Nokia 7 Plus review: An all-rounder with great battery and modern design

The Nokia 7 plus smartphone, with 6.00-inch full HD+ display, lets you have the big screen experience. Discover more about Nokia 7 plus specifications, features and prices in India here in this review

A year ago, Nokia made a comeback in the phone market by launching a wide range of smartphones and feature phones across multiple price points, primarily focusing on value-for-money devices.

This year, HMD Global, the Finnish company behind the Nokia brand, has added three new phones to the list -- Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus and the Nokia 8 Sirocco. The Nokia 6 (2018), being an incremental update of the original Nokia 6, is touted as a budget smartphone. However, the Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco get serious upgrades over their original iterations and, therefore, have been touted as mid-range and premium flagships, respectively.

Talking about the Nokia 7 Plus, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 system-on-chip (SoC) powered smartphon does not try to surpass its mid-range standing and get in the Nokia 8 Sirocco’s way. Yet, in many ways, the Nokia 7 Plus has a feel of a premium flagship smartphone.

The phone sports an aluminium-glass design with copper-tainted frame, which looks elegant and improves the phone’s overall design language. The ceramic coating on the back looks smooth yet comfortable to hold without hampering the grip.

Unlike the Nokia 8 Sirocco, however, the Nokia 7 Plus features a 3.5mm headphone jack, and you get in-ear headphones in the box too. The dual-SIM smartphone relies on a hybrid SIM tray design, which allows either dual SIM operations or a SIM with microSD card. The phone supports 4G and VoLTE on the primary SIM, while the second SIM is restricted to 3G and 2G networks.

The Nokia 7 Plus sports a modern ultra-wide screen, a first for Nokia smartphones. Though the 6-inch fullHD+ 18:9 aspect ratio panel is of LCD variety, rather than the vivid OLEDs, it is still the brightest and the most colourful.

The screen looks vibrant and colourful, but it faces issue under direct sunlight due to limited maximum brightness levels. Apart from sunlight legibility, there seems to be no other issues with it. The screen has good viewing angles and it stays sharp and vivid throughout.

In terms of imaging, the phone boasts dual ZEISS Optics lens of an ultra-sensitive 12-megapixel wide-angle and a 13MP telephoto, which enables 2x optical zoom capabilities.

The rear cameras have an average performance in low-light conditions and normal light shots come exceedingly well. That apart, the smartphone has a 16MP lens on the front for a glamorous selfie or perfect video call! We did video conferencing through Facebook Messenger and one-on-one video calls through WhatsApp messenger and in both cases the call quality was incredible.

Powering the Nokia 7 Plus is a mammoth 3,800 mAh battery, which lasts for up to 2 days under normal usage conditions, including 3-4 hours of gaming or movies streaming. The stock Android Oreo 8.0 operating system is also partially responsible for improved battery-on time. The clutter-free OS comes with the Android One promise, which assures timely future updates till the hardware supports it.

Verdict

The Nokia 7 Plus is a mid-range premium smartphone with modern looks and a smooth performance. It does not have top-tier innards, but it manages to run without any lag or jitters, even during demanding tasks. At Rs 25,999, the phone is an all-rounder with powerful battery, fast charge support, good screen and the Android One update promise.