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Nokia shows off a five camera array in the Nokia 9 Pureview

Nokia's latest addition to its premium smartphone range includes a hexagonal array of five cameras, which work together to create one large, high-definition photo.

The Nokia 9 Pureview, developed under the Nokia brand by Finnish startup HMD Global, has five cameras on the back joined by two flash and colour sensors, and then two more cameras on the front, bringing the device's total up to seven lenses.

Unlike other multi-camera devices, such as Xiaomi's triple camera Mi 9 shown earlier today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Pureview takes a shot on all five cameras at once and stitches the photos together.

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Designed in collaboration with Silicon Valley startup Light, HMD claimed this means the phone can perceive details in both shadow and light that other phones would not be able to pick up.

Photos can have up to 240-megapixel resolution, with each camera holding 12 megapixels. Two of the cameras use red-green-blue sensors to pick up colour, while the other three are monochrome.

However it's there where the premium features end, for the most part. The Pureview is powered by a last generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, and uses a 4.99-inch mOLED display. It also has an in-screen fingerprint sensor, built-in facial recognition and wireless charging.

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Priced at $699 (£535), Nokia offers a lot for a mid-range Android smartphone, but it won't be challenging the likes of Huawei or Xiaomi for consumer domination. Instead, HMD said it is targeting a niche demographic.

Not intended for mass production, the Nokia 9 Pureview's limited run will start later this year.  

"The Nokia models won't contend for leadership with Apple, Huawei and Samsung – but that's not their goal," said Forrester vice president and principal analyst Frank Gillett.

Instead, he added, the Nokia 9 Pureview "positions it well with the hundreds of millions of new smartphone buyers that will come online in India and China in the next few years".