Nokia 7 Plus Review – A long term review

Nokia 7 Plus box contents Out of the box you get:

• Nokia 7 Plus smartphone
• In-ear headset
• Power adapter (5V-2.5A/9V-2A/12V-1.5A)
• USB Type-C Cable
• SIM Ejector tool
• Clear protective case
• User manual and warranty information

Nokia 7 Plus Design

• Metal unibody
• 158.4 x 75.6 x 8 mm
• 183 grams

The phone is rock solid and is carved out of a 6000 series block of aluminium.  The first thing you admire when you hold the 7 Plus is it’s brilliant build quality and there is no second doubt about it. The second thing that catches your eyes is its dual-color accent and the black and copper Smartphone I got here has got quiet a polished suave look. The look is accentuated with copper trims around the phone’s edges, the outline of the display, the camera module, fingerprint sensor and also the Nokia logo. The black and the copper pairs up very well and is subtly striking. The pill shaped camera module has a fair amount of bump and it has the Zeiss branding on it. The LED flash sits next to it, with the fingerprint sensor and the Nokia branding vertically below. There is also Android one mention at the back. The right side has the power button and volume buttons. The left side has the SIM tray, its a hybrid SIM tray. The top houses the audio jack. A mic, USB type-c port, speaker slits and two antenna bands completes the bottom. Antenna bands are cleverly positioned without any distraction. Overall, the Nokia 7 plus has one of the best build quality I have come across recently, there is nothing fragile about this phone.  If I have to nitpick , the sides and corners are not very smooth but on a positive note, they offer good grip while holding the phone.

Nokia 7 Plus Display

• 6.0 inches IPS LCD display
• 1080 x 2160 pixels
• 18:9 aspect ratio
• 403 ppi density
• Corning Gorilla Glass 3

The advent of the 2:1 aspect ratio and thin bezels has made 6-inch display manageable on hands, while there is still a noticeable chunk of bezels on top and bottom of the display, Nokia 7 plus can be something I can live with, since I like big screens. Nokia 7 Plus is the company’s first to sport this new display format. The display is vibrant and vivid with a decent sunlight readability and good viewing angles.

Nokia 7 Plus – Androind One – Software

• Android One
• Guaranteed three years of upgrade

HMD Global was clever enough to realise it doesn’t make any sense inventing a wheel with a UI of its own and hence has completely aligned to the Google’s Android One program. It means – no extra apps, no extra customisation , no extra services but just serves the clean version of Android as Google envisages along with its bouquet of services. Nokia has just added its own Nokia camera app and Nokia care support app in extra. Android One promises two years of next Android versions and three years of security patches update – so you could look forward to Android P and Q, in case you stick to the phone for the next few years.

Nokia 7 Plus Performance

• Snapdragon 660
• Octa-core (4×2.2 GHz Kryo 260 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 260)
• Adreno 512
• 4GB RAM
• 64GB Storage

Nokia 7 Plus is the first phone to launch in India with the Snapdragon 660. The processor is clearly a step up from the SD 625/625 processors and as of now the best in the 600 series family of Snapdragon. It’s a very capable hardware for an upper mid-range Smartphone, atleast till we see the SD 710 later in this year. The Adreno 512 helps in gaming and the hours of PUBG I played am sold out with its gaming capability. In fact the first time I played the game on this device and shot the gaming video, I managed the ‘winner winner chicken dinner’. The phone does warm up a bit while heating but not at an alarming level. https://youtu.be/U1RL99MI0jI The Smartphone also works well on all aspects of the uses you might put it to. The call quality is good and the speaker decent. Battery performance is very good and there was very little idle drain when not in use.

Nokia 7 Plus Camera

• 12-megapixel main Zeiss camera with 1.4µm f/1.7
• 13-megapixel Zeiss secondary camera with 1.0µm f/2.6,  2x zoom
• 16-megapixel front camera with 1.0µm f/2.0

This is the same camera setup in the Nokia’s flagship Noikia 8 Sirocco which promises to be a great on paper. Let’s begin with the camera app, which is Nokia’s own here. The camera app offers panorama, pro mode, live bokeh options plus there is HDR and beauty mode. There is also a dual picture mode or bothie as Nokia calls, where both the front and rear camera comes into action and you get both the images in a single click and also a PIP or picture in picture mode with both the cameras in tandem. The zoom can be reached out to 2x digitally. For videos, there is time lapse and slow motion support.  The rear camera can take up to 4K videos while the front camera can shoot up to 1080p. The bothie and PIP works with video also, which comes handy for vlogging. Nokia has also added a live streaming option for Youtube and Facebook baked directly into the app. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="13651,13652,13653,13654,13655,13656,13657"]   The camera performance is a mixed bag. What I really liked was the bothie feature both in photo and video. You never miss a moment with it both before and behind the camera. That’s not entirely a new introduction by Nokia, we have seen this earlier in some phones but many Smartphone OEM’s have forgotten the importance of it and it should find place in all phones. The camera UI is not bad either. The performance though is a mixed bag as I mentioned earlier. It focuses quick but the sharpness and clarity is a notch below the expectations the hardware setup promises. It probably is due to the limitations in the processing capability. With good lighting conditions, you might get more often a decent picture. The dynamic range is not that impressive. The low lights are better but still suffers from noise. The 16MP front-facing camera  can shoot nice, sharp selfies with well balanced exposure and close to source colours. 7 Plus can take up to 4K videos at 30fps from rear camera and up to 1080p from the front camera. The OZO audio, that Nokia showcased in Nokia 8 makes finds place here too, which with the aid of three microphones and their own set of algorithms allows to record 360-degree sound when recording video.

Verdict:

What I Liked about Nokia 7 Plus

• Sturdy build quality
• Android One with its commitment for next two big upgrades
• Clean interface
• Camera UI and features – especially the Bothie feature
• Overall good performance

What I did not like about Nokia 7 Plus

• Camera performance could have been better
• High pricing

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