Key Features
- Review Price: £349
- 6-inch FHD+ display
- Snapdragon 660, 4GB RAM
- 64GB storage
- 3800 mAh battery
- 12-megapixel rear f/1.7 camera
What is the Nokia 7 Plus?
You’ve got to give the ‘new’ Nokia credit for trying. Since taking control of the iconic brand name in 2017, HMD has released a number of devices both new and inspired by classic Nokias of old.
Of all the phones released so far, the Nokia 7 Plus is the device that impresses. For £349 there’s plenty on offer here, and if you’d like a big screen without spending a small fortune then this handset delivers.
Nokia 7 Plus – Design
During the Windows Phone era, Nokia handsets were up there with the best. Unusual combinations of colour, high-end materials and eye-catching design. In my opinion, the range of Nokia devices produced by HMD don’t possess anywhere near the charm of the devices of those days.
The Nokia 7 Plus is a well-built phone that feels durable and hefty, but it lacks the ergonomics of a truly well-designed handset. The metallic sides are flat with harsh corners, making it difficult to comfortably grip the device, especially for long periods. In a world of unibody handsets with a smooth finish, the Nokia 7 Plus feels quite odd. I’m also not a fan of the matte plastic back; it retains oily residue too easily.
What I do like is the colour scheme. My review unit is mostly black, with a tasteful copper finish running around the sides and circling the dual camera on the rear of the device. The hint of coppery gold is a great highlight on the black body, adding something extra to the numerous phones that are simply black, white or gold.
Nokia has followed the current trend of reducing the bezel surrounding the display. Nevertheless, this still feels likes a big phone. You still have quite a chunky bezel either end of the 6-inch display, even though there’s no physical home button. A fingerprint scanner sits on the rear and unlocks the device fairly quickly. Nokia retains the headphone jack, too, as well as using the more common USB-C charging method rather than micro-USB.
Obviously, there are some ‘flagship’ features lacking on a phone of this price. There’s no IP-rating, so you can’t take the device into the shower; no wireless charging; and a fairly poor downward-firing speaker.
Nokia 7 Plus – Screen
The Nokia 7 Plus’ screen is a boon for the £349 price of the device.
The 6-inch, 1080p LCD panel might not pack fancy extras such as HDR support, but it’s bright and super-colourful. Viewing angles are excellent, too, as is outdoor visibility.
That high resolution makes for detailed reproduction of images and videos, with individual pixels impossible to spot. Combine this with the super-wide display and the Nokia 7 Plus is great for watching Netflix.
By default Nokia tunes the contrast and
saturation up slightly to add more pop to colours. This can makes things look slightly fake sometimes, but it’s fine here. You have some basic screen calibration tools at your disposal, too – although nothing as deep as you’ll find on competing phones.
Nokia 7 Plus – Performance
Powering the Nokia 7 Plus are components that are great for the price. There’s a Snapdragon 660 mobile platform, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage.
While that Qualcomm chip isn’t in the company’s top-end, it’s still a very capable piece of silicone. The 660 combines with an Adreno 540 GPU, a CPU that’s 20% faster than its predecessor and added extras such as faster LTE and AI components. Going forward, I’d say the Snapdragon 660 will appear in the majority of mid-range phones, and that’s no bad thing.
Specs are fine, but what really matters is how the device performs in day-to-day use. Thankfully, it’s fantastic. The Nokia 7 Plus is one of the few phones at this price that can comfortably compete with the flagship devices.
Tasks such as scrolling through Instagram, typing out emails in Gmail and listening to Spotify on the go are all handled with ease. Even the likes of photo editing didn’t cause any problems. The Nokia 7 Plus is also capable of handling the majority of games without lag or dropped frames. Dots, Alto’s Adventure, Threes and Lara Croft Go all played perfectly well, as did more intensive titles such as PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 8.
The biggest differences I’ve found between this handset and one running a Snapdragon 845 are features that aren’t supported here. There’s no super slow-motion video, fast Gigabit LTE or advanced dual-camera support.
See the table below for the benchmark scores taken from Geekbench 4.
Nevertheless, there are other aspects of the performance that are impressive: call quality is excellent, as are the microphones; and the 64GB storage is plentiful. MicroSD support is included to bump up storage needs and there’s NFC for Google Pay. And, as already mentioned, there’s even a headphone jack – something of a novelty in 2018.
Nokia 7 Plus – Software
All of Nokia’s 2018 Android phones run a variant of the Android One software. Up until this point, One has been mostly used on cheaper phones, costing £100-200. But, in reality, there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be featured in slightly pricier devices too.
Android One is a version of Android direct from Google, without the bloatware and often ugly skins you’d find on phones from the likes of Huawei and LG. It relies on Google’s first-party apps such as Photos, Calendar and Play Music, rather than ones built by Nokia.
This is a plus, not only because these apps tend to be better designed, but also because they’re constantly updated and tie into Google’s fantastic services. Your pictures will automatically sync with Google Photos, music with Play Music and so on.
Another benefit of Android One is updates. The Nokia 7 Plus has been promised two years of updates (so you’ll get at least Android P and Q) and three years of security updates. Judging by the fact there’s already a beta of Android P available for the 7 Plus, I’d expect a very snappy update later in the year.
Using a phone such as the 7 Plus – or any device running a vanilla version of Android, to be honest – is a super-enjoyable experience. It makes you wish more phones utilised it.
Android One isn’t perfect, though; it still feels like there are lots of bugs that need ironing out. I suffered multiple app crashes, random restarts and loss of camera functionality during my couple of weeks with the phone. The phone also tended to become pretty useless when the battery dipped below 10%.
None of these issues were constant, and there’s every chance they could be fixed with a software update. Nevertheless, it was a pain – and at the time of publishing this review, the issues were still apparent.
Nokia 7 Plus – Camera
Since its rebirth, Nokia has struggled to impress with its camera and optics. This is a shame considering the company was once responsible for producing some of the finest camera phones in the past.
For £340, you shouldn’t come here expecting a camera that is able to compete with units that feature in the Galaxy S9, Pixel 2 or iPhone 8 for instance. However, what you do get is a very capable mid-range setup that can capture bright photos.
On the back of the device is a dual-sensor array that comprises of a main 12-megapixel sensor with an f/1.7 aperture plus a secondary, slightly zoomed, 13-megapixel sensor with a narrower f/2.6 aperture. Both cameras have been made in partnership with Zeiss, an optics brand Nokia has been working with for years.
We’ve seen numerous high-end devices with dual cameras over the past few years, and all work in various ways. The Huawei P20 has a monochrome sensor to support the main one, while the LG G7 opted for a wide-angle second camera to fit more in. The Nokia 7 Plus approach is a little like that of the iPhone X, where the camera is used to offer added zoom without sacrificing too much detail.
Snaps taken with the main sensor are excellent. The sensor is fast enough to capture fast-moving objects – like the fire in the samples below – and photos are bright and detailed with nice colour representation.
The 2x camera struggles with exposure
Nokia 7 Plus – Battery life
Tucked inside the Nokia 7 Plus is a 3800mAh battery, and it’s comfortably the strongest part of the phone. That sizeable cell, paired with optimised software, means you should easily make it through even the most strenuous of days without having to reach for the charger.
An hour of Netflix streaming consumed 8-9%, with 30 minutes of gaming chowing through 15%. Standby time is excellent, too: leaving the phone unplugged overnight took drained a mere 3%.
Battery charging is via USB-C – which still isn’t a given at this price – and there’s fast-charging enabled thanks to the Snapdragon internals. It doesn’t juice up as fast as the OnePlus, for example, and you’ll still need about 2 hours to go from dead to full – but it’s still nice to see it here.
Why buy the Nokia 7 Plus?
The 7 Plus is the best handset from the new Nokia, yet it still displays the lack of experience of the HMD brand. You’re getting a lot of phone for £349, but the design needs tweaking and there isn’t anything that really stands out.
The 7 Plus benefits from an excellent display, decent camera and very good battery life – plus Android One has great potential once the bugs have been squashed.
You could always save yourself a bit of money and plump for the Moto G6 Plus (or even the Moto G6), or see what Honor has in store with the Honor 10.
Verdict
Fantastic battery life and a big, bright screen make this the best phone from the ‘new’ Nokia.
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