Nokia 6 review: International flavor

Synthetic benchmarks

The Nokia 6 is powered by the Snapdragon 430 chip - a common solution in the lower midrange, and it's the same chipset found in both the global and Chinese versions. An octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU ticks inside, clocked at up to 1.4GHz. Our review unit comes with 3GB of RAM but a 4GB version is also in existence - the two paired with 32GB or 64GB of storage, respectively.

We ran the usual set of benchmarks and looking at the results, we debated whether we should bother publishing them at all - they're mostly identical to the ones from the Chinese version. A slightly more pronounced difference in the all-important (not really!) Antutu benchmark tipped the scales.

So we decided to compare the global Nokia 6 performance to a bunch of competitors which weren't out yet at the time of publishing of the old review back in April.

Let's kick off with Antutu then. The Nokia 6 for the rest of the world manages to outperform the Chinese version and the Moto G5 (itself equipped with a Snapdragon 430) and is on par with the Galaxy J7 (2017) and the Meizu M5 Note.

From then on in ascending order we have the Moto M (Helio P10), the Galaxy J7 Max (Helio P20), the Redmi Note 4 (Snapdragon 625), and the Moto G5 Plus (again, S625).

An even higher tier of chipsets is to be found on top of this chart with the Redmis packing a Snapdragon 650 and two Helio X20s - you could find these Xiaomi smartphones for the Nokia 6's money, so it's worth pointing them out.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  85162
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  77442
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  76186
• Moto G5 Plus
  63390
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  61616
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  57996
• Huawei Honor 6X
  57012
• Oppo F3
  53008
• Lenovo Moto M
  51831
• Meizu M5 Note
  47806
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  47495
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  46822
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  44062
• Moto G5
  43755

The Nokia 6 refused to post meaningful scores in Basemark OS II 2.0, so we resorted to the older version of the benchmark for another comparative numerical representation of overall performance. Well, it's nothing special, really, marginally better than the Meizu M5 Note, but trailing most other competitors.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1914
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  1648
• Huawei Honor 6X
  1307
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  1290
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  1171
• Lenovo Moto M
  1127
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  1041
• Oppo F3
  1018
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  978
• Meizu M5 Note
  944

Looking at the Latest GeekBench 4.1 for some CPU performance numbers, the global Nokia 6 posts practically the same scores as its Chinese counterpart in both single-core and multi-core tests, well within the fluctuations between separate runs.

The Moto G5 again fares worse, but both the Moto G5 Plus and the Galaxy J7 (2017) consistently outperform the Nokia 6 in single-core and multi-core scenarios.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Moto G5 Plus
  4255
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  3779
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  3509
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  2879
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2841
• Oppo F3
  2798
• Moto G5
  2580

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  888
• Moto G5 Plus
  847
• Oppo F3
  764
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  734
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  669
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  665
• Moto G5
  618

Heavy 3D mobile gaming is not the Nokia 6 forte, global or Chinese. Examining the GFXBench scores, you can clearly see that the Nokia only produces modest frame rates, with the top performers capable of double the numbers.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  9.9
• Moto G5 Plus
  9.7
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  9
• Huawei Honor 6X
  8.4
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  7.2
• Lenovo Moto M
  7.1
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  7.1
• Moto G5
  7.1
• Oppo F3
  6.8
• Meizu M5 Note
  5.5
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  5.1

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  9.7
• Moto G5 Plus
  9.7
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  8.9
• Huawei Honor 6X
  7.9
• Lenovo Moto M
  7.6
• Moto G5
  7.1
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  7
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  7
• Oppo F3
  6.8
• Meizu M5 Note
  5.5
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  5.1

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  9.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  9.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• Moto G5 Plus
  6.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  6.2
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  5.8
• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.8
• Lenovo Moto M
  4.7
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  4.6
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  4.6
• Moto G5
  4.6
• Oppo F3
  4.5
• Meizu M5 Note
  3.6
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  3.3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  9.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  9.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• Moto G5 Plus
  6.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  6.2
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  6.2
• Lenovo Moto M
  5.2
• Moto G5
  4.6
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  4.6
• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.6
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  4.5
• Oppo F3
  4.5
• Meizu M5 Note
  3.6
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  3.3

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  5.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  5.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  5.3
• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.6
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  4
• Moto G5 Plus
  3.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  3.4
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  2.5
• Lenovo Moto M
  2.5
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2.5
• Moto G5
  2.5
• Oppo F3
  2.4
• Meizu M5 Note
  1.9
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  1.9

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  5.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
  5.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  5.4
• Huawei Honor 6X
  4.8
• Samsung Galaxy J7 Max
  4
• Moto G5 Plus
  3.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
  3.4
• Lenovo Moto M
  2.7
• Nokia 6 (Chinese version)
  2.5
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2.5
• Moto G5
  2.5
• Oppo F3
  2.4
• Meizu M5 Note
  1.9
• Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
  1.9

The Nokia 6 can only do so much with its Snapdragon 430 chip - it's a decent performer, but nothing more. We can't help but think that the Snapdragon 625 SoC would have been much better suited to the 6, to set the 5 and 6 in a more meaningful way and make the 6 altogether more competitive.