After pitting Huawei’s dual-cam smartphone against the 5.5-inch Zenfone 3 Max, today we’ll be comparing the specs of the 2017 GR5 against Nokia’s comeback Android phone, the Nokia 6. Nokia’s new phone plays at the same mid-range price range as the new GR5, so it’ll be interesting to see how both phones stack up specs wise. So, without further ado:
Huawei GR5 2017 Initial Review: Most Affordable Dual-cam On The Block
Meet Nokia’s Android-powered Nokia 6
Huawei GR5 2017
- 2.1GHz HiSilicon Kirin 655 octa-core processor
- ARM Mali-T830 MP2
- 3GB of RAM
- 5.5-inch FHD IPS display, 1920 x 1080 resolution
- 32GB expandable storage, via microSD
- 12-megapixel rear camera, with 2-megapixel secondary camera
- 8-megapixel front camera
- Dual SIM
- 3G, LTE
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
- Fingerprint scanner
- 3340mAh battery
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow (EMUI 4.1)
- Php 13,990
Nokia 6
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor
- Adreno 505 GPU
- 5.5-inch full HD display, 2.5D glass, 1920 x 1080 resolution
- 4GB RAM
- 64GB internal storage expandable storage up to 128GB via microSD
- 16-megapixel rear camera, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, Laser AF, flash
- 8-megapixel front camera, f/2.0 aperture
- Dual SIM
- 3G, LTE
- WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprint scanner
- 3000mAh battery with fast charging
- Android 7.0 Nougat
Just like the previous head-to-head with another mid-range phone, Huawei’s GR5 2017 wins out in the processor department, using a much more power-efficient SoC that was made using the 16nm FinFET+ fabrication process. While the Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor has been a solid performer in the past, its 28nm lithography makes it inferior to the Kirin 655 in terms of power-effiency.
The Nokia 6 does make up for its chipset with slighty more RAM (4GB as opposed to 3GB) and double the storage capacity (64GB vs 32GB). While the GR5 2017 has 4GB/64GB versions, only the 3GB/32GB variant will be officially sold in the Philippines.
While we already have a good grasp of what the GR5 2017’s camera can do, the Nokia 6’s camera performance is still pretty much unknown. The Nokia 6 does have quite a bit more focusing technologies baked into it like PDAF and laser AF, which is arguably more useful than the ability to add artificial bokeh to photos.
The GR5 2017’s 3340mAh battery beats the 3000mAh juicer on the Nokia 6, and since the GR5 2017 has a better, more power efficient chipset, it’ll probably last longer on a single charge compared to the Nokia 6. But unlike the GR5 2017, the Nokia 6 has fast charging enabled, which means that if the phone does run out of juice it can theoretically be put back in service quicker than its rival. The Nokia 6 also comes with Android Nougat out of the box while the GR5 2017 is still stuck in Marshmallow, however the phone is slated to receive a Nougat update in the future.
Pricing-wise the GR5 2017 has a street price of Php 13,990. No official PH pricing is available for the Nokia 6 as of yet, though it’s slated to go on sale in China for RMB 1,699 or 12.1K coverted. Expect local pricing to be much higher because of taxes and importation charges.