For latest tips, tricks and hacks check out our dedicated section for Android Tricks. Thankfully, the Nokia 6 is a fantastic phone for the price, and doesn’t have enough issues under the hood to push me, or most users away from it. The phone has its shortcomings, much like the two other phones in the same line, the Nokia 3 and Nokia 5, but there are ways to get around them. There are problems that Android phones always run into, like the WiFi not working, or Bluetooth not pairing, but I’ll be focusing on what issues the Nokia 6 specifically has that you can resolve, or be aware of before buying.
Awkwardly Placed Fingerprint Scanner
At the bottom of the Nokia 6 is a fingerprint scanner that works well enough, especially in the phone’s price range, but the placement isn’t ideal. With its almost cylindrical and long design, it’s a pain to use one handed at the very bottom of the device. The fingerprint scanner works in conjunction with the Nokia 6’s capacitive navigation buttons, which poses another problem when hold the phone horizontally. If you’re playing a game, or using an app that has a lot of constant movement, it’s very easy to hit these buttons during regular use. The placement of the scanner is something that you’ll grow accustomed to with time, and the capacitive buttons aren’t that big of a deal breaker, even if you’re used to on screen buttons at this point.
A Limited and Closed Off Battery
While the 3000mAh battery inside of the Nokia 6 should last you through the day on a full charge, it being stuck inside of the phone without a way to replace it, or swap it for a fresh one is disappointing. In most cases throughout the day, you wouldn’t need to change batteries with light use, but if you’re on your phone constantly, using apps or games that take up most of your phone’s resources, you’ll need some help to conserve your battery power. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to make sure a single charge lasts through the entire day, and we’ve covered some of the best of them.
An Outdated Chipset
The Nokia 6, while powerful enough to do most simple tasks without a problem, is still using the old Snapdragon 430. To help put things into perspective, even though they’re in different price ranges, the Google Pixel uses a Snapdragon 821 under the hood. With the 430 expect to be able to run apps and simple games without much of a problem, but trying to load anything graphically, or mechanically intense and you’re going to run into hiccups and issues. If you’re expecting the Nokia 6 to be able to handle something like VR, even with its 1080p screen, it simply doesn’t have the power behind it. So while the Nokia 6 is underpowered when compared to other phones out this year, and even last year, what can you do about that? In short, there really isn’t anything you can do to boost the Nokia 6’s processing power, but you can manage your system’s RAM effectively, and better understand what your phone can and can’t do to avoid stressing it to the point of overheating.
No NFC or Infrared Capability
The lack of NFC and infrared isn’t a deal breaker for the Nokia 6 by any means, and if anything the addition of them would raise the price, but them not being there is another small issue with the phone. However, this isn’t one of the problems with the Nokia 6 that you can fix, or with the Nokia 3 and 5. While losing infrared isn’t a tragic loss, losing NFC does mean you miss out on a few Android tricks that aren’t possible without it.
Poor Color and Contrast in Photos
This has unfortunately been the same case for the Nokia 3 and 5, but the camera on the back, and the front, of the Nokia 6 have problems with colors and contrasts. If you add uneven or low lighting into the mix, colors in Nokia 6 pictures won’t be represented accurately, making them come off as washed out, or imbalanced. This is where photo editing apps come into play to make it easy to add touch ups here and there, make small corrections, and even major edits. As long as you make sure you have enough lighting, have a photo editor in your app toolkit, and take photos with a steady hand, your pictures will look their absolute best. The 16MP 1080p camera on the back, and the 8MP camera on the front do an admirable job at taking photos, even with the color and contrast issues.
A UI That isn’t for Everyone
The last problem that I’ve seen people have with the Nokia 6, aside from minor gripes here and there, is with the UI. I’m in the same boat as far as not liking the design. I’m not sure if the colors match the simplistic theme, and even for something simplistic it comes off looking sparse. If you think the same way, or even have different gripes with the UI, don’t worry, you still have time to change it. This doesn’t just apply to the Nokia 6 either, you can do this with any Android phone. In just a few minutes, or even seconds, download a custom launcher, or even try to make your own with icon packs and different themes. The choice is thankfully up to you about how you want your phone to look and feel, so if you don’t like how the interface for the Nokia 6 looks, it’s easy to fix.
Some Improvements Over Nokia Line Problems
The Nokia 6, while it’s the Android phone in this new line that released last year, doesn’t have some of the problems the Nokia 3 and 5 have. Since the Nokia 6 is the most expensive out of the three, it’s expected to have a few improvements over the others. While I listed the battery problems above, the Nokia 6 does have a larger battery than the two other similar Nokia devices. At the same time, the small amount of RAM I’ve criticized the Nokia 3 and 5 for having is bumped up to 3GB’s and 4GB’s respectively depending on the model you pick for the 6. Additionally, the internal memory jumped to 32GB and 64GB on the more expensive model, but both still have a microSD card slot for easy expandable storage. The Nokia 6 is the most expensive of the three, but without going into it too much here, it’s probably worth the extra money to get a better Nokia experience, even with the problems still present.
Conclusion
The Nokia 6 probably has the least amount of problems when compared to the 3 and the 5, but it still has its downsides. Some of these issues you can fix, and others just have to be dealt with, and more will probably be discovered over time. When problems with the Nokia 6 crop up, there will no doubt be even more solutions. If you have anything about the Nokia 6 you want to let us know about, or even anything about Nokia in general, please tell us below. The Basics of Troubleshooting Android Phones BlackBerry and Nokia Reentering the Market as Android—What Do They Do Better? Fixing Common Galaxy S8 Problems How to Fix 12 Common Google Pixel Problems Featured Image Credit
