Nokia 9 PureView Review: More Cameras, More Problems
Nokia 9 PureView Review: More Cameras, More Problems
2019-03-27
so this is the Nokia 9p review this is
Nokia and hm DS latest smartphone and
it's an Android one phone which means a
couple of things one it's running a very
pure and clean version of Android
there's no bloatware and it's basically
Android the way Google intended it to be
and 2 it also means that this phone is
guaranteed software updates for at least
two years and security updates for three
years and the biggest highlight with
this phone is the cameras on the back it
has five cameras but I sort of feel like
this is Nokia's or HMDs sort of
publicity stunt to sort of grab
headlines with this phone sort of just
like a cheesy attempt to get people to
pay attention to the Nokia 9 because if
this phone had one camera on the back or
even just two cameras in the back I
don't really think a lot of people would
be looking at this phone as closely as
they are right now and the five cameras
on the back I think would have been a
lot more useful if they were five
cameras of different focal lengths but
that's not what you're getting here with
the Nokia 9 instead you're getting to
RGB sensors and three monochrome sensors
which to me feels like a little bit of
overkill and a little bit unnecessary
and these monochrome sensors are
designed to capture more death data more
exposure data and more detail but
there's a lot of phones out there that
take amazing photos that don't have
monochrome sensors one of those cameras
is the pixel three and that phone has
one camera and the pixel three is
arguably one of the best smartphone
cameras on the market right now if not
the best and this phone is using five of
them but the biggest problem with this
camera is not the fact that it has five
cameras it's really the way that this
camera performs the camera app is really
slow really sluggish and some people
have even reported that they've had
issues with the camera app crashing I
haven't had that problem but this camera
app is very
lo you can notice it a lot when you're
swiping through all the different modes
there's just this big pause or delay
when switching between modes and that
delay or pause gets even more amplified
as you swipe quickly between the
different modes but the biggest issue
that I've had with the performance of
this camera is the processing so if
you're taking a photo it takes a good
five to six seconds to process a photo
and you won't really notice this if you
don't look at your photos immediately
after you take them but if you're like
me and you do like to look at your
photos immediately after you take one
just so you can see if it came out right
or if you need to take another one
you're gonna be stuck on this processing
wheel of death for five to six seconds
and it just makes for a really slow
experience with this camera but I don't
want to harp on the camera software too
much because this is something that can
be easily addressed with the software
update and hmd is actually very aware
that the camera has some issues so they
do plan on rolling out an update but if
you have this phone right now or you
plan on buying this phone before the
update comes out this is the experience
that you're gonna have with this camera
from an image quality standpoint the
nokia 9 is a very capable camera it
takes photos with great clarity
sharpness and detail but my biggest
complaint about this camera is the way
that it post processes photos and I mean
post processing in terms of the way the
images look it has a very big tendency
to underexpose and in certain situations
like a bright sunny day or a high
contrast scenario like a low-light shot
with a lot of highlights from street
lamps and things like that
this underexposing actually works in the
camera's favor but when you take the
camera indoors and average lighting your
photos are gonna come out a lot darker
than you want them to be and I had so
many photos that were underexposed that
Google photos actually told me to fix
the lighting issues in a bunch of my
photos and again this is a
post-processing problem so it can easily
be fixed with a software update it's not
a hardware issue so I do believe that
the Nokia
has a good camera and potentially even a
great camera it just needs a little bit
of tweaking and the experience is gonna
be a lot better the rest of the hardware
on the Nokia 9 is fairly run-of-the-mill
it's made of glass and metal which feels
really nice and it's very comfortable to
hold but it really isn't all that
different from a bunch of other phones
out there it also doesn't have a
headphone jack so if you care about that
sort of stuff this phone doesn't have
one
the display on the front is an AMOLED
screen so it's really bright really
vibrant you'll notice that it doesn't
have a notch or a hole punch which some
people may like but because it doesn't
have either one the bezel on this phone
are actually a little bit thicker than
normal especially on the top and bottom
now underneath the display is an in
screen fingerprint sensor and in screen
fingerprint sensors on smartphones right
now are not that great and I've had my
fair share of experiences within screen
fingerprint sensors and the Nokia 9 is
by far the worst experience that I've
had the first three days or so this
n-screen fingerprint sensor was
practically unusable I would say it had
a 5% or less success rate and unlocking
the phone and there were so many times
where it failed to unlock that I was
actually forced to use my pattern unlock
and it got to the point where it was so
frustrating to use this fingerprint
sensor that I just skipped it entirely
and just went straight to my pattern
unlocked but somewhere around day four
or day five this fingerprint sensor
started working and it started working
fairly reliably I would say 80 85
percent of the time it actually unlocked
on the first attempt and I'm not sure
what happened to fix it I know hmd is
aware of the problem and they plan on
issuing a software update but as far as
I know I haven't received a software
update unless hmd somehow silently
updated this phone which I'm not even
sure is even a thing for an issue like
this but it works now I just don't know
if I can confidently say that this has
been fixed for all the Nokia nines out
there at least not yet
everything else about the Nokia 9 is
just fine it has great performance and a
solid spec sheet it is using last year's
snapdragon a 45 but I really
think that's that big of a deal it's not
like the 845 all the Sun became a slower
processor just because it's not the
newest one anymore
and battery life on this phone is also
really good I get five to six hours of
screen on time fairly consistently and
that's with messaging emails social
media watching YouTube and playing games
on a daily basis and this phone lasts me
all day every day with no issues at all
but the big question with the Nokia 9 is
is it worth the $700 price tag and at
700 bucks it does undercut the iPhones
and galaxies of the world so you're
saving a little bit of money there but
in this particular price bracket I don't
think it's the best value the one plus
60 is actually cheaper than the Nokia 9
and I think offers a much better bang
for your buck you're getting much more
powerful specifications you're also
getting oxygen OS which is basically
like stock Android but offers a ton more
customization and if you're willing to
spend an extra $50 over the Nokia 9 you
can get yourself a Galaxy S 10 II which
gives you the entire Galaxy S 10
experience at a lower cost and you're
getting a really great camera and a
fingerprint sensor that is extremely
reliable that's not in the display but
that's it for this review I hope you
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thanks so much for watching and I'll
talk to you guys in the next video
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