The Nokia 9 PureView uses five cameras to take one photo

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.