HMD Global has released its most high-end and ambitious flagship phone yet, the Nokia 9 PureView that has five cameras on the back, which is the highest in any smartphone device yet.
Before we declare that Nokia has come alive again with its new Nokia 9 PureView, let’s unlock its specifications to know how the device evokes the old glory days of Nokia.
Starting with the cameras, the two out of five cameras in Nokia 9 PureView are RGB while the remaining three are monochrome — i.e. these shoot in B/W and all these work simultaneously. Similarly, each of these is an f/1.8, 12MP lens.
When the camera shutter is pressed, all the five cameras shoot different exposures at the same time thereby producing one ultra-detailed shot. Nokia itself said that the individual cameras can also shoot multiple exposures on their own that summons up data to the final image.
And if you remember the Light L16 camera, one that has 16 camera modules in a single device, Nokia partnered with the same Light company to produce the outcome in its Nokia 9 PureView. It’s using Light’s Lux Capacitor camera-control chip to manage the five cameras. This is because the Snapdragon 845 chipset can only handle up to three camera lenses out of the box, though Nokia says that it has optimized its cameras on the PureView device as much as possible by working with Qualcomm.
Something that seems disappointing is the single focal length in all the cameras of this device. With all these camera innovations, partnerships, and promises already going on, it’s obvious to expect more versatility from the cameras.
Talking about the image processing, we’re not exactly clear about how much time does the device take to process the captured image but shooting in RAW DNG mode is pretty slow: around 10 seconds. But as it’s not in default, Nokia 9 PureView captures JPEG images faster and you’ll have to go through the manual mode to use the other.
But with a camera phone — with 5 sensors — in your hand, you’d definitely like to shoot outside of the auto mode right? And besides processing time, you can enjoy what the camera can shoot.
Also, good news for Adobe fans, Nokia is teaming up with Adobe for this device and thus the Adobe Lightroom comes preinstalled. Nokia and Adobe are also developing Lightroom Presets specifically tuned to the lenses on the Nokia 9 PureView.
Other than the cameras, Nokia 9 Pureview offers close specifications to other Android flagship. The software on the phone is totally stock and gives you those Pixel phone vibes and the phone uses slightly older Snapdragon 845 processor as opposed to other phones that are being announced in 2019 with an attempt to adopt the newest tech possible.
About other specifications, the phone comes with a 5.99-inch 2K OLED panel display, in-display fingerprint sensor, face unlock system, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, IP67 waterproofing, and a 3,320 mAh battery. And mind it, there’s no headphone jack here. There’s Gorilla Glass on both the front and back sandwiching an aluminum side of the phone.
Nokia 9 PureView will be up for sale for $699 in the US and as per the announcement by Nokia, it’ll be available from March in the market while the price will vary according to it. As for the markets of Nepal, expect the phone to cost around NRs. 80,000.