By Scott Kramer
My wife is not one to get excited about new technology. Unlike me, it just doesn’t faze her one way or the other. Case in point: She still watches the low definition channels on our TV. So I knew I was onto something last week, when I unboxed Nokia’s new 6.1 smartphone running on Android 8.0 Oreo/Android One. For some reason, my wife was watching me. And when I lifted up the phone from the box, her jaw dropped. “That looks like a really high-end phone, with the copper edging around it,” she said. “How much does it cost?” This is a huge deal in our house that she even noticed. And the bottom line is, she’s absolutely right. This otherwise all-black phone I had in my hand (it’s also offered in white) has a premium look, with those edges. To answer her question, it sells for $269.
If you’ve been in the market lately for a smartphone from one of the major manufacturers — as I have — you know how expensive they are. So the Nokia’s price is pretty reasonable for a smartphone armed with its features. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 630 Mobile Platform — making it faster by 60 percent than its predecessor, the original Nokia 6, with a more compact and durable body. It also has a 5.5-inch full HD IPS laminated display, 16MP rear camera with ZEISS optics, 8MP wide-angle front camera, and USB type-C fast charging. The latter allows you to charge it halfway in just 30 minutes. According to the manufacturer, the body is made from a solid block of 6000 series aluminium and an 11-hour two-tone anodizing and polishing process. Its display is damage-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass.
I’ve now been testing the Nokia for more than a week. It runs pretty smoothly, as billed. It actually does everything fairly well. I’ve had many apps open simultaneously, watched TV on it, surfed the web, texted, used it as a GPS device, taken photos and videos, etc. — everything most people do on their phones. It’s snappy, as well, and hasn’t buffered during video playback.
While the screen is bright, I don’t see the contrast it’s billed as having. I think its range of colors is shallow, compared to the bigger name, high-end phones. Again, it’s adequate, but nothing rich. Besides, if I was printing out any of the photos, I could enhance the saturation with photo-editing software if needed.
The phone has some other welcome features, such as face recognition for quickly unlocking the phone; fingerprint sensor nicely positioned on the back; picture-in-picture; and “enhanced Dual-Sight” that gives you the ability to use both front and rear cameras at the same time in a live video stream for social media. I love that you can still insert a microSD card, to add storage.
Overall, the Nokia won’t best any of the most-popular smartphones out on the market, when you compare the entire package. But for the relatively small price, it’s a solid option that looks and feels good in your hands.
Scott Kramer is veteran, Southern California-based writer primarily versed in golf and personal technology. Studying Computer Sciences in college, and then working as a programmer/software engineer for about a decade, triggered my passion for today’s high-end, high-tech gadgets. I can’t help myself whenever I see any kind of cool new personal technology. I feel compelled to further check it out and see what it’s all about. And even if I have no use for it personally, I’m always thinking who it might best suit. There are exciting new innovations emerging daily that are shaping the future and simplifying life. And I hope to be your eyes to that world, through the words of this column.