Nokia 9 PureView Vs. Can iPhone XR: HMD destroy Apple?

The Nokia 9 PureView was unveiled at the MWC 2019 – and that's all we dreamed of. With its sleek glass design and non-notched P-OLED display, the Nokia 9 PureView would have stood out even without the addition of five (though, five) the camera's lenses are tidy in the rear window.

At an expected price of $ 700, however, he faces immediate and very powerful opposition – the iPhone XR. This cheap iPhone conquered us last year and is one of the main competitors of the Nokia 9. Which phone wins when these two will face it? We discovered.

Update: read our review for our first impressions on the device, or move on to interesting things: the first photos of the Nokia 9, thanks to an exclusive early access week.

Specifications

Performance, battery life and charging

Unlike most of the other flagship products revealed at the MWC 2019, the Nokia 9 PureView does not come with this year's flagship processor – the Snapdragon 855. Instead, a long period of development means that the new flagship product of Nokia is using Snapdragon 845 from last year. in real-life conditions – the Snapdragon 845 is still fast enough to handle most modern games – that means it's lagging behind the powerful A12 Bionic processor from the iPhone XR.

The inadequacy goes in the opposite direction in the raw battery numbers. The Nokia 9 battery is larger than the iPhone, but after our brief tests, the iPhone XR will offer a longer battery life. The Nokia 9 can last a full day, but heavy use may see it switch sooner.

Do not get me wrong, the Nokia 9 PureView is very powerful. But the iPhone XR is clearly the most powerful of the two.

Winner: Apple iPhone XR

Design and sustainability

We love the design of the iPhone XR. It's colorful like an iPhone has not been in years, but it uses the same design that attracts attention as its more expensive brothers. The phone is really beautiful and we liked to watch it as much as we liked using it. The Nokia 9 is beautiful too, but in a very different way. It has more scope than most flagship products nowadays, but it remains a sleek and beautiful phone. The five lenses are arranged in a circle at the back and there is no fingerprint scanner either, because it is on the screen (the iPhone uses the facial identity).

You will probably want a case on both phones to protect the glass body, but the waterproofing is IP67 compliant, so you do not have to panic if either phone falls into the pool.

This is a difficult category to judge because both are very attractive in their own way. However, the iPhone impressed us like no other phone last year, so we give it victory.

Winner: iPhone XR

Display

The new Liquid Retina LCD technology on the iPhone XR reproduces colors and black well, but the resolution may be a bit pixelated when you move the phone closer, due to the comparatively low resolution of 1792 x 828. However, , 1 inch is just the right size for our hand. The Nokia 9 PureView is a little smaller, at 5.99 inches, but it has all the benefits of OLED technology, as well as a 2K resolution – and there is no notch, if that is important to you.

We have not yet had the chance to properly compare the two phones side by side, but we are pretty sure that the Nokia 9's P-OLED display will be superior to the iPhone XR's LCD screen.

Winner: Nokia 9 PureView

Camera

There is no price to guess, this is where the Nokia 9 has to shine. The five Zeiss lenses on the back of the phone are powered by the technology of Light – the company behind the 16-camera – which has a great pedigree. It consists of two RGB sensors and three monochrome sensors. He takes pictures with the five lenses at the same time. Usually he takes five pictures at a time, but sometimes he can take a lot more and combine them into one ultra-rich picture. It can also capture a vast depth map and you can then adjust the focus point and the intensity of the blur. A monochrome mode is also present for real black and white photos, as well as a Pro mode if you want to totally control the camera.

The main feature is that the Nokia 9 captures RAW and JPEG photos. Because of the sheer volume of information captured with the five lenses, editing the RAW photo in Adobe Lightroom offers a lot of control that would typically be absent on other smartphone cameras. You will also find a huge 20 megapixel selfie lens on the front.

The iPhone XR comes with a single 12 megapixel lens on the back, but it still makes for excellent shots. It supports full portrait mode, even if it does not have a second lens (it's the first iPhone to do that), and it takes great pictures in various lighting conditions. Some may not enjoy the versatility offered by the second goal of the iPhone XS and XS Max, but we believe that most will be satisfied with this unique and high-performance goal. This unique lens is joined by the same 7-megapixel TrueDepth selfie lens you'll find on the iPhone XS and XS Max, and it's just as excellent.

Although we did not have the opportunity to play with the Nokia 9 camera, we are sure that it will be an exceptional shooter. The image processing time takes a while and there is no optical stabilization of the image, but for photographers, the Nokia 9 is the camera you want. For the average person who just wants to take a good picture, the iPhone XR is the best choice. It is equal, the phones are clearly intended for different demographic data.

Winner: Tie

Software and updates

Choosing between Android and iOS is like choosing between apples and oranges – it all depends on the opinion. So, whether you prefer Android One (running on Android 9.0 Pie) on the Nokia 9 or iOS 12 on the iPhone XR, this is probably not a matter of opinion. In any case, they will be sweet as butter, so there is no need to worry.

You will also get quick updates of these two phones. However, the iPhone XR will probably be the faster of the two, because Apple creates and distributes itself iOS – in order to be able to broadcast the updates immediately. Android may be harder to update, but HMD has a proven track record of updating its devices quickly and regularly. Of course, using Google's Android One initiative is useful because HMD Global (the company that creates Nokia phones) does not have to make many major changes to the user interface, which typically slows down other manufacturers. As a device on Android One, the Nokia 9 will have at least two years of major updates to the Android operating system and three years of security updates. So expect to bear it a long time.

Whatever the quality of the Nokia update (which is excellent compared to its Android peers), Apple is considered the king of updates. Expect the iPhone XR to get major releases of iOS for years to come – after all, it's about the company that always updates the iPhone 5S from 2013.

Winner: iPhone XR

Special features

You will find all the usual features of Google on the Nokia 9 – Google Assistant, Google Lens and everything you expect from Android. But the Nokia 9 is designed to take pictures. This is where you will find most of the special features. The Camera app offers a range of professional modes, including the ability to take RAW format photos and edit them using the integrated Adobe Lightroom application. There is also an enhanced depth map to give the impression that your photos come from a digital SLR. There is also a function of unlocking the face with smart card feeding, which is not as secure as the facial identity, and you will even find a built-in fingerprint scanner at the front.

How does this compare to the iPhone XR? Well, you have access to Siri and Face ID remains an important benefit for Apple – but there is no fingerprint sensor, and 3D Touch has been removed from the XR. However, AR on iPhone is still ahead of all others, and Apple's Animojis are among the best.

This is a very difficult category to call because some of these special features are important to some, while not so bad for others. So it's a tie at the moment, until we can spend more time with the Nokia 9.

Winner: Tie

Price

We do not know yet release date for the Nokia 9 PureView, it will cost 699 dollars in the United States and 599 euros in Europe. Do not forget that the Nokia 9 is a limited edition phone. Once HMD is exhausted, you will never be able to buy it again. The iPhone XR is currently available at various retailers and works with most major US carriers. Prices start at $ 750 for the 64GB variant.

Winner: iPhone XR

The battle is tough, but with victories in some crucial categories, the iPhone XR appears as the most powerful phone. With tremendous control power, an appealing design and the excellent iOS 12 from Apple, it seems likely that this is the most powerful of the two phones.

However, we have not spent a lot of time with the Nokia 9 PureView yet, and HMD Global has already released some surprises, so our impressions may change once we get a better look at the new phone. But the iPhone XR is still excellent. Catch him and you will not be disappointed.