Nokia 9 PureView

Nokia 9 PureView can be one of the most ambitious phones coming from a reliable brand. Priced at Rs. 59,990, the phone might look awkward at first, but it surely stands out from its competition.

Nokia 9 PureView has five cameras on its back panel which looks eerily similar to arachnid eyes. However, the distinctive feature does not show well with its poor camera performance. Plus, the phone performance is ill-equipped to handle as many cameras, thereby making the phone unsuitable for recommendations.

Nokia 9 PureView does not look very different than other smartphones – it has a glass front and rear along with aluminium sides. The sides have been polished, and they gleam, giving it a premium shine. However, when you’re holding it, you can feel the lack of premium materials that other phones arrive with. The sides of the phone do not have the typical rounded edges, and the rear is just slightly curved. It is hard to hold and can slip out of hand. The sleek glass rear makes it look costly, but it comes with one of the most common issues of glass backs: it becomes a fingerprint magnet. The camera on this handset is well placed, but it does have a bump that makes it sticks out like a sore thumb. The volume rocker coupled with the power button is near the top-right, while the bottom carries the USB Type-C port. Unfortunately, it does not have a headphone jack.

The in-display fingerprint scanner is not the best, failing to recognise registered fingerprints, unless it is placed just right. Facial recognition is snappy, but it does not come with 3D facial recognition – chances of a face photograph unlocking the phone is high.

Nokia 9 comes with a 5.99-inch OLED display with a QHD resolution of 2880 x 1440 pixels. It is sharp and can produce vibrant colours with fantastic brightness. Compared with the competition, the phone displays accurate colours but may appear oversaturated when compared to pricier models.

Much of the display depends on the mode – a picture can look more vivid in ‘basic’ mode and a bit muted in ‘dynamic ‘ mode. The phone does have a notch and slight bezels, but it’s not a drastic quality drop. You get enough screen space to work with.

Nokia 9 is packed with the powerful Snapdragon 845. Thanks to the Android One bloat-free interface, the phone is capable of gearing up the performance without facing any stutters. It can run games smoothly at high settings without any noticeable lags. The phone beats Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s 8875 points by getting 9014 points on Geekbench multicore ratings. However, the phone does slow down between photo modes. That might be because the Snapdragon 845 is capable of handling three cameras – the five cameras of the phone slows it down.

To lower stress, the phone uses the Light Lux Capacitor, which wrangles the images from all five rear cameras and processes it to 240MP before bringing it to the processor. It keeps the phone from becoming very sluggish.

The five-lens camera set up is the main highlight of Nokia 9. It has two 12MP colour cameras with an f/1.8 aperture and three monochrome cameras that simultaneously combine photos. This setup helps to get better range and colour depth though the images appear darker and muted. Subjects in darker backgrounds look good, but bright light blows out subjects out of proportion.

Daylight shots appear less vivid, and since the quality changes with a slight variation of light rays, clicking multiple photos is recommended. There is a gauzy quality to the images. Monochrome shots come out fine, but they are quite dark. A bit of tweaking is desired to make it look better.

The front-facing 20MP camera comes with the same opposite problem – it is too sharp and fails to handle multiple lights. Bright backgrounds are blown out of proportion.

The Nokia 9 comes with a 3,320mAh battery. It is an adequate battery which keeps the phone fueled up for an entire day. It also comes with Quick Charge 3.0 which can juice up the phone in just over an hour.

The Nokia 9 PureView may look peculiar, but it comes with an ambition to produce great shots. The problem is, while the purpose is respectable, it does not live up to it. The camera seems to work differently in different light settings and produces muted shots. The processor is inadequate to handle the 5-camera setup. Plus, the fingerprint scanner is very slow. The back looks like spider eyes which can be an idiosyncratic design, though it does not look that good.

This phone could be useful for photographers, but they would require editing apps to make the shots decent. Otherwise, if you are looking for a well-rounded phone, then go for the OnePlus 6T for better all-round performance.