Nokia 7.1 is big on quality and relatively small on price
This year, I’ve seen some incredible flagship phones hit the market, but the best come with hefty price tags. However, not everyone has the willingness to spend top-end prices. Flagship phones are getting more expensive while mid-range phones are getting flagship qualities and this is very evident in the Nokia 7.1.
There’s a lot to like about the €349 Nokia 7.1, which features a stylish, glass back and front, rear dual-cameras, 5.84-inch Full HD (19:9 screen ratio) LCD display, 32GB of storage and a decent 3,060mAh battery to keep you going all day. Again, this isn’t a flagship device and so it’s running a mid-range Snapdragon 636 CPU, which is more than fast enough for most users. What makes the 7.1 even more compelling is the fact that it’s part of the Android One program, which means it will get updates to the OS quicker than other brands.
That being said, it only comes with Android 8.1 out-of-the-box, but another update is due before the end of the year to Android Pie 9.
I really like the look and feel of the Nokia 7.1, which features a glass back with bevelled edges. There’s a distinctive symmetrical design aesthetic with it’s dual Zeiss 12MP/5MP cameras stacked one on top of the other with a silver metal trim. Centred beneath these is the easy to reach and use circular fingerprint reader. Then you’ll find the Nokia logo on its side underneath these and at the bottom is the Android One logo. Even the USB Type-C port for charging is right in the middle of the bottom edge that finishes off the well thought out design.
The front and rear glass panels sandwich a metal band that has a silver trim where the metal meets the glass. This looks great and provides a consistency in the design that makes the Nokia 7.1 look premium. The glass feels great in use and isn’t a fingerprint magnet.
On the front, there’s a substantial chin and there’s no getting away from the notch. This isn’t an OLED display either, but as LCD panels go, this is definitely one of the better ones with higher contrast (1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio). It’s one of the few phones that isn’t OLED, but supports the HDR10 standard. It’s plenty bright making it easy to see in sunlight and colours are vibrant and you can turn on Enhanced HDR10 display to help contrast and sharpness for normal photos, games and videos.
However, I tried YouTube, and Netflix, but neither supported HDR on the 7.1. Interestingly, Amazon Prime does support HDR on this phone. This isn’t that unusual as a lot of other phones, including flagships with HDR displays, aren’t all support yet by these streaming services. HDR aside, the video does look good, especially considering this is a mid-range phone and not an OLED display.
I also love the fact that when you zoom in on videos to go full screen, you don’t see the notch cutting into the image.
In the audio department, the Nokia 7.1 only has a single firing mono loudspeaker at the bottom edge of the phone. It has more than enough volume and the sound quality is decent but not amazing. However, you do get something you don’t see on too many flagships anymore — a headphone jack.
The camera software has a decent amount of options including Live Bokeh, Panorama, Slow Motion and TimeLapse modes. There’s also a Pro mode that allows you to use manually adjust settings, but most will be happy with the results from the automatic options.
Overall image quality is far better than I was expecting from a device in the price bracket. The Live Bokeh mode works well most of the time in isolating the background, even better than some flagships I’ve tested this year. However, it isn’t a low light beast and the app felt a little slow at times.
On the video front, you can record up to 4K on the back and up to 1080p on the front facing 5MP camera. The image quality is again, better than expected, but with only 32GB, you’ll have to consider getting a microSD card to expand the storage.
The Nokia 7.1 is running Android Oreo 8.1, but this is an almost stock version of the OS. This makes for a smoother and overall faster running system because there’s no skin or bloatware on top to slow things down. It also means it gets security updates every month for a minimum of three years, and two major operating system updates. This doesn’t mean you’ll get updates as quick as say the Pixel 3, but it’s nice to know it will keep getting updates long after purchase.
Battery life is decent and the average users should have no problems getting through a day on a single charge. You also get fast charging that can deliver up to 50% of your battery back in 30 minutes but there’s no wireless charging option.
Overall, the Nokia 7.1 is an excellent phone and one of the best in its class.
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