The 2nd generation Nokia 6 has been officially announced in China by HMD Global. The handset features an upgraded internals while still retaining the solid build quality and design of its predecessor.

Similar to last year’s Nokia 6, the 2018 variant features a 5.5-inch Full HD display that is protected by a 2.5D curved glass. It continues to feature a unibody design made from Series 6000 aluminum which is made using two-color anodization process and diamond cutting technology.

Last year’s Nokia 6 was panned for its weak internals. HMD Global is fixing that with the 2018 variant of the device which features an octa-core Snapdragon 630 chip clocked at 2.2GHz. This is paired with an Adreno 508 GPU, 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, and 32/64GB of internal storage. Other specs of the device include a microSD card slot, hybrid dual-SIM slot, fingerprint scanner at the rear, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5, GPS, and a USB-C port. There is a 3000mAh battery with fast charging powering the device.

As for the camera, the Nokia 6 (2018) features a 16MP f/2.0 shooter at the rear with dual-tone LED flash, PDAF, and 1.0um pixel size. At the front, there is an 8MP shooter with 1.12um large pixels, f/2.0 aperture, and an 84-degree wide-angle lens. The handset also features Dual-Sight technology which allows one to use the front and rear camera simultaneously to create a Bothie. This feature was first seen in the Nokia 8 from last year.

Disappointingly, the Nokia 6 (2018) runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box, though HMD Global have promised the Oreo update for the device. The handset will first launch in China followed by a wider launch in other markets of the world throughout the year.

Our Take

It is disappointing to see HMD Global still launch smartphones running Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box. On the flip side, while it is good to see that HMD Global has used a powerful processor on the Nokia 6 this time around, the company should have also at least improved the rear camera of the device which was criticised for its sub-par performance. Lastly, let’s hope HMD Global gets around to launching the Nokia 6 in other key markets of the world within the next few weeks. Last year, the Nokia 6 global launch was delayed by more than 3-5 months at which point it was easily overshadowed by newer phones from Motorola and Xiaomi.