Nokia 6 review: Back in black

Telephony

The Nokia 6 uses a combined interface for the dialer, call log and contacts. You do get two app icons on the homescreen for direct access to the dialer and contacts tab.

Dialer • Call log • Contacts • Smart dial

The Nokia 6 is a dual SIM device with a couple of nano SIM slots. There's a SIM management section in settings, which lets you enable, disable, and assign names to SIM cards, and select a default card for data and voice calls.

SIM card settings

Loudspeaker

The Nokia 6 has stereo loudspeakers - a dedicated one on the bottom and a second one that moonlights as an earpiece. The bottom one does most of the heavy lifting and pumps louder, but the two working together do make a nice spatial effect.

This setup scored reasonably well against the meter as well, earning a Good rating.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Sony Xperia XZ	61.6	65.5	67.6	Below Average
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016)	66.2	64.8	66.8	Below Average
Lenovo K6 Note	63.2	69.5	71.0	Average
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016)	64.5	71.0	68.9	Average
Moto G4 Plus	64.0	70.4	73.0	Average
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4	64.2	67.2	76.9	Good
OnePlus 3T	61.0	69.3	78.3	Good
Oppo F1s	69.0	72.0	67.9	Good
Lenovo K6 Note (Dolby Atmos Music preset)	63.7	69.0	79.4	Good
Huawei Honor 6X	68.4	67.0	79.1	Good
Nokia 6 (Chinese version)	63.0	70.2	85.2	Good
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)	67.3	70.3	81.5	Very Good
Meizu M5 Note	65.1	70.7	86.8	Very Good
Lenovo P2	67.6	72.1	86.7	Very Good
Meizu MX5	75.7	73.5	79.5	Excellent
OnePlus 2	75.7	73.5	80.7	Excellent

Text input

Text input on the Nokia 6 is handled by the Google Keyboard - the old one, before it went all Gboard. It's the keyboard we all know and love with theming support, emoji, and secondary symbols on long press.

Google Keyboard

Apps

The selection of pre-installed apps is pretty minimal. You do, however, get a fully-functional file manager that groups your files by type and arranges them into tabs. It supports batch actions, and can also tap into cloud services (not our Google Drive, though).

Update (July 13): A new software update for the Chinese variant, which includes the July security patch, also brings support for Google services. The Google Drive integration in the file manager, backup tool and gallery app now works like a charm.

File manager

There's a weather app that pulls data from AccuWeather and presents it in a simple and easy to read way. A surprisingly capable Note app is on board. It offers different categories (Diary, To do, Drawings), each with several templates to get you started.

Weather app • Notes

There's a built-in backup and restore solution too. You get to select which bits you need to keep safe, and you can back them up to the internal storage, to an SD card, or to the cloud. You can't schedule regular backups - you need to do it manually, on demand.

Backup and restore