What most smartphones do these days is to a sequel on one successful headliner, and just as we expected, HMD decided to continue the Nokia 6 series. And I think it’s an amazing idea since the 2017 model was reported to have sold more than 10 million units and that is the reason HMD decided to make the best use of this opportunity.
The new Nokia 6.1 also known as Nokia 6 (2018), which was announced in January 2018 comes with a whole lot of modifications from the last year’s own. If you observe the Nokia 6.1 carefully, you will notice its screen bezels has been trimmed and comes with a powerful and much more modern Snapdragon 630 chip.
And the list of the upgrade continues with newer Bluetooth 5.0, high-quality audio recording, and much more.
Read on to know more about all the details of the Nokia 6.1 design, specs, features, price and release date.
Design
The Nokia 6.1 does not feature much fancy design, because the company decided to keep it user-friendly, basic and comfortable. And I know that most people will agree with me that there is beauty in simplicity
The camera glass and around the frame are painted with a nice color, which serves as a design booster. The Nokia 6.1 also features an anodized aluminum body, that seems to almost cover the whole back, and perfectly flat around the sides of this device. The small chamfers are covered with gold color on the blue model, copper on the black, and iron on the white version.
The Nokia 6.1 still retains the same 5.5″ 1080p screen featured on the old Nokia 6, but the bezels on the Nokia 6.1 has been trimmed and the fingerprint sensor is at the back. The new Nokia smartphone extends at 148.8 x 75.8 x 8.2 mm, which equals half a centimeter shorter. The new device also weighs 172 g, just 3g on top of the Nokia 6.
The front of the Nokia 6.1 is covered with a large Gorilla Glass 3, 2.5D-finished as usual. We prefer the third edition which seems to be a little bit old but is more resilient to scratches.
Along the top and bottom edges, there is an antenna strip at the back. The Nokia 6.1 now has its fingerprint sensor moved to the back, below the camera and it is very reliable and accurate. Also, there is a big ZEISS logo on the camera glass.
The Nokia 6.1 still retains those popular ports, and this includes the analog audio one, and the speakers on the new Nokia 6.1 is now located at the bottom behind a small grille.
The Nokia 6.1 now has a secured grip and feels really great in the hand, though the device still a tad bigger than I would prefer in a 5.5-inches. The black version of the Nokia 6.1 is all matte, but still
We already mentioned the secure grip, but we also want to acknowledge the overall positive impressions from when handling the Nokia 6.1. It feels great in hand, and although it’s a tad bigger than we’d prefer for a 5.5-inches, we are still fond of the overall feeling of security and sturdiness. The black model is all matte, but it still got some smudges. Nevertheless, the white and blue ones don’t have such problems.
Camera
Coming down to the camera section, on the surface you may not be able to notice any difference between the Nokia 6.1 and its predecessor. At the back of the Nokia 6.1, you will see a 16MP camera sensor with f/2.0 aperture and phase detection autofocus (PDAF). While at the front of the Nokia 6.1 is seated an 8MP selfie shooter with an 84-degree wide angle lens.
There is also an amazing feature on the Nokia 6.1 cameras and it is called the Dual View feature, and what it does is to enable you to capture images with the back and front cameras at once.
Performance
The Nokia 6.1 is also an Android One program, and this means that it gets pure Android and also runs on the Oreo 8.1 coupled with the most recent security patch.
When you wake up the phone clock, notification cards, two shortcuts on the bottom shows up. Though even with waking it up ambient display will still show you notifications and a clock, you must first enable this feature first. There is also the standard Android 8 home screen that comes with a pull-up app drawer.
The notifications and quick toggles shade usually change color depending on the wallpaper you are using – black for darker ones, while the white is for lighter ones.
If you double press the power button the camera will be launched and if you swipe across the fingerprint scanner the notifications will be brought down.
Google Play Music is in charge of the audio player, while Photos is in charge of video playback and gallery-related tasks.
The Nokia 6.1 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chipset and it’s an amazing upgrade over the former widespread Snapdragon 625 with a more powerful CPU, coupled with a great graphics boost and a massive performance leap over the Snapdragon 430 chip that is powering the former Nokia 6.
The Snapdragon 630 chip also comes with a classic octa-core Cortex-A53 processor clocked at 2.2GHz. The Nokia 6.1 comes with 3/4GB RAM and 32/64GB internal storage.
Battery
The new Nokia 6.1 comes with a 3,000 mAh battery, and this something we have seen before in the previous model. It also supports fast charging and the charger provided in the box will give you up to 38% of extra battery life in 30 minutes.
The company chose a modern Snapdragon 630 SoC (14nm) for the new Nokia 6.1 and we’ve already seen some pretty good scores on other flagship Android One phones that operate with the same chip – the Moto X4 and HTC U11 Life. The Nokia 6.1 was quite impressive on the standalone tests, with a little above the average standby consumption, the Nokia 6.1 final endurance rating was 76 hours.
Other Features
- FM ~ Yes, with RDS,
- 3.5mm Jack ~ Yes,
- Expandable storage ~ Yes.
Nokia 6.1 Price
The Nokia 6.1 is currently available in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. You can also buy this Nokia smartphone at leading online stores in your country. The Nokia 6.1 Price falls within the range of $248 to $345, which is equivalent to 90,000 Naira to 125,000 Naira in Nigeria and it’s also depending on your location.
Verdict
The Nokia 6.1 features a noteworthy improvement over the last year’s Nokia 6, and this time it comes with a much better chipset and a slimmer body. The new device also features a great 5.5″ screen with a nice performance. The camera does not feature many notable upgrades but at least the selfie shooter saves face (even literally).