Nokia is back in a big way with a series of very appealing and very affordable smartphones. Tech Trends takes a look at the brand new Nokia 7.1
Yes, oh yes indeed, I popped my mobile cherry with Nokia! This Nokia 5210 was my first ever mobile phone. In the early 2000s, I moved to London and needed one of these new-fangled mobile phone things. Lured by its rugged and replaceable plastic shell the Nokia 5210 jumped out at me in a phone shop in Islington. I am absolutely sure I was ripped off but don’t remember what I paid, too much for sure. As far as I remember it did text and calls and a few snake chase type games, nice!
I was lured by the rugged and replaceable plastic shell of the Nokia 5210 Click To Tweet
Just for a laugh here is the phone I replaced it with! The Nokia 7600 had a colour screen and was, let’s be honest, a terrible design, I mean really flipping awful. I still have this phone somewhere. However, it is great to see this brand back in business and they are producing some interesting smartphones!
The Nokia 7600 had a colour screen and was, let’s be honest, a terrible design - I mean really flipping awful Click To Tweet
Anyway moving swiftly on to the shiny and very capable Nokia 7.1 The mid-priced smartphone market is filling up rapidly so the 7.1 has to perform and deliver features that match or beat those from companies including the mighty Honor and Xiaomi. First off, it gets a great head start by being part of Android One, a Google program that ensures partner’s phones get up-to-date security patches for three years and updated versions of Android for two. The 7.1 ships with Oreo but a Pie update is due very soon. Android One is a big deal and we recommend you find out more about the other benefits here.
The mid-priced smartphone market is filling up rapidly with competition so the 7.1 has to perform and deliver features that match or beat those from companies including the mighty Honor and Xiaomi Click To TweetThe screen is a 5.84-inch 2220 x 1080 LCD with a 19:9 screen ratio, a Corning® Gorilla® Glass panel and boasts it is HDR10 certified. It really is a very nice screen but I doubt anyone could enjoy the benefits of HDR on a panel this size and resolution. The HDR capability rolls over to the duel Camera on the back. A primary Zeiss branded 12-megapixel sensor with an ƒ/1.8 aperture is combined with a 5MP sensor only for discerning depth. The images are above average but not noticeably ahead of other phones at this price point, but good enough for your average user, no doubt. One black mark here is the shadow that is clearly visible around the top and bottom edges of the screen, tilt the phone a bit and the shadow becomes a distraction and a bit of a disappointment.
There is also a notch, but with this trend growing across the market I don’t think it is fair to criticise this, I don’t like it but most people really don’t care. In the hand, the 7.1 feels very nice. The plastic back is not unpleasant and the 6000 series aluminium edges and sturdy glass front combined with the lightweight and practical size make the phone super comfortable in the hand with a premium feel. There is no waterproof rating here but again in this new mid-price market that is no surprise. The fingerprint scanner is in my prefered place and works fine, actually quicker than on the Samsung Galaxy S9+
Connections include a headphone jack for your tunes or the option to pair over Bluetooth 5.0, a Micro SD slot and a USB-C charging and data port, Micro USB seems to be gone now thank god. All in all, this is a very nice phone for the money and includes stellar features such as the HDR screen and Zeiss HDR camera, plus NFC for mobile payments which is a rarity on affordable phones, even now. Apart from minor niggles, the only real downside to the Nokia 7.1 is the 3,060-mAh battery. Running a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 636 with 3GB of ram I feel the 7.1 needs more juice onboard than this and in real-world testing this was true. The Nokia lasted almost a day which is as good or better than an iPhone but was still a bit disappointing, however, the standby time was excellent with the occasionally used phone lasting nearly three days.
The Nokia 7.1 lasted almost a day which is still as good or better than an iPhone but was still a bit disappointing, however, the standby time was excellent with the occasionally used phone lasting nearly three days Click To Tweet
Summing up, the positives far outweigh the negatives here and Tech Trends is happy to recommend the Nokia 7.1 for those looking for a well performing but affordable smartphone. I don’t think any average user would find this phone anything less than great and for £299 here in the UK what more could you hope for? The 7.1 is currently still only available for pre-order in the UK but this will change later this month.
