The Nokia 6.1 definitely surprised me.
A lot of the time when we think about the brand, we have nostalgic thoughts.
I remember when the Nokia 3310 came out and one of my high school mates got one. We were ooh-ing and aah-ing at the polyphonic ringtones and cool shape of the phone. Then the likes of Ericsson and Motorola came into the mix with flip phones and we declared ourselves ultra cool. As the years went by, the technology developed and today we are sitting with phones that can act as banks and home computers.
The world has certainly advanced in all its ways so when Nokia, our favourite old school phone, came back on the market, it was met with hesitation.
What would they possibly release that would get them back on top after this long? How would they survive in this big bad world of Samsung, Apple and now Huawei?
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The release of several versions of the new Nokia has allowed those who are interested to check out their capabilities.
I got my hands on the Nokia 6.1 and took it through the paces, going from one event to another during a very busy week.
The 16MP HDR camera, part of the Nokia Pro phones, has partnered with Zeiss.
RICH: The phone can take Instagram worthy food pictures.
I tested the power of Zeiss during the Edcon Design Innovation Challenge runway show, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality.
The Zeiss optics - 16MP main camera with 4k video recording - highlight everything. The dual-camera mode, using the 16MP main and 8MP wide-angle selfie camera, performs well - even in low-light conditions.
POSE: Putting the Zeiss camera through its paces at the Edcon Design Innovation Challenge.
The 4K video can grab high-quality stills in an instant - then zoom or crop, without compromising on quality, is superb.
It captured movement, lighting and food effortlessly.
The Google-designed software experience on the Nokia 6.1 lets you use the interface with pre-installed apps - including a radio, and extra storage
space. The only downsides I found were with the earphones and the fact that the phone
had no pre-installed voice recorder.
It’s priced around the R5000/R6000 mark and is well
worth the money for its camera quality.