This article originally appeared on ABACUS The Nokia 9 PureView looks like any old smartphone... until you flip it over to see an odd array on the back. While other smartphones have two or even three cameras, this is the first smartphone with five cameras on the back (and no camera bump). Even though using five cameras at once should supposedly make for a better photo, there are some real downsides. After taking a picture, it takes time for the phone to process the photo and save it -- I saw it taking five seconds. It means you can’t see your photos immediately -- you can still continue to shoot pictures, you just won’t see them. The downside is that the phone gets laggy when you take multiple shots. And even when you’re not shooting, there’s a significant lag time when it comes to choosing different photo modes. Speaking of those modes, there’s a Pro camera option where you can control the white balance, ISO, shutter speed and exposure. The controls are very user-friendly and it’s the best manual mode I have tried in smartphones. There’s also a “bothie” mode where you can use both the front and rear cameras at the same time to snap photos and record video -- so you can take a photo that shows your selfie and the subject in front of you. There’s also a monochrome mode where the phone uses its three monochrome cameras to fuse three photos into one single photo. Multiple camera modes sounds good, but switching between them is slow. Like all Android flagships in 2019, it has an in-screen fingerprint sensor. But this one here doesn’t work too well. I had to apply a bit of force to read my fingerprint. But unlike other 2019 flagships, Nokia’s latest handset still includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with 6GB of RAM. Not having the new 855 chipset is really a bummer. I thought I could live with that, but the way the phone slows down when taking multiple pictures suggests it could do with more power. Perhaps the best thing about this phone is that it comes with Android One software. So there’s no bloatware at all -- it’s like clean stock Android on Pixel phones. And frankly, given the disappointing slowness of the camera, Android One might be the only reason why I would be interested in this phone. For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters , subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast , and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report . Also roam China Tech City , an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus .
