Earlier today, HMD Global launched the much awaited Nokia 9 Pureview flagship in China. It is the world’s first smartphone to feature five cameras at the back and considering the pricing of the device, it’s clear that the Nokia 9 will take on the recently released Huawei P30 Pro.
The new Nokia flagship is priced at 5499 Yuan (~$820) for its 6GB+128GB version in China. What’s interesting is that this makes it more expensive than the 8GB + 128GB (5488 Yuan) variant of the Huawei P30 Pro! This definitely puts the new Nokia flagship in a very tight spot, even if it’s backed by the power of five cameras.
The Nokia 9 Pureview is all about the camera experience. The five cameras at the back are all 12MP f/1.8 sensors and feature Zeiss optics, unsurprisingly. Further, the camera technology is powered by Light, the company known for its 16 lens camera called the L16. The phone takes photos from all the five cameras together and fuses them together to churn out a rich photo sample.
It’s also worth mentioning that this five-camera setup is flat, without any camera bumps. Only two of these cameras are RGB, while three others are monochrome. The trio enables higher light input, resulting in better looking night photos. Further, the phone leverages depth information from all the five cameras to capture samples with some really deep bokeh shots.
Despite the advantages of the Nokia 9 Pureview, one could argue that there are better camera flagships suited for the average camera users. As mentioned above, the Huawei P30 Pro, with its newer and more powerful Kirin 980 chip and a powerful 50X zoom camera comes in cheaper than the Nokia model. So, the phone is in a tough spot in a competitive market like China.
Still, photography enthusiasts will be willing to take its powerful camera setup on a joyride. Did I mention that the phone captures photos in RAW file format alongside JPEG? With the Lightroom app from Adobe installed, professional photographers can do wonders with this setup.
