, but the autofocus struggled with speed and locking on subjects.  

The Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a 16MP front camera with an f/2.0 aperture and fixed focus. It clicks decent images with the front camera though, in low-light, it fails to draw in enough light and hence, noisy photos come out.

The phone comes with Dual-sight feature too. It was first seen in Nokia 8. In this feature. Users can click pictures using both the rear and front camera at the same time; however, the quality of both the images drop.

Front camera videos can go up to 1080p while the rear camera video can go up to 4K. You can also live stream videos using the Dual Sight feature. However, the quality is just about decent.

Nokia 6.1 Plus arrives with a 3,060 mAh battery which is quite impressive. In HD video loop test, it was able to go for 12 hours and 10 minutes. The phone stayed alive for about a day with moderate and heavy use like gaming, social media, Google maps, etc., which still had a 20% charge left. The phone comes with Quick Charge 4.0 but requires two and a half hours to get a full charge.

Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with a lot of upgrades from the Nokia 6.1. It has a consistent performance, fast software, and a vibrant display. It is an accomplished phone. However, the phone is not the best. It has a poor set of cameras which performs poorly in low-light and passably in the low-light situations. It also has an average battery.

If you are not looking for a phone for cameras, then this could be a great phone to go for because of decent performance and the fantastic stock Android. However, for better cameras, you can go for Redmi Note 5 Pro or Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1.