Hands on with the bargain-tastic new Nokia 6

Last year’s Nokia 6 had an important job: it had to relaunch a brand that a lot of us had thought was gone for good. It mostly succeeded, too. A year down the line, we’re getting a sequel: the new Nokia 6 improves on the original in a few major ways, but still manages to keep the price down. And that makes it a seriously tempting proposition…

DESIGN & BUILD: REASSURING

On paper, the new Nokia 6 is ever-so-slightly thicker than the original, which we thought was already pretty chunky. There’s something reassuring about that size once you get it in your hand, though – which hopefully means you’re less likely to drop it.

DESIGN & BUILD: ONE BLOCK

The whole thing is milled from a single block of aluminium to remove any signs of joins, seals or seams. The edges have even been diamond cut to give a touch of class, and a two-tone anodised finish mixes up the colour palette from the usual blacks and silvers.

DESIGN & BUILD: STAND OUT

The copper and black model seen here really looks the part, standing out in a way the monotone original phone simply didn’t. When you look at what else is out there for a similar price, this really feels like it’s punching above its weight. Good effort, Nokia.

SCREEN & SOUND: PLENTY TO SEE

Nokia hasn’t messed with a good thing, keeping the 5.5in Full HD panel that’s bright enough to see clearly outdoors, detailed enough to make text easy to read, and colourful enough to give images and videos a decent amount of punch. The new Nokia 6 isn’t quite as heavily skewed towards the blue end of the colour spectrum as its predecessor. Viewing angles also seem very good.

CAMERAS: SAME BUT GOOD

There wasn’t much to complain about on last year’s Nokia 6 when it came to the camera, and it looks like that trend will continue for 2018. The hardware is unchanged, meaning a 16MP, f/2.0 rear sensor with phase-detect AF and a dual-LED flash for low-light snapping.

CAMERAS: ZEISS ON BOARD

Zeiss optics are a welcome touch, although a logo is no indication of picture quality. We didn’t get a chance to truly test it out during our hands-on session, but seeing how the old model could take well-exposed shots with plenty of detail, we’re hopeful this successor will be up to the same task.

CAMERAS: SPECIAL TRICKS

Nokia-exclusive extras like the Bothie camera capture mode return, meaning you can snap front and back cameras simultaneously, then combine the results into one shot. It’s niche, but if you’re not a selfie fan you can ignore it and stick to the standard shooting modes.

PERFORMANCE & SOFTWARE: CAPABLE

With an updated Snapdragon 630 chip, the new Nokia 6 is quicker, more energy-friendly, and didn’t show any real signs of sluggishness during our hands-on demo session. Could it still fall down in demanding games? Sure, but then the screen resolution isn’t going to tax it too heavily, and this is still a sub-£300 phone, so you’ve got to be a bit realistic when it comes to performance.

PERFORMANCE & SOFTWARE: SOLID STATS

You get 3GB of RAM, which is ideal for multitasking on the near-stock version of Android Oreo, and 32GB of storage for your apps and games. Running short? A microSD card slot will let you add more later. There’s also going to be a higher-end 4GB/64GB version, but release territories aren’t confirmed.

EXTRAS: WIRELESS CHARGING

Nokia has added fast charging for the first time, letting you top up 50% in half an hour over a USB-C connection. A lot of cheapo phones stick with microUSB to keep the costs down, and it’s something Nokia did with the 6 last year, so it’s great to see the company listening to its critics. Battery life will hopefully be enough to get you through a day and a bit, but proper testing will have to wait for a full review.

NOKIA 6 (2018) INITIAL VERDICT

With an uprated CPU, slicker design, Android One UI and fantastic price, the updated Nokia 6 could be the £250/$300 phone we’ve been waiting for. With a launch date set for April, we won’t have long to wait to find out.