HMD Global has announced the launch of its new mid-range smartphone, the Nokia 6.1 Plus, in India. As was rumored, the Nokia 6.1 Plus is essentially the Nokia X6 that was launched in China in May this year with a change of name.
The Nokia 6.1 Plus is the third iteration in the series. The original Nokia 6 was launched in 2017 and was followed up with Nokia 6 (2018) – popularly dubbed as Nokia 6.1 – early this year with incremental hardware updates. And here we are with the Nokia 6.1 with souped-up specifications and a completely different looking chassis.
Here are my initial impressions of the Nokia 6.1 Plus that aims to take on very popular mid-range smartphones from Xiaomi and Honor.
Refreshing design, with a notch
The Nokia 6.1 Plus sports an aluminum alloy body with glass on top. It boasts of a 5.8-inch Full HD+ display with a 19:9 screen ratio. There’s an 81.5% screen-to-body ratio and although the phone has thin black bezels all around and a chin at the bottom with Nokia branding, there’s a notch on the top, a first for a Nokia smartphone.
With just 8mm of thickness and 151 grams in weight, the Nokia 6.1 Plus feels great in the hand. Even with the relatively large screen, it’s a pretty compact phone and quite ergonomic. The glass design makes it a smudge magnet, but one swipe on the jeans, and it looks rad.
Pure, secure, and up-to-date Android
Like other phones in HMD Global’s current portfolio, the Nokia 6.1 Plus too is an Android One smartphone. Out of the box, it ships with Android 8.1 Oreo and offers clean, stock Android experience.
Android One certification implies that the smartphone will receive 2 years of guaranteed Android ‘letter’ upgrades and 3 years of monthly security updates.
Mid-range specifications sheet
The Nokia 6.1 Plus is powered by one of the newer and powerful mid-range processors by Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 636 and packs in 4GB of RAM with 64GB of internal storage.
Camera
The camera experience on the Nokia 6 and Nokia 6 (2018) was a hit and a miss. HMD Global wants to put that inconsistent performance behind and the AI-enhanced dual camera on Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with depth-based imaging for sharp and bright photos. We’ll reserve our judgment of the same until the review once we’ve taken the phone for a whirl for a longer time.
The 16MP front camera too is quite impressive on paper. The camera is clearly one of the highlights of the Nokia 6.1 Plus.
Pricing and Availability
Priced at 15,999 rupees (R3 320.32 ($230)) in India, the Nokia 6.1 Plus is available in three color variants – Midnight Blue, Gloss Black, and Gloss White – and will be available exclusively on Flipkart starting August 30 (the pre-orders start today).
Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-6-1-plus-review-896988/
