Nokia marked its re-entry into the smartphone segment with the Nokia 6 last year and the phone has now received an upgrade. Called the Nokia 6 (2018), the phone comes with a bunch of improvements over its predecessor. For the time being, the device would remain exclusive to the Chinese market and would expand to others in the coming months.
While the original Nokia 6 came with Snapdragon 430, its next iteration has a better Snapdragon 630 processor, that has been seen in quite a few devices. The RAM has been bumped up by a gig to 4GB, which should be quite enough for the daily tasks. USB Type-C will be present on the phone which would also bring fast charging to its 3000mAh battery.
Not much has changed when the phone’s display is considered. The Nokia 6 (2018) retains the 5.5-inch 1080p LCD panel in the same old 16:9 aspect ratio. However, the top and bottom bezels have shrunken a bit, thereby reducing the overall height of the phone by about 5mm. That has also resulted in the fingerprint scanner being shifted to the back and the navigation keys to the display.
Despite the promise of bringing the latest Android updates to its devices, the new Nokia 6 was announced with Android 7.1.1 Nougat. What’s interesting here is that the 2nd gen Nokia 6 is already getting Android 8.0 Oreo update on its very first boot.
Nokia Power User reported that this is indeed a thing and some people in China are already getting Oreo updated on their brand-new Nokia 6 (2018) units. This information couldn’t be confirmed just yet and if the Oreo update was ready then why did HMD Global chose to announce the phone with an older Android version?
The Nokia 6 (2018) has got some camera features from the Nokia 8 including the Bothie mode and OZO Audio. There is a 16MP f/2.0 camera on the back while an 8MP one is there on the front with the same aperture. The fingerprint scanner now sits below the capsule-shaped camera housing. And the phone is still made out of the 6000-series aluminium that gave the Nokia 6 (2017) its great in-hand feel.
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As mentioned above, the phone will be retailing in China for the time being and HMD Global will gradually bring it to other markets including India and the USA. The Nokia 6 (2018) will have two storage variants – 32GB and 64GB. The former will retail for ¥1,499, or $230, while the latter will be priced at ¥1,499, or $260. Both of them are up for pre-booking and will go on sale on January 10.
