MWC 2017: Nokia 6, 5, 3 and 3310

Nokia 6 hands-on

All three Android Nokias have really great build quality, but the Nokia 6 is the best of the bunch. We handled the Arte Black version first, but its glossy piano black finish hid no secrets - everyone else in the room had handled it too, we have the fingerprints to prove it. And cleaning it to snap a few shots proved difficult.

Nokia 6 in Arte Black

While this one doesn't come with the PureView camera we were hoping for, we did try what the Nokia 6's camera is capable of. The venue didn't have too many nice subjects to point the snapper at, but from the early looks of it, this 16MP camera shows some promise.

Nokia 6 camera samples

We also snapped a selfie with the 8MP front camera. This same camera is used on the other two Nokia Androids.

Nokia 6 selfie

We asked a representative about the software and they confirmed that Android is completely untouched. We wish we wrote the previous sentence a few years ago, but better late than never.

Nokia 6 in Silver White

We did run some benchmarks to see how the Snapdragon 430 handles. It's a 28nm chip with an octa-core processor (1.4GHz) and Adreno 505 GPU. This same chip is used in the Nokia 5 as well, but here it gets to play with more RAM - 3GB or, in the case of the Arte Black edition, 4GB.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  3065
• Nokia 5
  2731
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  2621
• Meizu M5
  2428

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  839
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  795
• Nokia 5
  653
• Meizu M5
  592

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  62454
• Motorola Moto Z Play
  62217
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  50109
• Nokia 6
  46413
• Meizu M5
  40831
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  27487

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto Z Play
  1226
• Nokia 5
  1055
• Nokia 6
  1004
• Meizu M5
  846
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  576

Speaking of colors, Copper is an odd choice - it's an unorthodox color and we didn't find it the most attractive of the four color options. It's a subjective thing, you may like it more than we did.

Nokia 5 hands-on

Nokia was making aluminum phones years ago and we remember them fondly. This one is similarly gorgeous. It helps that HMD worked to erase unsightly antenna lines from the back.

The screen on the front drops to 5.2" in size and 720p in resolution, but it's actually a bit brighter than the Nokia 6 screen - 500nits vs. 450nits. It also features a polarization filter, which reduces reflections and makes for stellar sunlight legibility (it's how polarized glasses work). The screen is laminated to a sculpted sheet of Gorilla Glass, by the way.

Nokia 5 in Silver White

The main camera has changed as well, the Nokia 5 has a 13MP sensor though you do get slightly bigger pixels (1.12µm vs. 1.0µm). Phase detection AF and dual-tone flash remain on the spec sheet.

While the model 5 is smaller than the 6, it has the same capacity battery - 3,000mAh. Nokia went with microUSB for charging and data and there's no mention of any fast charging tech.

microUSB on the bottom • Headphone jack on top