Nokia 7.1 Review: Its One Weakness is Battery Performance

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Nokia 7.1: At First Glance

As expected, the Nokia 7.1 didn’t exactly fall out of the sky. In fact, this smartphone is an upgrade of its predecessor – the Nokia 7.

At the time of its release in October 2017, the Nokia 7 was a pretty decent phone that had few flaws. With one year between their releases, we’re not sure just how much upgrade to expect from the reformed Nokia 7.1.

All the same, the only way to figure that out is with the details included in subsequent paragraphs. This means you’ll have to read on to find out what changed in Nokia 7.1 compared to Nokia 7.

Nokia 7.1: Design, Dimensions, and Weight

If you’re looking for reasons why you shouldn’t get the Nokia 7.1, trust me, a faulty design will not be one of those reasons. To start off, this smartphone has glass on its back, similar to what’s on the screen.

In addition to that glass body, an aluminum frame is what puts this phone altogether. With all that said, we can simply say that the Nokia 7.1 screams “premium” with its looks. 

For a phone with a glossy glass back, be rest assured that it is a fingerprint magnet. However, asides from having your fingerprint smudges on it, you can also make the glass back your mirror! 

Still in the aspect of design, the black bezels surrounding the surface of this screen are almost non-existent. In fact, you will almost mistake the Nokia 7.1 for the iPhone X.

This is because of the iPhone X lookalike notch at the front where the selfie cam is located. One thing that definitely makes you know it’s not an iPhone is the “NOKIA” text logo on the lower chin.

In an actual sense, this lower chin is quite thick enough to conveniently take up the logo at the lower end of the phone’s surface. Despite that, the side bezels are very narrow. 

As for the aluminum frame that holds this phone together, its height, width, and depth measure 149.7 x 71.1 x 7.99 mm. Asides from the frame, the entire weight of the Nokia 7.1 is 160 g.

Another smartphone that competes with the Nokia 7.1 is the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018. This Samsung device weighs only 8 g more than the Nokia 7.1. 

Furthermore, the Samsung Galaxy A7 2018 is also thicker, with a dimension of 159.8 x 76.8 x 7.5 mm. Just by looking at the numbers, it’s obvious that the Nokia 7.1 is more lightweight and not as thick as the Galaxy A7. 

Moving away from that, the Nokia 7.1 has all the essentials surrounding it. There’s the volume control and power button on the right side of the phone.

On the left side is the hybrid SIM tray, while the USB Type-C charging port is below. It’s impressive to see a USB Type-C port in a 2018 smartphone, especially when the trend actually started in 2019. 

Back to the hybrid SIM tray, the term “hybrid” means that this tray can only take two cards at a time. You can either have one nano-SIM card and a microSD card or two nano-SIM cards.

This means you definitely cannot have three cards slotted in this smartphone. That aside, right at the top of the Nokia 7.1 is the audio jack to plug in your headphone.

Moving on, we cannot ignore what’s on the back of this smartphone. There’s the camera bump with its finishing aluminum accent, which binds the Zeiss dual camera lens and LED flash. 

Still, in that horizontal setting (behind the phone), there’s the fingerprint sensor below the camera bump, followed by the Nokia text logo. 

As regards durability, the Nokia 7.1 is not water-resistant, which we can’t expect for a smartphone at this price. Regardless, this phone is splash resistant which means it can handle some drops of liquid but definitely not a full bucket!

In a word, a premium-looking phone that’s lightweight and has a USB Type-C port is a great design feature to love about this phone. With that said, the design features of the Nokia 7.1 deserves a nine out of ten in this section of the review.

Nokia 7.1: Display Features

Just by looking at the spec sheet, you may not see anything superb about the Nokia 7.1’s display. This is because it has the typical IPS LCD display technology and Full HD+ (1080 x 2280) display resolution, as well as a display size of 5.8” inches. 

To shed more light, both the resolution and display panel present colors in a vibrant and clean manner. In fact, this display looks better than the phone’s price tag and what the specs sheet says. 

To support that, viewing angles are brilliant, making you see this display in whatever form you choose to when you tilt the phone. This display is also fairly bright, with a maximum brightness of 438 nits.

If you’re curious, nits of brightness refer to the level at which a screen gets bright. Talking about brightness, 438 nits are not a super figure.

To give you a perspective, 438 nits is just a little above the average 400 nits required on smartphone displays.

In essence, you won’t get a super-bright display when using this phone in direct sunlight, but it won’t be so terrible either. 

One thing that can’t be ignored which contributes to this phone’s overall impressive display is the “pureview” feature. Actually, HMD (the new owners of the NOKIA brand) included the PureView display feature with the sole aim of viewing SDR content in HDR.

For clarity, SDR stands for standard dynamic range, while HDR stands for high dynamic range. The former is the default display feature we get on our typical smartphone screens, while the latter is the more advanced display.

What this simply connotes is that the PureView screen technology provides a great cinematic viewing experience. Video platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime will have great clarity and detail regardless of the environment you’re viewing it. 

Undoubtedly, the display quality of the Nokia 7.1 aims to please from start to finish. Asides from the display features, the 5.8” display size also makes this phone usable, whether it’s for viewing emails, pictures, or watching videos.

In a nutshell, everything is impressive about this display except the low level of screen brightness. Upon highlighting that, the display features of the Nokia 7.1 are well worth an eight in this review.

Nokia 7.1: Camera Features

The camera setup of the Nokia 7.1 includes a dual-lens rear-facing camera and a single selfie camera. In detail, the rear-facing camera consists of a 12 MP lens with ƒ/1.8 aperture and a 5MP depth sensor lens with ƒ/2.4 aperture.

As for the front-facing camera, all you get is an 8 MP lens with ƒ/2.0 aperture. In case the word aperture sounds strange, this simply refers to how wide a camera lens opens enough to accommodate light coming in.

This simply tells you that megapixels are not the only important aspect of a camera to take note of. Another thing to really note about these rear-facing cameras of the Nokia 7.1 is who’s behind them.

Because of the “Zeiss” text logo on the camera lens at the back, we can tell that these cameras have been tuned by Carl Zeiss. Zeiss is a German camera optics company that’s responsible for the camera of most Nokia smartphones.

As a camera manufacturing company, we can only expect great camera performance on this device. Speaking of expectations, let’s talk about what this camera can do.

The rear cameras perform well in a brightly lit environment, producing sharp and clear images. Moving on, the front-facing camera performs well by producing crispy images in bright surroundings.

In low light, images from both the rear-facing and selfie cameras seem to be low in detail, but it’s not such a disturbing look.

Another noticeable thing about smartphone cameras is the various camera features that enhance picture quality. 

One very uncommon camera feature found in the Nokia 7.1 camera is the Bothie mode. This mode started off in the Nokia 8 (2017) and has since been quite common in various Nokia smartphones. 

The Bothie feature functions by allowing you to record videos or take pictures with the front and back camera simultaneously. One thing for sure about the Bothie mode is how useful it can be for those picture lovers or even vloggers who want to capture everything all at once.

Speaking of which, the Nokia 7.1 allows you to record 1080p and 4K videos at 30 fps. Also, this camera has EIS, which stands for electronic image stabilization.

This EIS makes it possible to capture videos steadily and clearly without necessarily using a tripod or having to stay static while shooting videos. However, you wouldn’t get this EIS mode when recording 4K videos; instead, you’ll have it available when recording 1080p videos. 

In brief, it’s realistic to say that the Nokia 7.1 cameras perform well in whatever situations you choose to use them. You can’t expect this smartphone to be anything close to flagship smartphones, the Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, or the iPhone.

All the same, this is a decent smartphone camera with great camera features. With that in mind, I will rate the camera features of the Nokia 7.1 a nine in this review section.

Nokia 7.1: Battery Life and Talk Time

One thing HMD hasn’t quite gotten right is the battery features in their smartphones. In terms of battery specs, the Nokia 7.1 comes with a 3060 mAh non-removable battery. 

Having a phone with a non-removable battery means exactly what it says. In an actual sense, you can’t replace this phone’s battery in whatever circumstance. 

Only the phone manufacturer – which is HMD in this case, can replace the battery of the Nokia 7.1. Although, it’s very common for smartphones to have non-removable batteries so we can’t complain about that.

However, it would have been nice to see a larger battery size in this smartphone that can stand the test of time. Knowing the battery size of a phone doesn’t do much if you don’t know its battery life right?

Starting with talk time, you can get up to 19 hours and 30 minutes of 3G talk time on the Nokia 7.1. With Wi-Fi turned on, you can stream videos continuously and the Nokia 7.1 will last almost 8 hours.

If we’re to compare the battery life of the Nokia 7.1 with the Moto G7 and Sony Xperia 10, you’ll see both impressive and non-impressive options. To be precise, the 3000 mAh battery of the Motorola Moto G7 lasts as long as 10 hours on continuous video streaming. 

The Sony Xperia 10’s 2870 mAh battery, however doesn’t perform close to the Nokia 7.1. This Sony smartphone lasts up to 6 hours on continuous video playback.

By comparison, we can say that the Nokia 7.1 performs averagely compared to its two close competitors. Moving on, now that you know what battery life is like on the Nokia 7.1, it’s important to know how long it takes to charge this phone.

Well, despite not having the fast charging feature, this smartphone takes roughly two hours to get a full charge from 0-100%. For a phone without a fast charging feature, that amount of time is fair enough.

Certainly, the battery is not one of the strengths of this smartphone. With the battery features the Nokia 7.1 has, it deserves a rating of seven in this section of the review.

Nokia 7.1: Storage Options and Performance

The storage options on the Nokia 7.1 is definitely not limiting. To be exact, you can purchase this smartphone with either 32 GB or 64 GB of onboard storage.

What this simply means is that you can purchase the phone with the best storage size that suits your needs. It’s also important to note that the Nokia 7.1 with 32 GB will not cost the same as that of the 64 GB variant.

Fortunately, storage on this device doesn’t end there. Like most modern smartphones, this device comes with the option of expandable storage with the use of a microSD card.

By making use of a microSD card, you can have as much as 400 GB of additional storage. Just in case you’re not sure, 400 GB is a good storage expansion size, especially because it’s more than the usual 256 GB we’re used to seeing in smartphones.

In brief, the Nokia 7.1 storage options serve well for average smartphone users. These storage options are well worth an eight in this review section.

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Nokia 7.1: Security Features and Sensors

Sensors are great features that have made smartphones far different from just being mobile phones. Thanks to technology, a smartphone has sensors that make daily life easier and more interesting by doing more than just the basics.

There are quite a number of sensors out there and a single smartphone cannot exactly have it all. In the case of the Nokia 7.1, this smartphone has the essentials you can expect from a smartphone.

Namely, the sensors in the Nokia 7.1 include the accelerometer, ambient light, e-compass, fingerprint, G-sensor, gyroscope, and proximity sensors. To provide some depth, I will be highlighting the functions of each of these sensors.

For starters, the accelerometer, gyroscope, and gravity (G-sensor) are concerned with measuring the velocity, direction, and movement of the Nokia 7.1. With the presence of these three sensors in this phone, auto-rotation, gaming, and any other application that involves movements are made possible. 

The e-compass sensor functions by measuring magnetic fields. It is these magnetic fields that, in turn, enable the phone to identify the four cardinal points when there’s a need to give direction. 

To be exact, this compass sensor makes it possible to make use of compass-related apps like Google maps or Apple maps. Next up, let’s talk about the ambient light and proximity sensors, which almost perform similarly.

The ambient light does the job of reducing the screen light when you’re making use of the device in a well-lit environment. The proximity sensor, on the other hand, functions by turning off the screen light when you’re on a phone call. 

The proximity sensor is able to react that way when the phone screen is close to your ear or face. Asides from regulating screen light, both the ambient light and proximity sensors act as battery optimizers to avoid quick battery drain.

Last on the list is the fingerprint sensor which serves as the only security sensor feature in the Nokia 7.1. By registering your fingerprint on this device, you can easily unlock the Nokia 7.1 by moving your finger on the sensor.

It’s no news that the fingerprint sensor is the most common and evident sensor that best secures a smartphone. Having this sensor also eliminates the single option of having to use the PIN or Pattern method to secure your device.

As a whole, the Nokia 7.1 has all the essential sensors to make it truly a smartphone. For that reason, these sensor features of the Nokia 7.1 are best rated an eight in this review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

In summary, the Nokia 7.1 is best described as a great combination of price and specs which is what a mid-range phone should be.

This makes the 7.1 are a great option for those who do not want to spend a lot on a smartphone. The one downside you should think of with this phone is its unimpressive battery.

Asides from that major flaw, the Nokia 7.1 is truly a renowned model of the Nokia 7 for average users.

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