back to article Nokia 9: HMD Global hauls PureView™ out of brand limbo

HMD Global's Nokia business has been puttering about with Android for a couple of years now, respectably rather than spectacularly, trading largely on the goodwill of the brand. The Nokia 9 PureView, unveiled on Sunday in Barcelona, tries to change that, recapturing some of the premium market. It's an Android One phone – that' …

  1. Dave 126 Silver badge

    > That isn't as absurd as LG's 16-sensor Onion article-tribute - but Zeiss, which contributed to this device, can go up to 10.

    A real company made and sold a smartphone-sized 16 lens / sensor camera called the Light L16. This week it was announced that Light are working with Sony - makers of most sensors in smartphones - to create a multiple camera smartphone reference design.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/21/sony-light-partnership-smartphone-cameras/

    2. Cuddles

      "A real company made and sold a smartphone-sized 16 lens / sensor camera called the Light L16. This week it was announced that Light are working with Sony - makers of most sensors in smartphones - to create a multiple camera smartphone reference design."

      Sony may be a bit behind there, given that Nokia just announced an actual multiple camera smartphone made in collaboration with Light. You know, the one the article was about.

    3. hammarbtyp

      Surely you want one that goes up to 11

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        I was refering to a *part* of the article, the part I actually quoted. What might have seemed parody has actually been sold as a real product (consensus view is that the tech worked but the price was too high and the UI clunky, and that it seemed like a pitch for a smartphone collaboration. Which now appears to be happening)

        And I wasn't my intention to throw shade upon Nokia's efforts here; who comes first is largely irrelevant to user experience.

        I just thought that some people reading about a multi camera phone might be interested in other related efforts.

  2. lvm
    Facepalm

    those corners again...

    Can't stand those artificial retro rounded screen corners. I mean if screen is following the rounded corners of phone's body it is a reason to have them. Nowhere near a good one, but at least some sort of a reason, but this - when they cut (or probably just covered) screen corners to make it look like that silly trend... Sick. I would hate looking at it regardless of how good it is.

    1. paulll

      Re: those corners again...

      It screams,"cheap, off-brand Android tablet." Just awful.

  3. James 51

    I wish this had a user changeable battery. Would be enough to tempt me with my current samsung dies.

    1. Down not across

      Don't we all. Likewise I wish they would have retained SD card slot and 3.5mm headphone jack. On the plus side it has Qi charging and fingerprint sensor on the front.

  4. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Does it also make phone calls?

    We keep seeing these new mobile phones appearing but the last "feature" that gets mentioned (in fact completely skipped in this story) is the ability to make reliable phone calls - even if you're holding it wrong. But we still call it a mobile phone ... duh!

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Re: Does it also make phone calls?

      > we still call it a mobile phone ... duh!

      Which is kind of stupid... I think I've made about 30 phone calls total over the last 4 "phones" I've owned.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    £549 for a Nokia???

    I'm not convinced.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: £549 for a Nokia???

      More to the point, "the hundreds of millions of new smartphone buyers that will come online in India and China in the next few years" probably wouldn't be either.

      This phone, by definition, has to sell in decadent western countries.

    2. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: £549 for a Nokia???

      That's not much more than the launch price of the Nokia N97 over 10 years ago (€550)

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: £549 for a Nokia???

        Well... the pound isn't what it quite was 10 years ago...

      2. tmTM

        Re: That's not much more than the launch price of the Nokia N97

        That phone was a steaming turd as well, even if the flip out keyboard was very useful.

  6. Warm Braw

    Hope it's not as half-hearted as OZO audio...

    The PureView 808 also had HAAC, a feature which made its way to a number of Lumias which became quite popular for their audio-recording capabilities, particularly their ability to handle a wide dynamic range. Despite the new Nokia pushing "OZO" audio, it's only available for video recording - there's no audio-only recording app - and it seems to be a software solution rather than the dual-membrane microphones that Nokia were so keen at one stage to prevent HTC using.

    Even in the Lumias, with Microsoft's money, successive software updates seemed to remove or break features that had originally been promoted with great fanfare. It's not really promising for the prospective purchaser. And £549 would have bought you a top-end phone at one time - before Apple distorted the reality field.

  7. Charles Calthrop

    https://www.theonion.com/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades-1819584036

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Monochrome sensors

    I'm looking at this and I can only see one thing:

    [...] three are 1.25um monochrome sensors [...]

    I don't care at all about the phone but this means someone is making cheap, plentiful, good-quality monochrome sensors, from which someone else could make a not-absurdly-expensive monochrome digital camera. It might be small-sensor but it will be a dedicated monochrome camera for a tiny fraction of the more than £6,000 (much more if you don't have suitable lenses already) that Leica charge for the privilege of owning one.

    This is very good news for a very tiny number of people. Perhaps just me.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Monochrome sensors

      Monochrome sensors are just colour sensors with the colour filter grid removed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Monochrome sensors

        Yes of course, but unless you fancy removing it yourself, you need someone to supply such a thing before you can put it in a camera. And unless you're Leica or people flying themin spacecraft, you need them to do so at a reasonable unit cost. This phone proves that this is possible.

  9. 89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921

    Dynamic range is very impressive for a smartphone, so is detail. Mind you, most of these Nokia PureView sample photos were shot at F14:

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0d6cbbwuxk1wak0/AABJ_dxNGFaV6oR1J4wy1a9Ia?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR3zfLlSzgvXyCaFtn-YephCjGI5SzHVRv6mvzb49xNYSfIobnc98CqwF8w

    There's some very strange post processing at the boat's bow on "NOKIA 9 - Photo by Tuomas Harjumaaskola - Copyright Nokia - 13"

    I sincerely hope HMD bring forth a new version of the Nokia Communicator

  10. guyr

    Pictures of fingers

    Geezer warning. When I see these phones with all these lenses on the back, I can only think one thing: I would clumsily put my fingers all over them. Maybe these multiple lenses produce stunning photos, and would make a good *camera*. But as I'm talking on the phone and my mind starts to drift and I start fidgeting, the lenses would get frequent contact. I have an LG G5 with only 2 horizontal lenses, and I have trouble staying clear of those!

    Clearly, I'm not the target market.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cubecam!

    I want to make a device that is like, a cube with a camera on each of the faces. Maybe an inch on each side, enough for it to have a couple hours Qi rechargeable battery inside its completely sealed surface. Processing gubbins and a gyro to be able to create fully stabilized 360 degree images, so you could literally toss it about, and even if it was spinning in the air, it'd give a perfectly stabilised image. Then hook it up to VR, and allow people to free look. It'll be EPIC! Plus it's waterproof, and if you made it neutrally bouyant, it'd just sorta sit where you put it in the water! Would be such a cute fun little toy ;D

    1. zuckzuckgo Silver badge

      Re: Cubecam!

      Sort of like this:

      https://youtu.be/gPIkhArVb-s

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Cubecam!

        They stole my idea! Then made it better and went back in time and made it work! FUCKERS!

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. Rob Fisher

    A phone to last 3 years?

    If you want to keep your phone for a few years, then to get something less than GBP600, reasonable SoC, three years of security patches, preferably wireless charging (because it's useful when using the phone for car navigation)... there aren't really a lot of options. This could be it. The camera gubbins is a bonus, although I want to see what it's like in real life. And the lack of OIS for videos might be a problem. But this looks promising.

  14. JDX Gold badge

    I miss my 1020

    I had the Lumia 1020. It was amazing. Not as a phone, certainly not as a smartphone (though I was a fan of Windows Mobile until they spoiled it) but as a piece of engineering and camera tech it was stunning.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like