We’ve hardly had a chance to catch our breath since MWC, but fortunately we’ve managed to get our hands on Nokia’s latest recruit; the Nokia 9 PureView. And we have not been disappointed.
First stock of the Nokia 9 PureView is expected to land at Clove Technology. The device is available in Midnight Blue with 128GB internal memory and 6GB RAM for only £549 including VAT and comes with a free set of Nokia True Wireless Earbuds worth £129.
But what of the device itself?
Design and Display
When it comes to the overall design and display, the Nokia 9 PureView certainly feels like a premium device.
The screen itself is a large 5.99-inch OLED display, with a 1440 x 2880-pixel resolution at 538 pixels per inch, which produces very bright and vivid colours regardless of the angle in which it’s held. Now, there is no notch which means there is a noticeable forehead and chin on the front of the device, giving a 79.7% screen to body ratio which will certainly get mixed reviews. But this means that the screen is completely unobstructed and with a sharp 2K resolution, we’ve enjoyed playing games and watching videos on the device.
Now the case itself has been crafted from a single block of aluminium which does add a little bit of weight at 172g, but also makes the device feel robust and sturdy so the pros certainly outweigh the cons. The curved rear snuggles quite nicely inside the hand and the buttons are very easily accessible – even when using the device one handed. We particularly like the fact that the cameras – yes all of them – don’t protrude from the back casing, meaning you can lie the device flat on a surface without any real tilts.
The device is also draped in Gorilla Glass 5 to help against those everyday bumps and bruises and overall, provides a very sleek look.
Alongside, the Nokia 9 does have an in-screen fingerprint scanner as well as face unlock – although this isn’t completely secure and so you can’t use it to authenticate payments or access sensitive apps.
- 5.99-inch OLED display
- 1440 x 2880-pixel resolution
- 538ppi
- 79.7% screen-to-body ratio
- 2K resolution
- 172g
- Gorilla Glass 5
- In-screen fingerprint scanner
- Face unlock
Camera
So, that monster camera setup on the rear actually consists of five rear cameras, a flash and a time of flight sensor.
Now, when you have a phone with multiple cameras, these usually consist of a range of different lenses whether it be ultra-wide, main or telephoto. However, the Nokia 9 has five 12MP lenses, with an f/1.8 aperture and fixed focal length of 28mm. The only difference is that two of the cameras capture colour, whilst the other three are monochrome only.
This has the obvious benefit of allowing for pure black and white photography, but also, monochrome sensors can capture 2 times more light than RGB lenses and so the Nokia 9 has the potential to deliver up to 10 times more light.
So instead, the five Nokia 9 sensors work in unison to deliver a single photo rich with information. When you take a photo, all five lenses shoot different exposures at the same time and composites them into one ultra-highly detailed 12MP photograph. Now this is the first smartphone capable of shooting images from five different lenses and fusing them into one single photo.
Multiple lenses also allow for incredible depth in images, since numerous layers can be created. Nokia have actually claimed that the Nokia 9 is capable of capturing more than 1200 layers of depth data in normal photos – to put that into perspective most devices are capable of around 10 – for a distance of up to 40m away from the camera. As such, you should see far more realistic bokeh, whilst Google Photos also allows you to adjust the intensity of background and foreground blur.
If you are a keen photographer and editing photos is important to you, then the Nokia 9 may well be the best device currently available to you. This is because the device lets you save your photos both as the finished JPEG and as a RAW version. RAW is off by default so you will need to enable this, however you’re then free to edit every tiny detail as you see fit. Indeed, the Nokia 9 even allows you to install Adobe Lightroom in the setup process.
Alongside this, five lenses allow for short exposure times and so HMD Global say that this means the device doesn’t require any form of OIS. It’s also smart enough to tell when the device is completely still and will automatically switch to longer shutter speeds (of up to 10 seconds) in the dark. There are no AR stickers or novelty shooting modes as the Nokia 9 focuses entirely on pure photography, utilising ZEISS optics for the best possible image.
If selfies are your cup of tea, then just the single shooter on the front, that’s a 20MP lens with an f/1.8 aperture. There is HDR support for a complete range of colours in portraits and of course, the front lens benefits from all the software we’ve mentioned already.
- Five lens rear camera
- All 12MP, f/1.8 aperture and 28mm fixed focal length
- Two RGB, three monochrome
- Work in unison to capture animage
- 1200 layers of depth data
- Ability to save as RAW
- ZEISS optics
- 20MP front lens with f/1.8 aperture
Performance
Because of all these fancy camera specs, HMD Global had to go for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor rather than the latest 855 processor which at first may be surprising for a flagship device. This is because HMD Global enlisted the help of Light and Qualcomm to optimise the camera system to work as well as possible with the chipset. A lot of development was required to ensure that data could be processed as efficiently as possible and so this simply couldn’t have been possible with the more recent 855.
Indeed, whilst it may not be the newest chipset, it’s certainly reliable and with phones being released with Snapdragon 845 up until the end of 2018, it’s only a few months out of date. The device also has 128GB internal memory and 6GB RAM to back it up.
Alongside this, the Nokia 9 runs pure Android 9 (Pie) and has a 3,320mAh battery that’s smaller than many but will still get you through a day without any real issues. If it does die on you, then the Nokia 9 has support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and Qi wireless charging.
Rounding things up, the Nokia 9 comes with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistant, theoretically meaning it can stay alive submerged in water for up to 1m for 30 mins.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
- Android 9 (Pie)
- 3,320mAh battery
- Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
- Qi Wireless Charging
- IP67 rating