Apparently, there are people out there who are terrified by clusters of small holes. It is a phobia called trypophobia which we guess means they cannot live in Blackburn Lancashire or eat Swiss Cheese.
The PureView has a rather smart five-camera array on the back. But before the handset has even got into people's hands, there are claims that it's triggering trypophobia.
Apparently, it is not just avoiding buying the Nokia 9, but also seeing pictures of it terrify them. Psychologist Geoff Cole, from the University of Essex told Metro that the sight of the cluster of five cameras – plus a flash and proximity sensor – on the Nokia 9 could be deeply unsettling for them.
"When a person takes a picture of you, the camera on this phone could fall roughly at a distance and alignment which could trigger a trypophobic response. The pattern of the camera really does have the structure to cause trypophobia."
In 2013, Cole and colleagues actually described trypophobia in a peer-reviewed journal, noting that it hadn't been described in the scientific literature before.
More than 16 percent of people is said to experience it to varying degrees, although some experts reckon it's not actually a 'true' phobia at all: based on pupil response, it may well be a response of disgust rather than fear.
Previous studies have shown trypophobia could be triggered because little groups of holes resemble the process of decomposition, infestation, and infection.
Another potential explanation is that there's a fixed structure to these patterns, matching the markings on the predators and poisonous animals we're hard-wired to avoid.
Ok, we might think it is rare, but the phenomenon is likely to have an evolutionary basis and may be more common than we realise.
Trypophobia was triggered by strawberries and soap bubbles before, but this is a first for a phone.
So far, Nokia brand owner HMD Global has remained silent on the matter, presumably because it has a phobia against commenting on silly things.
The five lenses reportedly help the Nokia 9 capture details in highlights and shadows like never before on the phone: each sensor can take 12MP photos, two in colour and the other three in monochrome for added light capture, with the results then combined for a finished photo.
