Nokia 9 PureView is finally coming to India

HMD is gearing up to launch the Nokia 9 PureView in India, but it may be too little too late already.

What you need to know

• HMD Global is teasing the launch of the Nokia 9 PureView in India.
• The phone costs $699 in the U.S., and could retail at around ₹50,000 in the country.
• The marquee feature is a penta-lens arrangement with five sensors working together to produce a photo.

The Nokia 9 launched to much fanfare back in February because of its penta-lens arrangement at the back. HMD worked with Light and Qualcomm to parse data from the five 12MP sensors at the back. Unlike most phones in the market today, the Nokia 9 doesn't have a wide-angle or zoom lens — the five lenses work in conjunction to produce a single image, albeit one with great dynamic range and "incredible depth-of-field."

At least, that's how it's meant to work. In reality, however, the camera turned out to be less than stellar, as Daniel Bader noted in his detailed review:

Nokia 9 PureView review: Five great cameras, one big problem

HMD is now teasing the launch of the phone in the country, with a formal launch likely slated for sometime later this month:

Explore much more than meets the eye with the power of 5. Ultimate focal length control on the Nokia 9 PureView. Coming soon. #ExploreEveryDetail pic.twitter.com/l9RUWaGpH1

— Nokia Mobile India (@NokiamobileIN) July 4, 2019

The Nokia 9 also features a 5.99-inch QHD+ P-OLED panel backed by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, Snapdragon 845, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, 20MP front camera, and a 3320mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0. HMD says it opted to go with last year's Snapdragon chipset because it worked with Qualcomm to optimize the platform with the unique camera arrangement on the Nokia 9, but the rest of the hardware is in line with what you'd find on a premium phone today.

The Nokia 9 also runs Android One out of the box, like every other HMD phone. The phone currently retails for $699 in the U.S., and it's possible HMD will launch it at around the ₹50,000 mark. There's just one problem, however. The OnePlus 7 Pro costs roughly the same, and the Nokia 9 will undoubtedly invite comparisons with that device.

If you ignore the camera, the Nokia 9 is a pretty vanilla phone. You get much more with the OnePlus 7 Pro, namely a 90Hz display, and the latest hardware in the market today. It is already the best-selling premium phone in India, and HMD has its work cut out if it wants to go up against OnePlus in this category. But before all that, it needs to deliver the camera fixes for the Nokia 9 to stand any chance whatsoever.

What are your thoughts on the Nokia 9? Let me know in the comments below.