My opinion on the device remains in terms of size. I just can’t decide if the 18:9 thing is for me or not. On one hand it’s not too wide and has loads of screen for viewing content, but on the other, it just feels disproportionately big somehow, in the hand. I have big pockets and big hands, so it’s OK. But the 16:9 ratio has clear benefits too. Your mileage may vary. This feels very much like the Pixel 2 XL in the hand - and pocket. And it really does, in many ways, seem like a Poor Person’s Pixel.
The chin and forehead certainly are bigger than many competitors’ devices, but actually, it feels and looks fine to me after getting used to it. There’s a small bezel on the sides, but I have a TPU in place anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. And, as I said, it’s narrow enough in the hand. You can feel the weight, too. It’s a real substantial bit of kit! The 6000 series aluminium and glass have their part to play in this, but also that huge battery.
The battery is 3800mAh and hurrah for that. The performance is simply stunning. It out-performs any other phone I’ve ever used, I think. It even tops the Razer Phone - and that is amazing enough. The only way I can do better is with the Moto Z-series phones and a battery Mod slapped on - but that’s cheating! We’re talking 2+ real days here. So 48 hours or more between charges with screen set to 40% brightness and 8hrs or more screen-on-time. Phenomenal. All phone manufacturers should learn from what Nokia/HMD/Google have done here with hardware and software.
The sounds which come from the device have received some criticism but I think it really is better than most phones, if not as good as the top players. As I said before, it’s louder than the Nokia 8 but not quite as qualitative. What used to be called ‘tone’ in the old days(!) is slightly better on the 8 but really, not by much. It’s perfectly good enough for daily use, just not for filling a large room with rich sounds, like the Marshall London or Razer Phone would have a stab at doing. The earphone socket pushes out perfectly good enough sounds for my ears. It sounds just fine. If you’re an audiophile with demands for DAC performance, then yes - look elsewhere.
I’m still not convinced that the camera performance is yet optimised. That ‘live bokeh’ mode constantly reports ‘Too Near’ when clearly the subject is not. It also reports ‘Too Dark’ with anything but perfect lighting (see example shot below). I’m not sure if this is a hardware limitation, in which case I guess there’s no hope, or something that they can fix in time. Fortunately, the camera in the normal mode seems to work just fine, so in general terms users are OK for a while - and for those who want to tinker, there is that fully functioning Pro Camera mode.
The AndroidOne thing really does give the device a bit of a feel of Pixel with the bright clock showing on the screen (although sadly not always on - rather when it’s received something or it’s lifted up/out of pocket) - much more like the clear Pixel display though, than the Nokia 8’s dull and drab one. The launcher is as near to Vanilla as you can get really - there’s nothing here added apart from the camera and swiping right bring the bang-up-to-date Google Cards page, with the latest layout. The Settings pages are all very Oreo too. I still can’t get the Face Unlock to work, incidentally. It registers fine, but doesn’t unlock the phone!
There’s no 128GB version here, nor on the horizon from what I can make out. 64GB is of course enough for most people, just not me! The luxury of 128GB means that I can swap my SIM Card between devices without thinking. But most people don’t do that, I guess. And with a device-dedicated microSD Card for each, the need diminishes. So that’s one for me!
In my initial thoughts, I was reporting lag/slug here and there in the UI. I can report that since the updates that is certainly better, if not completely gone. The keyboard was really laggy before, often space-bar executions just didn’t work. Well that certainly is much better now. Whether that’s optimisations by Nokia or Google, who knows - but it does feel better. Similarly, opening Apps and switching now shows evidence of improvement over the previous pauses. The Snapdragon 660 is never going to be an 845, I guess, but it still is a fine chipset and I remain confident that this device sometime soon, will fly like the Nokia 8 does. The fingerprint scanner on the back works very quickly, though the swipe-down for Notification Shade remains aloof!
The device remains at £349 in most mainstream UK retail outlets, so no drops just yet. But it’ll come. In my initial review I couldn’t recommend this latest Nokia to anyone. With a few caveats, mentioned above, I confidently can do so now. The software updates have gone a long way to making this a usable and viable product - and arguably, yes, a Poor Person’s Pixel.
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