Nokia 6.1 Plus (Nokia X6) Review

HMD Global has launched its new flagship, Nokia X6, in China. This device, previously seen with name Nokia X, was unveiled in Beijing earlier this month. It seemed at first that HMD Global would be avoiding the trend and going against common practices in Android market. It did, after all, put nearly pure Android in its Nokia phones but with Nokia X6, it proved it could also play a part in notch game. It aims to offer mid-range specs in a premium-feeling body and is first Nokia smartphone to come equipped with Snapdragon 636 processor. With a premium looking body, notched display and good overall midrange specs, does Nokia X6 has what it takes to win midrange segment in Android market in 2018? Especially when there are some majorly popular phones in this segment, such as Xiaomi Note 5 Pro? Let's find out.

Nokia X6 exudes an aluminum alloy overall unibody just like Nokia 7 Plus, sporting copper edges as well. Phone looks attractive no doubt at first glance, but in my analysis, it won't blow your mind. It is indeed eye catching, though, but also very well built. Phone has rounded corners with a metal frame giving it a pretty Nokia look and with its glass back, phone certainly looks like a solidly built, premium device.

At front, there is a large display with a tiny bezel at bottom, holding Nokia branding. On top of device, there's a small notch which holds front facing camera together with earpiece. On back of Nokia X6, there's a dual rear camera starting a vertical train at top middle following an LED Flash light underneath. Dual camera module pops out of phone's body rather prominent and has a silver trim for finish. Phone is still loaded with a rear fingerprint scanner below camera module even though it supports Face ID that unlocks your device at a glance. Rest of back is kept clean with only Nokia branding below fingerprint scanner. Turning over to sides, it measures 7.8mm in thickness and weighs 175g overall.

On right side of device is where you'll find power button and volume keys with left side kept clean. On top of phone, there's a sim card tray, an infrared sensor and a 3.5 mm headphone jack which I really appreciate Nokia for including, even in 2018. At bottom, there's a bottom firing speaker grille and a USB Type-C port for fast charging.

Sooner or later, we knew that trending notch will find its way to Nokia and that is exactly what has happened with Nokia X6. There's a 5.8-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 2280p, pixel density of 435 ppi and aspect ratio of 19:9. Display looks absolutely beautiful, ensuring details will be sharp and clear enough for users. Thanks to notch, screen stretches up to 82% screen to body ratio.

In my test, display entertains you with sharp and apparent views. Overall performance of display is quite outstanding as it takes your enjoyment to the next level while playing games and watching HD movies. Colors are sharp with warmth set to optimal settings in my opinion. They appear to be well contrasted without being too forced as I did not see any color dominating the other, nothing seems burned but everything is cold enough. It brightens up well enough for you to use it under direct sunlight and more screen real estate means easy navigation. Some people might not like the fact that Nokia went for a controversial notched design, and rightly so as it appears as an obstruction while watching videos and playing games. However, in my usage, after a while I completely stopped noticing notch and my viewing experience was nothing but sublime.

As it is equipped with ambient color temperature sensor, Nokia X6 is able to adjust its screen settings on the go to match lighting in your environment. Average color temperature is actually quite cold but if you prefer more natural colors, fortunately you can tune that in display settings. With all that said, phone does lack color and is no way comparable to AMOLED panels on Samsung Galaxy S9 and Apple iPhone X. At this price point, Nokia X6 isn't even trying to compete with big dogs so no complaints there.

Overall, it's a good display, with a modern notched look. Most Nokia fans will indeed enjoy it as it gives them more screen real estate than any other Nokia phone before.

Nokia has kept a reputation of providing powerful hardware combination at lower prices since its takeover by HMD Global. Nokia X6 is no different as well, as it features a Snapdragon 636 processor and Adreno 509 GPU, coupled with 4/6 GB of RAM and 32/64 GB of onboard storage. During my test, this combination of hardware did not give me any issues while doing regular everyday tasks. Even with mid-level specs, Nokia X6 performs exceptionally well. However, that could be also be due to relative lightness of Android 8.0 Oreo's interface. A positive thing about this device is that you'd want more on-board storage, there's a MicroSD card slot available for expansion up to 256 GB.

While my performance test, I tested this phone to more greedy applications and some games such as Arena of Valor and I was amazed that even with mid-level specs, it could run it on maximum settings at 30 fps. On PUBG Mobile, however, you'll have to default on lowest settings. Gameplay was quite stable but there are some falls here and there as PUBG is a very demanding game. Nevertheless, its pleasant to play and getting kills even at low settings won't be a problem. On benchmark test, phone scored 115932 on AnTuTu which is decent enough for midrange devices.

In terms of other connectivity there's USB-C, which supports Quick Charge 3.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 4G, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, A-GPS and a much welcomed 3.5mm headphone jack. For speaker, there's a single bottom firing speaker which is good enough for everyday use, but it isn't as loud or immersive as dual speaker setups on Apple iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy S9.

Overall, it's a well-rounded hardware combination on a budget smartphone, one which is definitely going to fulfill all basic needs of an Android user.

Nokia X6 comes equipped with a 3060 mAh battery to ensure comfortable autonomy. In my battery test, Nokia X6 impressed me as I would barely see its battery percentage drop while regular use. Phone has excellent standby time and last a full day on a single charge comfortably. For heavy users, however, they'll need to carry a charger around but thankfully, Nokia has provided a fast charging brick with phone so not a lot of worries there. Even though Nokia X6 has a glass back, it doesn't support wireless charging and that's a downer. But considering price of phone, it's not a huge deal.

During my charging test, battery went from 0 to 100% in 1 hour and 58 minutes, which is definitely not the fastest charging time for a smaller battery but this due to Nokia's safe charging technology which slows down charging as it reaches near 100%, to avoid overheating and prolonging battery life.

Overall, it's an average battery but with Snapdragon 636's efficient power consumption, it is a smart choice by Nokia.

Nokia is famously known to include Carl Zeiss optics in its smartphones to enhance smartphone photography, but with Nokia X6, company decided to ditch Carl Zeiss and keep things simple. To ensure successful photo, Nokia X6 has a dual camera setup with one 16 MP main sensor with 1.0µm sensor size and a 5 MP depth sensor, having an f/2.0 and an f/2.2 aperture respectively. Main sensor is stabilized through Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS).

In broad daylight, where lighting conditions are good, I found no issues with this camera performance. Photos taken were sharp, well-lit and exposure was on the right side of spectrum. Colors in photos are right, with dynamic range assured to match natural settings with optimal sharpness. It's really hard to find anything to complain about knowing this isn't an expensive phone.

As we change lighting conditions, however, Nokia X6 starts to struggle with photography. Noise is present in every shot with image losing its sharpness. Nevertheless, colors are still respectively in-tact and results are not extremely unpleasant as long as we do not zoom too much into image. There's Portrait Mode available which uses secondary depth sensor to seclude subject from background. It works well, much better than software portrait modes on mid-range smartphones these days. I really appreciate subject to background distance and contours. But again, as compared to top dogs like Google Pixel 2 and Apple iPhone X, portrait mode on Nokia X6 is no match and at this price point, no one should be comparing either.

At front of device, there's a 16 MP sensor with an f/2.0 aperture which does justice to selfies. As expected, result is great in daylight, with deteriorating quality and noise presence in photos in dimly lit environment. Portrait mode is also available at front, but here Nokia uses software based Bokeh implementation to blur background. It works well and fulfil its duty as long as you're not against bright light coming directly at your face.

On video front, Nokia X6 can shoot videos up to 1080p at 30 fps. Sadly, there's no 4K video support available here as that requires a much powerful processor. Videos shot are nothing to get excited about, however, and Nokia X6's competitor Xiaomi Note 5 Pro shoots videos with better exposure and detail than Nokia. At best, it looks like a video taken from an old flagship device of 2016. Worse part about shooting videos on Nokia X6 is that they come out pretty shaky as EIS doesn't perform as good as OIS. Colors, however, look much more natural on videos shot from Nokia X6 as compared to ones shot from Xiaomi Note 5 Pro.

Surprisingly, Nokia X6 does feature a slow-motion mode but Nokia doesn't specify at which frame rate it renders slow-mo videos. Judging by quality, it's nothing impressive and just a gimmick in my opinion.

In the end, I will rate Nokia X6's camera as an average camera at best, with good daylight photography and compromising low-light performance. Even at this midrange price point, there are many other options available with better camera performance than Nokia X6.

Nokia has recently launched smartphones with stock Android and that's exactly what you'll get on Nokia X6. Phone ships with Android One program, shipping Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. There's no apps launcher and all apps are displayed on screen and Nokia has tuned phone's UI to look more pleasant to eyes, even with almost zero tweaks. There are all Google apps that you find on stock Android with a little Nokia Ecosystem of services as well.

Nokia has promised two OS updates for this device so Android P must be right around the corner, however, you already get gesture navigation, even with Android Oreo. It is simple, intuitive and with simple gestures like swipe from bottom to top and left to right, you can carry out all navigation activities as you would through on-screen Android navigation buttons.

There are some Nokia exclusive features as well to be found and my personal favorite is AI floating touch which is nothing but a worked around version of iOS's Assistive Touch. It has a blue gradient around its edges and when prompted via touch, shows plenty of options arranged in a circular design. You can arrange these options and add apps you most frequently use to increase overall speed and productivity of phone's User Interface. Phone also features Eye Protection Mode which works similar to iOS's Night Mode. It basically warms up colors on screen so that white light from phone's display does not disturb your sleeping pattern at night. You can set warmth intensity through settings pretty easily to suit your needs.

Phone also comes with 3D touch function with which you can open some apps like camera and gallery quickly. Interface is very snappy thanks to bloatware-free stock Android. You won't notice any lag on this device since response time is quick and smooth. It's also designed with face recognition technology as well as a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor for maximum security. Face ID works well but not as fast on some Xiaomi Redmi phones.

Android One difference is crucial here. While Nokia smartphones do run nearly vanilla Android and get fast updates, Android One phones come with an explicit commitment from Google itself. That is, these phones are promised to get two years of software updates and three years of security updates, both starting at the time of the phone's launch.

Other than that, it is a basic, stock Android experience. One which pure Android fans would definitely love. It is smooth, basic, intuitive and I personally really enjoyed it.

Nokia X6 is available for pre-order in China in three different colors: Black, Dark Blue and Silver. It will be coming in three versions at the following prices: 4GB RAM / 32GB ROM for $200, 4GB RAM / 64GB ROM for $235, 6GB RAM / 64GB ROM for $265. Specific Nokia X6 release date isn't yet known, nor are wider availability details available yet.

It is a fresh entry in Nokia's smartphone catalog, with a modern notched display, 19:9 aspect ratio, a well-equipped Snapdragon 636 processor and a solid build and design. Fact that Nokia X6 goes toe to toe to Xiaomi Note 5 Pro shows how serious HMD global is in this segment. This is in fact, best value for money in a Nokia phone yet as they have done a great job with it. You get a sublime build quality, a large modern display, stock Android which is pretty intuitive and guaranteed updates for 2 years which makes this phone a great player in smartphone mid-range market.

There are a few things where I thought that Nokia could've done better though. Camera on Nokia X6 isn't impressive at all. For most part, its competitor Xiaomi Note 5 Pro performs better at camera department. Videos are very shaky from Nokia X6 and at a point, it went close to unbearable while recording in low light. This can be debated, that Nokia hasn't planned this phone for photography lovers but when your competitor is right up your alley and performing better than you, you are bound to have serious problems in convincing users.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of stock Android phones and Nokia has been impressive in past with their Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 7 Plus's software roll outs, so I have high hopes for this device. I am just hoping that HMD Global has plans for international roll out of this device, as currently it's only available in China. In the end, I would like to say that it is a promising device and if you don't care a lot about camera, this is indeed a device to reckon in midrange segment.