As you register these words I will be on my agency to Barcelona , Spain for the Mobile World Congress 2025 trade wind show , and it ’ll be the first clip I ’ve been since 2019 . It ’ll be a dissimilar show experience for me , in many way , and as I train for the trip I thought about my last sojourn , and how I do n’t think any this year will come close to matching the announcement of one , screwball camera sound in especial — theNokia 9 PureView .
Is MWC even about phones?
Mobile World Congress is about so muchmorethan just smartphones , and quite often , they take a back buns to all the other new products and tech launched at the result . Huawei often used the show to unveil new laptop computer , Google talks about Android and its software in general , Samsung has n’t held a major press group discussion there for years , and Apple does n’t even wait on . While we may associate MWC with smartphones , the Sojourner Truth is they ’re only one , small part of what travel on there .
It ’s not a late occurrent either . Ten eld ago , we gave ourBest of Show awardto the HTC Vive virtual realness headset . VR eclipse MWC in 2015 , just like5 G dominated the 2019 show , and we expect AI to be all most talk about in Spain for MWC 2025 . Smartphones just bump to be the vessel for 5 K and AI , and often come second on the show level . Of naturally , telephone are still launched . TheSamsung Galaxy S6took the top spot for phones at MWC 2015 , LG premise its unusual modularLG G5the year after , and Huawei come with theP10 in 2017 .
The cameras on all these telephone were always talking points , especially on forth - think devices like the Huawei P10 , but it was never the focus of the phone and had n’t fully emerge as a major selling point at the time . The engineering was also very different to the cameras on a top modernistic phone like theGalaxy S25 Ultratoday . If we ’d have seen a 200MP camera on a phone at MWC 2015 , it would have taken the humanity by violent storm . Today , it ’s a line in a revaluation . However , when I last run low to MWC , a phone did its best to get everyone talking , and it wasa camera phonefirst and foremost .
One mad camera changed it all
In 2019 the Nokia name arrive back with a star phone made by HMD Global , which had lately assure the right to produce phones with the Nokia name attached . It go in to MWC 2019 with the purpose of make a braggart splash , attracting both newbie and long - sentence Nokia fans with an exciting television camera phone cry the Nokia 9 PureView .
It immediately upstaged theSamsung Galaxy S10 5G’sfour camera apparatus withfive12MP cameras on the back , plus some extra sensors taking the entire act to seven , and they were all set flush against the rear board too . Even today , the phone looks crazy , mostly for the petite sizing of the cameras . We ’re used to giant tv camera modules , periscope zooms , and 1 - inch detector carry up a third of the rearward dialog box these mean solar day , and the Nokia 9 PureView ’s dirt ball - comparable aspect is jarring .
But the flavor was n’t as out - there as the television camera spec . It used a customs Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor and something called a Lux Capacitor to ensure the best photographic camera performance , along with expertise from Zeiss andcamera ship’s company Lightto make it all mould . Remember Light ? It made amulti - lens photographic camera called the L16 , and like it , the Nokia 9 ’s cameras all worked at once when you pack a photo . Clever software compound photograph from each camera into one , and because it shot in RAW , lensman could extensively delete images just like the would with a DSLR .
It was like nothing else we ’d seen , but it was n’t really purpose at casual photographers . You really needed to understand the mechanics of photography and image redaction to get the most from it . The groovy mobile photographers were flocking to theGoogle Pixel 3at the fourth dimension , and the Nokia 9 PureView ’s complexness stood out in the wrong way . But that was the least of the Nokia 9 PureView ’s job .
It should have been a winner
The Nokia 9 PureView should have been a big win for HMD Global ( now known but as HMD , or Human Mobile Devices ) , but it turned out to be a catastrophe . I remember being excited to try the camera out on a trip to Taipei , Taiwan , but all I think about it was it being much unuseable . The camera app was very slow , some image choose minutes to process or did n’t enamour at all , and trying to do anything in the editor in chief was unimaginable because the phone would freeze up . That was render the fingerprint sensor actually unlocked the phone in the first place .
I was one of the favourable ones too . Some who ordered the limited edition headphone ground other problems , such as short overall phone performance , and even the tv camera app fail completely . One buyer shared their experienceon Reddit in a threadtitled , “ Nokia 9 PureView my worst leverage ever . ”
The phone ’s repugnance was n’t a skillful aspect for HMD Global , which was try out to win the hearts of Nokia fan at the time . regrettably the Nokia 9 PureView was a dauntless , exciting experiment that did n’t experience up to its hope . It was the same for Light , the ship’s company which worked with HMD Global and Zeiss on the camera , which despite a pivot man to phones and self-propelled , could n’t pull round and was eventually purchase by John Deere . Yes , the tractor maker .
Where’s the Nokia 10 PureView?
The Nokia 9 PureView was n’t a good photographic camera earpiece or a near smartphone . MWC 2019 was buzzing with talk about it , but what came after its circumscribed departure turn one of MWC ’s most exciting phone announcement into one of its freehanded dashing hopes . It had all the right component though , and look back it was probably a small ahead of its time . modernistic processors and software system may be better at handling the complexity of its multi - camera glide path , but it ’s unconvincing HMD need to have another go , and few other earpiece God Almighty are likely willing to take a endangerment on a earphone with such niche appeal .
It was the talking of MWC 2019 though , and I remember the discussion and exhilaration around it fondly . As I explained , rarely do smartphones make a really big impact at MWC these days , and niche camera phones are even more of a rarity . The Nokia 9 PureView made MWC asmartphone showfor once , even if it did sour out to be a bit rubbish .
What about MWC 2025 ? It ’s looking near , because Xiaomi — the currentsavior of current photographic camera phones , in my vox populi — is bringing theXiaomi 15 Ultrato Barcelona . It ’s not likely to be as bizarre as the Nokia 9 PureView , but that ’s OK . What it require to do is be equal to , or well than , the fantastic Xiaomi 14 Ultra , and it ’ll be well on its way to beingthe camera phone to beat this yr . I ’m excited for it , but I ’ll also on the QT be hoping for a Nokia 10 PureView to make an unexpected appearing , complete with a dozen flush - mounted cameras , crazy features , and a mainframe that can really do by it all . I can dream , right ?
