Battery & System Performance
Nokia 6 Performance
As stated in introduction section already, the Nokia 6 is powered by the Qualcomm’s lower mid-range Snapdragon 430 system-on-chip. Inside, an octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU is running clocked at 1.4GHz.
This mid-ranger was launched in 3GB and 4GB RAM models with 32GB and 64GB storage respectively. However, the one we have here for review is the 3GB RAM model. 3GB + 32GB combo, according to me, is the minimum must-have package to have your Android phone run smooth with enough storage to keep moderate number of apps and games. But HMD could have chosen the Snapdragon 6xx series chip for Nokia 6.
The two contenders we selected to compare throughout the review – Samsung’s Galaxy J7 Prime and Huawei’s Y7 Prime also have pretty much similar configuration. Though, Y7 Prime has an updated variant of the chip as Snapdragon 435 while the J7 Prime carries the proprietary Exynos chip. The thing is all of them have eight-core CPU with Cortex-A53 cores. J7 Prime is clocked a little bit higher at 1.6GHz and features a dual-core Mali T830 GPU whereas both the Y7 Prime and Nokia 6 have Qualcomm’s Adreno 505 to operate on graphics.
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A few games tried on Nokia 6 – were Subway Surfer, NFS No Limit, Asphalt Xtreme and Modern Combat 5. They worked fine without lag or freezing – but do note a little warm up. Apps usually started without lag. See above, the Subway Surfer starting delay on Huawei Y7 Prime, Nokia 6 and Nokia 5.
Trialing Nokia 6 with some benchmark suits gave mixed results. Some tools gave higher numbers to the 6 while at others it stays among the lower numbers. Starting the famous AnTuTu’s all in one benchmark scores, Nokia 6 took followed by Galaxy J7 Prime and Huawei’s Y7 Prime.
Then Geekbench 4 – also a popular benchmark tool that individually test a device for single-core and multi-core tasks. Nokia 6 just stands below the Galaxy J7 Prime and Huawei Y7 Prime in multi-core test. But sure that could be the implementation of different vendors as you can notice the Moto G5 with exactly same configuration as of Nokia 6 but it even stands below the Nokia 5 with 2GB RAM.
Interestingly, Nokia 5 took the lead in single-core test with only 2GB RAM where others have 3GB of RAM with pretty much similar and identical processors.
Qualcomm’s own benchmark tool which is no more offered by Google Play – Vellamo is still our main tool for testing a phone at three dimensions multi-core, single-core (metal) and a browser test. Nokia 6 takes the lead here in multi-core and metal tests.
Metal test could only give a minor margin to Nokia 6 compared to Galaxy J7 Prime, whereas Huawei Y7 Prime is far below.
Nokia 6 couldn’t win the browser test among the device we are comparing in this review. But still stands above Y7 Prime.
Another third party tool – Basemark OS II tests the device for various tasks and delivers an overall score in addition to individual scores. We aren’t putting the individual bits here, just take a glimpse at overall scores from the tool where Nokia 6 stands just below the J7 Prime but shows better numbers than Y7 Prime. Margin is very small here.
Here comes the gaming factor, where Basemark X gives Nokia 6 a third spot but again Nokia 5 takes the margin here. Huawei Y7 Primes shows interesting result here.
As told above, Nokia 6 is good with Snapdragon 430 chipset – it performs well but still not marginally impressive than the other lot. Specially when we see Nokia 5 standing right beside the 6 – in fact higher at some tests, we believe Nokia 6 would have been a better stage with recent Snapdragon 6xx series chipset.
Nokia 6 – Battery Performance
3000mAh battery is exactly same in Nokia 6 as we had in Nokia 5. But the performance on the 6 is not quite impressive. With a 5.5-inch screen and 1080p display resolution, Nokia 6 has to take most of the battery juice. The processor on the other hand is not enough power efficient that could manage to balance.
During our tests, video playback, camera and GPS navigation are not enough optimized to save battery life. Add web browsing to the list as well when you are using WiFi. Nokia 6 would hardly manage to give you a full day if you keep yourself limited to very basic usage – you can add a couple of minutes browsing, youtube playback, some social interaction, and might end up within 18 hours. Push it a little more, add some camera usage and/or navigation, expect not to have more than 12 hours with Nokia 6.
Nokia 5, in this case is just out of question – but Huawei Y7 Prime which are taking as a key contender to Nokia 6, is much better with its power management.
