Nokia 9 PureView Hands-on: All the cameras

At Mobile World Congress 2019, HMD Global, the owner of the Nokia smartphone brand, launched a variety of new handsets, including the flagship Nokia 9 PureView. While the phone is a mixed bag of features — with a dated front-facing aesthetic, a processor from 2018 and a rear camera array with five cameras — it definitely defenseless my attention.

HMD hasn't said if the 9 PureView is coming to Canada, but either way I briefly went easily-on with the device.

Display

v.99-inch P-OLED, 1,140 10 2,080 pixels, 18:9 aspect ratio

Dimensions (in.)

155 10 75 x 8mm

Rear Facing Camera

12-megapixel (f/i.eight) x 5

Front Facing Photographic camera

twenty-megapixel

Network Connectivity

GSM/HSPA/LTE

Sensors

TOF, in-display fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyro, proximity

Launch Appointment

Feb 26, 2019

Misc

Colours: Midnight Blue

Nokia 9 PureView

5.99-inch P-OLED, ane,140 x 2,080 pixels, xviii:9 aspect ratio

Nokia ix PureView

Snapdragon 845

Nokia 9 PureView

6GB of RAM

Nokia 9 PureView

155 10 75 x 8mm

Nokia 9 PureView

12-megapixel (f/1.viii) x 5

Nokia 9 PureView

20-megapixel

Nokia ix PureView

Android 9 Pie

Nokia 9 PureView

3,320mAh bombardment

Nokia nine PureView

GSM/HSPA/LTE

Nokia 9 PureView

TOF, in-display fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyro, proximity

Nokia 9 PureView

Nano SIM

Nokia 9 PureView

February 26, 2019

Nokia 9 PureView

Colours: Midnight Blue

2017 Aesthetic

From the forepart, the Nokia 9 PureView looks similar a lot of smartphones from 2017.

It features considerable pinnacle and lesser bezels and a single front-facing camera with an Nokia logo side by side. While some dislike brandish notches, they add extra screen real manor and that's something the PureView could apply more of: the phone features a modest 79.7 pct screen-to-body ratio.

The device reminds me of handsets similar the LG G6 and the OnePlus 5T. With information technology being 2019, the smartphone would take benefitted from a slimmer profile.

Flipping the 9 PureView over reveals the handset's almost circular seven-sensor camera array. Fifty-fifty by 2019 standards, the setup is impressive. It includes a fourth dimension of flying sensor, a dual LED flash module and five camera sensors.

The handset also includes an in-brandish fingerprint sensor, which farther accentuates its mixed bag of features.

The 9 PureView feels quite light. Weighing in at 172g, it'southward lighter than the OnePlus half dozen and iPhone XS. With its light body and slightly rounded corners, the device was easy to hold, simply it felt slippery and the back drinking glass was a fingerprint magnet.

The handset sports a unibody blueprint with 6,000 series aluminium that seamlessly blends into a Gorilla Glass 5 display. On the bottom, there's no three.5mm headphone port, only at that place is a USB-C port for charging.

On the correct side, you tin find the volume rocker and power push.

Display-wise, the handset features a 5.99-inch P-OLED screen with a 2,880 x 1,440-pixel resolution and HDR10. The screen wasn't perfect, especially when compared to screens on phones like the Samsung Galaxy S10 or LG G8, but it offered rich blacks and a lot of color. The screen was a fleck on the saturated side. However, it still depicted colours accurately and pictures looked dandy and true-to-life.

Say cheese 10 5

HMD used Nokia'south PureView, a brand that was previously associated with Lumia phones. Both the Nokia Lumia 920 and 930 were PureView Lumia devices, that featured on-chip epitome processors for — at the time — better image sampling, digital zoom and reduced noise. Information technology's safe to say that Nokia assembly its PureView brand with phones with high-level camera functioning.

The chief highlight of this telephone is its v rear-facing cameras. HMD has placed three monochromatic sensors for contrast, depth and exposure, likewise as two RGB sensors for colour. Each of the five cameras sport 12-megapixel sensors, which tin can shoot simultaneously.

HMD says some of the advantages of its camera is the ability to capture 1200 layers of depth, capture more item and that it has a better loftier dynamic range than phones that use fewer cameras.

I thought the images I took looked decent, though I took them while in a convention heart that didn't have the best lighting. What I found interesting was the ability to take a moving picture in the normal photographic camera mode then being able to go into the Photos app and change the depth of field on whatever of subject, whether the subject field was in the foreground, the groundwork or in between. HMD says it'south able to make these depths of field effect changes by producing 1200 layers of depth with each bailiwick having its ain layer of depth.

Phones similar the iPhone XS and Samsung's Galaxy Note ix and S10 tin change depth after taking pictures, however, beingness able to specifically pick a subject area and alter the depth around information technology is something that the Nokia 9 PureView was able to do easily.

During the hands-on, HMD Global showed off some of the native blackness and white photography that they allegedly took with the Nokia ix PureView. I was impressed by the pictures and I'k looking forward to testing out its monochrome manner. When taking pictures in blackness and white, the 9 PureView uses its 3 monochrome sensors, so that the resulting photos are improve exposed and feature more detail than photos taken by phones with a single monochrome sensor.

HMD says that its pictures can capture anywhere from 60 megapixels worth of data up to 240 megapixels worth of data when each camera shoots four times and fuses all of the information that is captured into one image.

On superlative of all of this, the 9 PureView tin can capture images in RAW and allows users to edit these images in Adobe Lightroom on-device.

HMD worked with Zeiss Eyes, camera startup Light and Qualcomm on the five-photographic camera setup. The Snapdragon 845 actually only supports three rear-facing cameras simply Qualcomm optimized the chip to piece of work with all the 9 PureView's cameras.

Nokia 9 PureView processor, battery and availability

The Nokia 9 PureView sports a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM, Android 9 Pie and a 3,320mAh battery. I thought the 9 PureView ran pretty apace, though I didn't become the take a chance to truly put information technology through its paces.

That said, its 2018 processor is definitely not on par with phones like the S10 and the LG G8 with their Snapdragon 855 chipset. Additionally, the device runs Android I, a almost-stock version of Android used by many of the company'southward other handsets.

Aslope a 2018 processor the 9 PureView sports wireless charging.

The Nokia 9 PureView isn't the best out there, nor is it the showiest, just it can take a skillful picture.