Nokia 6 specs review: here's what makes it click and tick

Fans of the beloved Finnish phone brand of old definitely have a reason or two to celebrate the return of the legendary name on the market. With HMD Global Oy in the helm, the legendary five-lettered brand, which is pretty much one of the most recognizable phone brands on a global scale, has finally found its way to the front and back of a regular Android smartphone. This has been a long-time dream of many Nokia fans, and lo and behold, the early days of 2017 delivered the Nokia 6, a pioneering mid-range handset that will have the hard task of proving its mettle against the wide selection of aggressively-priced Chinese superstars. As far as we know, this device will be available in mainland China only, but we don't doubt that similar smartphones will be released in other major markets in the foreseeable and not-so-distant future. 

Back to the Nokia 6, we decided that we should inspect its specs sheet and see what makes it click and tick.

One of the many things that made Nokia great once upon a time was the legendary durability of its phones. Okay, the latter did not apply to just every Nokia out there, but just google "Nokia 3310 durability" and you'll easily see that the general public even to this day has a pretty high opinion about the almost mythic Nokia build quality. Indeed, HMD Global has some pretty big shoes to fill not only with the Nokia 6, but also with all the upcoming devices it's about to unveil. 

As far as dimensions are considered, the 6 towers at 6.06 inches (154mm), spans some 2.98 inches across (75.8mm) and is relatively thick at 0.33 inches (8.4mm). The whole shebang clocks in at 5.96 oz (169 gr), which is pretty much comparable with similarly-sized devices. Made of aluminum and glass, the device employs the de facto standard design for a smartphone in this day and age. Until a better combination comes along, this one will hardly get dethroned. Also, just as it's trendy of late, the screen is slightly curved towards the edge of the frame, forming an ever-so-slight curve. Finally, the phone works out a screen-to-body ratio of 71.59%, which is nothing to write home about.

The fingerprint scanner embedded in the home button at the front is a sign of the times we live in.

As the Nokia 6 is a mid-range affair, it's not surprising to find a full HD display up there at the front of the handset. Shielded by Gorilla Glass 3, it's a 5.5-inch panel that is acceptably sharp with a pixel density of 401ppi. It's not up there with the leading devices in terms of screen sharpness, but we bet you wouldn't be able to discern any individual pixels even if you squinted your eyes hard. The display itself is an IPS LCD one, though we suppose that HMD Global might want to experiment with AMOLED screens in the future. We hope that the Nokia 6 will surprise us with better than average color calibration of the display itself.

We are nearing that one aspect of the Nokia 6 that has definitely disappointed many -- the processor. We suppose that most people expected the first full-blown Nokia smartphone with Android device to be a specc'd-out flagship, but it seems a more humble and tame start has been favored.

In particular, a Snapdragon 430 can be found inside the Nokia 6, a mid-range, 64-bit octa-core affair, built on a 28nm manufacturing process.

Some of the devices that are utilizing this chipset are the Lenovo K6, the Asus ZenFone 3 Laser, and the Xiaomi Redmi 3s, which can be viewed as direct competitors to the Nokia 6. 

Our experience shows that the Snapdragon 430 will meet your needs perfectly when regular everyday tasks are involved, but power users would likely find out that one pretty lacking in raw performance. That is to be expected from such a tame chipset, so potential owners of the Nokia 6 should definitely tone down their expectations.

The Nokia 6 comes with 4 gigs of RAM, which is already becoming the de facto standard even for upper mid-range devices. That's pretty good, but do you know what's even better? The amount of native storage on board. The Nokia 6 arrives with 64GB of storage, though you will have a bit less at your disposal due to the fact that the phone software will be eating up a few gigabytes. In case you are a data hoarder, you can also throw in a microSD card in the available expansion slot and use up to 128GB of additional storage.

There's a 3,000mAh battery in the phone's trunk. That's a relatively minuscule battery for a phone of that size which makes us think that the Nokia 6 might not be s stellar endurance marathoner. We'd love to be proven wrong, and we have high hopes that this juicer's combination with the Snapdragon 430 might turn out better than expected.

A 16MP camera with phase-detection autofocus can be found at the rear of the Nokia 6. The camera has an f/2.0 aperture and the sensor's pixels are 1.0um in size. This combo should bring forth a not-too-shabby low-light camera performance. We can't wait to test that out, though we won't be setting our expectations way too high because that's usually a recipe for disastrous disappointments. 

Taking care of your selfie needs will be an 8MP shooter which also has an f/2.0 aperture, though the sensor's pixels are a bit larger here, clocking in at 1.12um. This means that on theory, it should be even better in low-light scenarios. The selfie camera has an effective field of view of 84 degrees, which is pleasantly wide and will fit multiple people inside the frame. One thing is for sure, though - your selfies will be detailed enough, but not excessively so.

With HMD Global in the helm, Nokia is making its baby steps on the ruthless smartphone market and so far it appears that they're taking the "Better safe than sorry" approach. In particular, the Nokia 6 looks like a pretty solid device that is sending a clear and a rather promising message, which nonchalantly hints that Nokia's focus will be fixated onto the essential features that users and consumers seem to love. Indeed, this is what the "new" Nokia will be trying to accomplish, and from the looks of it, the Nokia 6 could be an exceptional first step on the right path.