Nokia 9 PureView Hands-On Preview

By Alex Choros

Last updated 01 March 2019

What is the Nokia 9 PureView?

The Nokia 9 PureView is one of the wildest smartphones we saw revealed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. While it doesn't fold or flex or pack a 18,000mAh battery, it has five rear-facing cameras. That's more than any other smartphone on the market.

Most other multi-camera smartphones use additional lenses to help capture ultra-wide or zoomed-in shots, but HMD has taken a different approach with the Nokia 9 PureView. The lenses are purely used to capture more detail.

The trypophobia-inducing camera array is made up of five 12MP sensors. Two shoot colour, and the remaining three shoot monochrome. When you take a photo, these lenses all fire simultaneously, shooting at different exposure levels. This gives the phone 60MP worth of data to assemble a final image with.

This should result in a more detailed photo with a wider dynamic range (the difference between the darkest and lightest element of a photo) and more depth information (for creating more realistic bokeh).

Key specifications for the Nokia 9 PureView include a 5.99-inch 1080p+ display, a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of non-expandable storage, IP68 water-resistance, an in-screen fingerprint reader, and a 3,320mAh battery. As with most Nokia devices, the Nokia 9 runs Android One (based on Pie) which means you’ll get at least two major operating system upgrades.

Nokia 9 PureView first impressions

As a smartphone, the Nokia 9 PureView feels like most other flagship devices. It's almost all glass, it has a really nice screen, and it's pretty damn fast. Exact battery life is still a question, but for the most part, it's like any other flagship device. HMD's phones just keep getting nicer. What sets the Nokia 9 PureView apart is those five rear-facing cameras.

I only had a little bit of time with the Nokia 9 PureView camera, but initial results were very promising - the photos it takes are ridiculously detailed. For example, here's a photo of a flower:

And here's the 100% crop:

Nokia 9 PureView camera sample: flowers 100% crop

You could almost believe that photo isn't a crop. You do lose a little bit of clarity, but it's a much sharper, more detailed image than I've seen on any other smartphone. Even though the Nokia 9 PureView doesn't have a zoom lens, the ability to crop in on a photo without it looking like a blurry mess should help negate that. Here's another example:

And here's the crop:

Nokia 9 PureView camera sample: popcorn 100% crop

The depth effect is also very convincing. In the below photo of me, the Nokia 9 PureView managed to expertly blur around my hair stands while still keeping them in focus. Most other portrait mode style effects would have simply noped those frizzy ends out of existence.

HMD is also hoping Nokia 9 PureView owners will take the time to edit their photos. You'll even be prompted to install Adobe Lightroom when first setting up the phone, but if that's not for you, you'll get Google's basic editing tools in the default Photos app. All the extra information captured by the phone means there's more possibilities for natural looking edits.

Here’s a photo of a cat:

Here's it cropped:

Nokia 9 PureView camera sample: cat crop

And here's it edited:

Nokia 9 PureView camera sample: cat cropped and edited

Damn.

Of course, synthesising information from different cameras means the Nokia 9 PureView takes a little longer to process your photo after you capture it. You can still preview your shot, but it can take a minute or so until the final version is ready. It might not be a huge deal, but it's a little removed from the instant shots most of us are used to.

As exciting as the Nokia 9 PureView camera is, it's still too early to make a judgement as to whether it will be the camera phone to beat. But considering that to date, most of HMD's Nokia smartphones have had functional-but-uninspiring cameras, the fact it's even in the running is a good sign.

Nokia 9 PureView pricing and availability

The Nokia 9 PureView will launch internationally in early March at USD$699. It will go on sale in Australia "soon" through Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, but further specifics have yet to be confirmed.