A ‘Google Nexus’ in an iPhone
Hardware

Unlike the OLED panel on the iPhone, the 5.8 inches screen on the Nokia is IPS LCD 1080 x 2280 pixels (~432 PPI). The display is sharp, has decent colour representation and wide viewing angles.

The 2.5D glass held by the aluminium frame and the 19:9 aspect ratio Grollila Glass 3 front display looked spectacular at first glance. The phone felt extremely sophisticated and premium just like fit and finish of the iPhone.

The octa-core Qualcomm 636 chipset powers the device. Four cores dedicated to powerful computation and four to battery efficiency. It is more than powerful to do all the current mobile tasks. The successor, Nokia 6.2 also uses the same chipset so future updates to applications and overall usage would run quite smoothly as there’s plenty of headroom left. It has AC WiFi, the 3060 mAh battery sufficiently lasts all day.

Software

The logic I’m comparing to iOS is because of the regularity of updates it receives just like the iPhone. The phone when first shipped in August of 2018 was running Android Oreo 8.1. Later that year it was updated to Android 9 Pie and last month in the January of 2020 it was updated to Android 10. That’s total 3 Operating System.

The gesture-based UI and the similarity of most third-party applications diminish the software differences. The quirks of owning a Mac along with iPhone is diminishing too. With Your Phone app from Microsoft, one can access Notifications, Photos, Messages and answer Phone calls on the PC. Also in the works is the ability to mirror the whole screen and access the device remotely and Google is working on a nearby share feature just like Air-Drop.

Ownership and Experience

One of my favourite person on the internet, Dieter Bohn, often communicates about the relationship with our tech devices using the ‘Instrument’ and the ‘Tool’ metaphor. A phone is not merely a tool that we use to communicate but is a part of the culture and an extension to our outside world. It is more of an instrument where one has to be tuned with its liking, develop an intangible relationship with it. Nokia for me is one such instrument. At a mere 20 per cent of the price of the flagship, it fits me like a glove. I adore everything about it. The pearl white rear glass compliments the front black mirror. I am grateful for the features like the ability to plug in my headphones, quick charge using the USB Type C and the facility to expand the storage with the SD Card.
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['Nokia', 'Technology', 'Mobile', 'Apple', 'Hardware']