Nokia 9, PureView foreign media evaluation summary, five cameras are the highlights.

At this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HMD officially released five Android smartphones, the most striking of which is Nokia 9 PureView, which is the first mobile phone with five unique array cameras in the world. Nokia 9 PureView is equipped with the world's first Zeiss five-array camera. There are two color sensors on the back, which can capture color images, three black and white sensors, which can provide clarity and detail. Together, the five sensors can capture 10 times the light of a single sensor phone. Let's take a look at the evaluation of this mobile phone by foreign media.

Nokia 9 uses a unique camera system to distinguish it from other top mobile phones. In short, it is the first smartphone with five cameras on the back, but it is not as effective as you expected. Nowadays, the effect of taking photos on mobile phones often depends on multiple cameras, usually from the ultra-wide lens to the main lens and then to the telephoto lens, so that users can zoom seamlessly. Nokia 9 PureView takes a completely different approach: its five cameras have the same aperture and field of view. When the user takes a picture, the whole array takes pictures at the same time and combines them into an image.

This is a unique concept, but Nokia 9 lacks optical zoom, but composite photos can be scaled digitally, which is clearer than most other mobile phones. Unfortunately, Nokia 9 does not adopt the best hardware specifications on the market, so the performance of mobile phones is a bit uneven.

In terms of price, the price of Nokia 9 PureView is 699 US dollars (about 4,687 yuan). If you book before March 1 1, you can also enjoy the preferential price of 599 US dollars (about 3346 yuan), which is cheaper than other camera phones such as Samsung Galaxy S 10 Plus, Google Pixel 3 XL, Huawei Mate 20 Pro and iPhone XS Max. Although the official release date is expected to be determined, HMD Global tells us that it expects this phone to be available in the next few weeks.

Nokia 9 PureView is different from other flagship phones. Its front screen has no gaps and openings, but it maintains the traditional upper and lower borders. Of course, there are five cameras on the back, as well as a flash and a ToF (Time of Flight) sensor, which combine into a very unique seven-hole pattern, which looks a bit like the logo of a BlackBerry. Whether it is attractive or not depends largely on the users who like to adopt early adopters, although we find that the photos taken by it are still very good.

The rest of the phone looks ordinary, and the power/lock button and volume button are easy to find on the right. On the base, the USB-C port is close to the microphone and speaker. Similarly, this phone doesn't have a traditional headphone jack. The front and back of Nokia 9 PureView are covered with the fifth-generation gorilla glass, and the metal frame in the middle is made of a single piece of 6000 series aluminum, which looks and feels like an advanced smartphone. It also has the waterproof and dustproof function of IP67, which can help it continue to be used in the water depth of 1 meter.

Nokia 9 PueView is 8mm thick and weighs 172g. Make sure it's in your hand. The curved back glass really helps it to be embedded in the palm of your hand, but this is a large mobile phone. Because of the small friction with the palm, it needs to be operated by both hands in most cases. What is commendable is that the lens of Nokia 9 is on the same plane as the back panel of the mobile phone, and there is no protrusion.

In terms of hardware, Nokia 9 PueView adopts Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset which was popular last year. This is still a bit strange compared with a large number of flagship mobile phones released this year. Of course, this does not mean that the performance of mobile phones is poor. Snapdragon 845 runs very fast. The actual experience shows that the mobile phone is responsive and takes pictures very quickly, without being stuck or delayed.

Qualcomm 845 chipset can only process images from three screens at the same time, thus realizing HDR-like processing. This phone uses a special light Lux capacitor, which is specially designed for customized multi-camera settings. It can process all five rear lens images at the same time, enabling it to process 2.4 million pixel photos before entering the main processor. This phone is equipped with 6GB of memory and 128GB of storage space, which can store quite a lot of five photos.

HMD Global produces Nokia-branded smartphones, and the new Nokia 9 PureView is very interesting because it looks different. Unlike most smartphones equipped with multiple cameras, Nokia 9' s five camera systems work together to provide an informative photo. It has some beautiful functions, and it can save RAW images with JPEG, so it can completely control the appearance of photos. Of course, other mobile phones also have RAW support, but the image quality and information of the five cameras are very good, and editing photos on Nokia 9 is more enjoyable.

From the front, there is nothing special about Nokia 9. According to the standard of 20 19, it is somewhat backward. The screen is very traditional in border design, and there is no gap, which may attract people who hate the new screen style in the past two years. There are thinner borders at the top and bottom, which looks acceptable.

What is even more impressive is the quality of manufacturing. The 6000 series aluminum integrated molding machine with the fifth generation gorilla glass helps to make the Nokia 9 feel stronger. The edge is curved, easy to hold, and the mobile phone feels very light. Nokia 9 is equipped with a 5.99-inch POLED screen with a resolution as high as 2K, so although it is not as amazing as the high-resolution AMOLED screen on Galaxy S 10, the screen effect is also excellent.

The back is the biggest bright spot. The five cameras are arranged in the way of imitating the spider's eyes, which may make some people shudder and some people feel scared. It looks different from the existing camera settings on the mobile phone, but the fact that the back of the camera is flush makes it even more impressive. Without a prominent camera, Nokia 9 can be placed flat on the desktop.

Speaking of fingerprint sensors, Nokia 9 finally caught up with the popular configuration this time. It also uses off-screen fingerprint sensors, such as Galaxy S 10, One Plus 6T and Huawei Mate 20 Pro. But using different technologies, I'm not sure whether the sensor of Nokia 9 is worth using now, because it has brought me some difficulties. It will definitely take longer to guarantee, but so far, I have found that the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on Galaxy S 10 is the best. Fortunately, you can also use Nokia 9' s 20 megapixel camera to unlock your face, but it is not secure, so you can't use it to verify payment or access sensitive applications. The waterproof rating of the mobile phone is IP67, which is the standard configuration of all flagship mobile phones, which means that the Nokia 9 can last for 30 minutes in a very long time of 1 meter.

The Snapdragon 845 inside the Nokia 9 PureView is different. There is a special light lux capacitor, which can help the mobile phone make full use of the overall function of the chipset to get a photo experience. Five cameras have taken a lot of data, so the image signal processor (ISP) needs to help calculate these data. After all, there are 2.4 trillion pixels of data to process. Digital signal processor (DSP) can reduce noise by three times and power consumption by 10 times, and graphics processor (GPU) can manage the captured depth map of 1200 layer.

However, this is not just close cooperation with Qualcomm. HMD cooperates with Zeiss to ensure accurate camera tuning, and multi-camera technology mainly cooperates with light Lux capacitors. Light is a company that manufactures L 16. l 16 is a kind of 16 camera equipment, which can promise the image quality similar to DSLR in a more portable form. HMD and Wright claim that turning technology into smart phones will provide photographers with a new generation of imaging technology.

Most mobile phones with multiple cameras have clear identification roles, and you are not allowed to use them at the same time. On the contrary, it is usually a standard lens with a telephoto lens with 2 times optical zoom, or a super wide-angle lens with a wider lens. On Nokia 9, you will get five12 megapixel lenses, and the aperture of each lens is f/ 1.8. Press the shutter button, all five cameras take pictures at the same time and fuse together to get a more detailed image.

Three of them are monochrome sensors, and the other two are RGB. This is because monochrome sensors can capture 2.9 times more light than RGB cameras, so Nokia 9 may provide up to 10 times more light. There is also a fantastic monochrome camera mode. If this is the style you want to pursue, you can use these three sensors to get beautiful and true black and white images.

At present, the photos are very detailed and the colors are realistic. Judging from a photo of a dog edited by RAW, the original image is a little overexposed, but it is easy to reduce the brightness in Adobe Lightroom, and the final effect looks great.

Here are two pictures compared with Google Pixel 3 XL. Pixel has a color cast on the car image, which makes it a strong photo, but Nokia 9 has its own photo style, and you may prefer its more natural tone. For most mobile phones, this is a tricky shot. The original image of Nokia 9 is dark, but it can be illuminated in Lightroom.

Pixel and some other mobile phones may be better at taking photos of moving themes, or better when their hands are shaking. Nokia 9 has no optical image stabilization function. I noticed that it struggled when moving around the dog because the image was blurred. But the biggest problem with Nokia 9 is the processing time required to compile images. It's best not to preview immediately after taking pictures. You can continue to take pictures and watch together. But if you want to edit the photos quickly immediately after shooting, please be prepared to wait for 30 seconds to 1 minute. If it means getting more detailed photos, I can wait most of the time, but it is not practical for most people.

HMD Global, which is responsible for designing and producing Nokia branded mobile phones, is perfecting its product line through its new flagship device, Nokia 9 PureView. This is the first truly high-quality equipment that the company brought to North America. As predicted by all the rumors, it is equipped with a rather crazy camera.

This is the first time to use the rear 5 camera. In addition to two RGB sensors, photographers can also use three monochrome sensors. Nokia 9 PureView built a depth map of12 million pixels when shooting, which HMD said is much more accurate than the depth map used by other smartphone cameras to provide shooting effect. Background blur is smoother from front to back, rather than the extremely shallow depth of field effect provided by other devices. Everything behind the main body is simply mixed together, regardless of the distance.

All this rich depth of field information is encoded in Google gDepth format. In addition, since Google Photos is the default gallery and photo editing application on Nokia 9, users can use a series of sliders in the application to manipulate the actual focus and blur intensity.

However, professionals may get more applications from Adobe's Lightroom CC application, which can be provided as a free instant download when you first set up Nokia 9 PureView. HMD engineers work with Adobe to ensure that Nokia 9 is fully supported in Lightroom CC and also supports the original DNG file, which is essential for the highest quality editing. In fact, unlike most mobile phones, Nokia 9 users can choose to capture RAW and compress JPEG at the same time when taking photos. During the experience, I took a few photos with Nokia 9, which impressed me that the mobile phone can take photos in challenging shooting scenes (such as extreme backlight).

Another outstanding feature of Nokia 9 PureView is its off-screen fingerprint sensor. This feature is still relatively new in the United States. It will start from Samsung Galaxy S 10 next month, and there will be many other flagship products later this year, but now HMD is at the forefront.

Huawei P20 Pro entered the unknown field with its impressive three-camera arrangement. HMD seized this opportunity and provided 512 megapixel rear sensors, as well as LED flash and ToF imaging sensors for 9 PureView. All these cameras rely on the same bottom module, two of which are color sensors and the other three are dedicated to processing black and white image data. HMD said that this setting allows the mobile phone to capture a complete spectrum, which is said to absorb more than 2.9 times the light compared with the typical mobile phone camera setting.

When developing the unique layout of mobile phones, HMD cooperated with Light, an expert in computational photography, and was responsible for loading 16 sensors for L 16 cameras. In terms of light, PureView uses professional hardware and image processing algorithms to complete its imaging skills. For beginners, the mobile phone actually integrates the data of five rear sensors every time. Depending on the situation, the mobile phone may use multiple photos of each rear camera, which means that the picture of 60 million to 240 million pixels will be refined into the final image of 65.438+0.2 million pixels.

The camera promises unprecedented details and dynamic range (up to 12.4 files), and can measure the depth information of about 1200 layers (smartphones usually only use 10 layers), ranging from 7 cm to 40 meters. HMD even added depth control to Google Photos, so that you can re-select the focus after shooting.

RAW/DNG support is also part of the new function. HMD cooperates with Adobe Lightroom team, so all the extra image data can be used for operation. The mobile version of Lightroom will also be supported in future software updates. As a first-time user of 9 PureView, it is difficult to judge now. In fact, once the image is processed, the dynamic range displayed is really good-looking, but it is hard to say whether HMD really has an advantage compared with other leading mobile phone cameras at present.

There is also the problem of stability. Five cameras can shorten the exposure time, which HMD thinks means that the mobile phone does not need any form of optical image stabilization (OIS) system, even if it is used in low light. All this is fine when you take pictures with your mobile phone, but it is different when you shoot videos. When switching to video recording, the advantages of these five sensors disappear. The single12 megapixel RGB sensor is restored to the mobile phone, and only electronic anti-shake helps to shoot a stable picture. Of course, on this phone, the video doesn't look bad, but it doesn't have the advantages of other sensors. In contrast, the ability to shoot videos does not have many characteristics.

Conceptually, the way these cameras work together is very similar to the traditional HDR mode. However, instead of stitching one camera together for multiple exposures, Nokia 9 collects and combines the image data of each of the five cameras to generate more detailed photos. If you are not good at math, you have to process a lot of information at once. Each photo has 60-240 million pixels of data, all mixed into one file. Because this is a mobile phone that really cares about photographers, you can naturally save all the images as RAW files. Another advantage of having all these cameras is that together they produce a more complex depth map, and you can choose to adjust the blur effect in the photo very carefully after taking pictures, regardless of the composition.

The conditions on the day of testing Nokia 9 PureView were very bad. Clouds hung in the sky, and it rained most of the morning, causing many obvious gray images. Even so, the clarity and nuances of most shots are impressive, and their details are very good. In addition to splicing image data together, Nokia 9 doesn't seem to be supersaturated like other smartphones. This is not to say that you won't see bright colors, but it is very close to reality.

The shutter will not lag because all photos are processed in the background. This is a very good thing, because this process may take some time, about 5 to 6 seconds to process a standard automatic photo, but using the camera's complex depth mode will increase a lot of processing time. Some photos take more than 10 seconds to process, but this process is acceptable for photographers.

Although the software was later adjusted, it didn't help that there was something wrong with the photo itself. The camera application provides a fairly simple interface, but it is difficult to find the desired options or settings. HMD has made it clear that PureView is a mobile phone suitable for photographers, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised, it is not particularly intuitive. But in the end, it is obvious that this mobile phone is not ready for those amateurs.

Nokia 9 PureView represents a major step forward in the field of smartphone photography. If this phone goes well, you can believe that HMD Global also hopes that other phones can use it. However, whether 5 cameras can become the key weighing factor for the majority of mobile phone users to buy mobile phones remains to be tested in the market after the official listing.

Summary:

In general, all the media think that Nokia 9 PureView is a mobile phone suitable for early adopters. The novel rear 5-camera configuration, more professional photography mode and rich processing software support are the highlights of this phone. The addition of fingerprint recognition function on the screen also makes this mobile phone more eye-catching, which narrows the distance between Nokia brand and flagship mobile phone. Although the price has certain advantages, fans may be disappointed by not adopting the most popular flagship processor this year and still retaining the traditional design of the upper and lower borders. However, innovation always has two sides, and whether it can be recognized by the market remains to be further commented.

Advantages:

After 5 photos, the quality is high.

Medium cost

Support off-screen fingerprint identification

Android One provides a pure user interface and quick updates.

Disadvantages:

Snapdragon 855 chipset is not used.

No headphone jack

Long photo processing time

Not as stable as optical images.