Nokia 6 (2018) review

Design

There is nothing fancy about the Nokia 6 (2018) design. HMD kept it basic, comfortable, and user-friendly. But there is beauty in simplicity and the no-nonsense design arguably gives off a stylish vibe that's nowhere to be found on the Redmis.

HMD also sneaked these cool paint accents around the frame and the camera glass that even in such small quantities make for a huge design booster.

So, the anodized aluminum body is back, almost flush at the back, and perfectly flat around the sides. The tiny chamfers are painted in copper on the black model, iron on the white, and gold on the blue version.

The Nokia 6 (2018) has the same 5.5" 1080p screen of the old 6, but HMD has trimmed the bezels by moving the fingerprint scanner on the back and thus getting rid of the whole capacitive control deck. The new Nokia 6 spreads at 148.8 x 75.8 x 8.2 mm - that's some impressive half a centimeter shorter.

The Nokia 6.1 weighs 172 g, just 3g on top of the Nokia 6.

The entire front is covered by a large piece of Gorilla Glass 3, 2.5D-finished as usual. The third edition might be a bit old, but it's the one we usually prefer - more resilient to scratches at the expense of being relatively more susceptible to shattering when dropped (compared to GG5).

Nokia 6 (2018)

It takes some time to notice the antenna strips on the back, but they are there - running along the top and bottom edges.

The camera glass now has this big ZEISS logo, and the fingerprint sensor found a new home just below the camera (last year it was on the front). The scanner is always-on, accurate and reliable.

We are fans of the flat frame and its tiny chamfers - those boost the overall grip by a mile and the Nokia 6.1 is one of the few phones we've felt absolutely secure in hand.

Nokia 6 (2018)

While the Nokia 6 (2018) has kept all popular ports intact, including the analogue audio one, the earpiece is no longer doubling as a second speaker. HMD decided to use just one speaker for the new Nokia 6 - and it's at the bottom behind a small grille.

We already mentioned the secure grip, but we also want to acknowledge the overall positive impressions from when handling the Nokia 6.1. It feels great in hand, and although it's a tad bigger than we'd prefer for a 5.5-incher, we are still fond of the overall feeling of security and sturdiness. The black model is all matte, but it still attracts some smudges. The blue and white ones don't have such issues, though.

No matter which model you get - Black/Copper, White/Iron, or Blue/Gold - we're sure you won't be disappointed by the looks, grip or handling.