It was introduced at the 2019 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain as a successor to the Nokia 8 Sirocco.

Key upgrades over the Nokia 8 Sirocco include a faster Snapdragon 845 chip and Adreno 630 GPU, a taller 6" 18:9 screen with HDR10 support, a higher resolution HDR selfie camera that can now record in 4K, more LTE bands, faster wireless charging, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and a slightly larger battery capacity.

At the rear, a multi-camera setup is featured in a honeycomb-like arrangement with a dual-LED flash and time-of-flight sensor (ToF) offset to the left and right respectively, and a hole for the microphone above.

HDR is supported, but the device lacks phase-detection, autofocus and optical image stabilization (OIS).

Praise was directed towards the design, display and software; Tom's Guide and Digital Trends felt that the RAW-Lightroom integration provided users with significantly more control over photographs.

DxOMark remarked that "[W]ith the possible exception of its Bokeh capability, the Nokia 9 PureView doesn't deliver either a photo or video performance on a par with other current model phones in its premium price range.