Nokia 7.1 Review UK

Nokia 7.1 Review: Overview & Price

The Nokia 7.1 was released in the UK on October 28^th of 2018, in this Nokia 7.1 review we will be looking at what makes the phone unique and giving you the cheapest Nokia 7.1 contract deals.

The phone looks stunning, it offers users an expensive-looking design with a nice LCD display, however the battery life does let it down significantly.

Check out the best Nokia 7.1 deals in the UK…

If you are looking to buy the Nokia 7, it is price at £299 here in the UK, the phone is a mid-range smartphone which keeps up Nokia’s trend of impressive smartphones.

The Nokia 7.1 is the new and improved version at the more budget Nokia 7, Nokia focus on affordable and quality devices.

This is a cheap Nokia smartphone that has lots on offer, it can be a great alternative to the more expensive Nokia 8.1,  giving you a durable and consistent phone that won’t break the bank.

Let’s take a closer look..

Nokia 7.1 Review: Design & Display

The Nokia 7.1 actually looks remarkably similar to the iPhone XS, it has a nice big display with a notch in the centre.

That being said the Nokia 7.1 is a sub £300 smartphone, so it feel quite as premium as the Apple flagship.

Weighing in at 160g the phone isn’t the heaviest in the world but it does feel nice in your hand, it’s comfortable to hold and easily usable for those with smaller hands.

The phone is an aluminium frame sandwiched between two glass panels, making the phone a little slippery so we recommend investing in a case.

The phone does only come in two colours, Midnight Blue or Gloss Steel, both look good but our personal preference was the Midnight Blue as it has a nice shine to it when the light hits it.

We were lucky enough to get our hands on the Blue version of the phone to conduct this Nokia 7.1 review.

The notch at the top of the device houses the front-facing camera, whilst down the bottom, you will see a small chin that has the Nokia branding on it.

On the right-hand side of the phone, you’ll find the volume rocker and power button, both feeling nice to press.

Then opposite to the left is where you will see the MicroSD slot that allows you to take the storage all the way up to a clean 400GB.

Down at the bottom of the phone you will find the USB-C port, used for charging the device, neighbouring the single firing speaker, you will be pleased to know that this phone does have a 3.5mm headphone jack too.

Flipping the phone over is where you can expect to see the dual-camera setup, we wish phone companies would stop raising the camera as it is annoying when placing the phone down on a worktop as it does wobble.

Just underneath the cameras are where you can find the fingerprint sensor, it works rather well and is in a nice position too, we didn’t have to cripple our fingers to unlock the device that was a nice surprise.

You may be wondering is the Nokia 7.1 waterproof?

Well, the answer is no, the Nokia 7.1 is not waterproof. We would have liked to have seen an IP rating on the phone, so make sure that you don’t drop this device in any water as it will definitely become damaged.

Overall the design feels very solid, Nokia is known for how durable their phones are and the 7.1 is no exception, this phone literally feels like you could run over it in a truck and it wouldn’t leave a mark.

The Nokia 7.1 has a 5.84 IPS LCD display with a 1080 x 2280p resolution with a 19:9 aspect ratio.

One of the main attractions of the phone’s display is that it has the ability to play back HDR 10 content and can even upscale none HDR video.

We found that the LCD display was bright, sharp and was a great overall experience when it came to watching Netflix and YouTube.

Colours are accurate and we didn’t notice any real downfalls apart from the brightness levels being a little low, viewing the phone in direct is a little tricky as it doesn’t go quite and bright as we expected.

We would have liked a little more control over the colour calibration too, as there’s no option to adjust the temperature.

That being said, for the most part, the Nokia 7.1 display was just fine, the average user will be more than impressed with this and it makes from a pleasant gaming and media experience.

Nokia 7.1 Review: Performance

When it comes to the Nokia 7.1 specs, the first thing to note is that it is part of the Android One program, meaning that it gets very few pre-installed applications and very few changes to the original software.

Android One ensures that the phone is the first in line to get updates for the software, it also means the UI is super clean and easy to use.

See Related:

*Huawei P20 Lite Review*
*Huawei Mate 20 Lite Review*
*Nokia 6.1 Review*
*Nokia 8.1 Review*
*Nokia 3 Review*

One app that you will find on the phone is the ‘Nokia Mobile Care’ app; this gives you support and diagnostics should you be having any issues with your device.

One thing we did notice is that applications do take longer to load than expected, the keyboard can also be slow at loading up sometimes, this wasn’t made or break for us as we got used to it extremely quick.

However, going from our Huawei Mate 20 Pro daily driver to this Nokia 7.1 was noticeably slower.

We would have loved to have seen an app usage control, most smartphones in this bracket allow you to set timers on the amount of social media apps you can use per day, they really help with limiting the amount of time spent on your phone.

The Nokia 7.1 runs from the Snapdragon 636 chip, couple this with 3GB of RAM and on paper it looks like your onto a winner.

In use, though we found it hard to run any demanding games on the phone without significant amounts of lag and interference, we did try to run PUBG but found it to be dropping fps extremely quick and this hindered performance.

The phone is by no means a gaming phone so this was to be expected, the phone runs games from the Google Play Store just fine, but you will struggle on the higher demanding games.

The phone also comes with 32GB of onboard storage, as previously mentioned this can be topped all the way up to 400GB with a microSD.

In 2019 we feel that 32GB of storage is very basic and the average users would be much more satisfied with 64GB+, for that reason we definitely recommend investing into a microSD especially if your someone who likes to download movies, take lots of photos and download games on your device.

The performance aspect of this phone was average, it’s not going to win any gold medals but for the average person it will be just fine, scrolling through social media and browsing the web is a breeze on the device and its only when using the phone intensely that you will run into performance issues.

Overall the Nokia 7.1 specs are average, decent storage alongside a strong chip.

That being said if you are a serious gamer then you may want to opt for something a little more powerful.

Nokia 7.1 Review: Camera

The Nokia 7.1 has a Zeiss branded camera with a primary 12MP f/1.8 aperture and a secondary 5MP depth sensor.

We were impressed by the Nokia 7.1 camera and found it to be more than capable of producing some amazing images.

There is no shutter lag whatsoever on the phone meaning it super easy to get a very quick shot of moving objects as there is no delay between pressing the shutter, and the phone taking the shot.

You will find features like ‘Google Lens’ and ‘Live Bokeh’ that can blur out the background on your images resulting in a clearer subject.

Generally, colours look vibrant and poppy whilst dynamic range is strong too, lots of detail is present even when shooting with low lighting.

One thing to note about the camera though is it doesn’t have a zoom option, meaning you’ll either need to get close to your subject or just make do with the image from a far.

There is an ‘Auto-HDR’ mode that can help a novice photographer capture great shots as it stitches multiple shots together to give you the best one.

The Nokia 7.1 has an 8MP f/2.0 selfie-cam too, which results in high detailed selfies ready for Instagram.

The selfie-cam also works great in low lighting, it manages to draw in plenty of ambient light from the surroundings and really does produce a high-grade selfie.

Video recording can also be shot at up to 4K resolution, although the footage is only stabilised at 1080p so you’re probably better off sticking with that option, unless you have a tripod or an extremely steady hand.

We were extremely impressed by the Nokia 7.1 camera, we found it to be one of our favourite parts of the phone it produced consistently good shots time and time again.

Considering this is a cheap Nokia smartphone, we really had nothing to complain about in the camera department.

Throughout this Nokia 7.1 review, we found the camera to be one of the most impressive aspects.

It is by no means a Google Pixel 3 or Huawei Mate 20 Pro, but the average user will be impressed by the camera and we don’t think you will have any issues with it.

Nokia 7.1 Review: Battery Life

The Nokia 7.1 has a 3060mAh battery, that is barely enough to get you through a full day of usage.

This is dependent on how you’re using the phone, on days that we didn’t use it very much we found we would sometimes have over 20% left, that being said on days where we watched media and played games we would be reaching for the charger at around 6 pm.

Fast charging is implemented on this phone too, you can expect to go from 0-100% in just over an hour, which is rather impressive for a device of this calibre.

Nokia 7.1 Review: Summary

So should you buy this phone?

Well if you’re looking for a smartphone with a big display and a nice design, then yes. The phone is extremely durable so if you’re someone who works outdoors or on a building site perhaps then this could be worth investing in.

The Nokia 7.1 specs are average, it certainly won’t blow you away with its specification list.

Now because the Nokia 7.1 is not waterproof, you will need to be careful when using this phone around water as it will definitely break the device.

That being said this is designed to be a cheap Nokia smartphone, and with it being durable, it is ideal for those that work in the construction industry or are simply clumsy when it comes to their phone.

That being said there are lots of phones out there at a similar price point that can compete with this device, we recommend checking out our Huawei P Smart 2019 and Huawei Mate 20 Lite reviews before making a purchase on this phone.

Nokia 7.1 5.8-Inch Android One UK SIM-Free Smartphone with 3GB RAM and 32GB Storage (Single Sim) - Blue 

We would also check out our Nokia 6.1 review for a cheaper alternative or the Nokia 8.1 if you can stretch the budget.

We hope you have enjoyed our Nokia 7.1 review, and feel free to leave a comment and check out the best Nokia 7.1 deals at the top of this post.

Nokia 7.1 Review: Full Specification

Launch: October, 2018

Body:

• Dimension: 149.7 x 71.2 x 8mm (5.89 x 2.80 x 0.31 inches)
• Weight: 160g (5.64 oz)
• Build: Front/back glass, aluminium frame
• Sim: Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Display:

• Type: IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
• Size: 5.84 inches, 85.1² (-79.9% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution: 1080 x 2280 pixels, 19:9 ratio (-432ppi density)
• Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 3
  – HDR10

Platform:

• OS: Android 8.1 (Oreo), upgradable to Android 9.0 (Pie); Android One
• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM636 Snapdragon 636 (14nm)
• CPU: Octa-core 1.8 GHz Kryo 260
• GPU: Adreno 509

Memory:

• Card slot: microSD, up to 400GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
• Internal: 64GB, 4GB RAM or 32GB, 3GB RAM

Camera:

• Primary:
  – 12MP, f/1.8, dual-pixel, PDAF
  – 5MP, f/2.4, depth sensor
• Features:  Zeiss optics, dual-LED dual-tone flash, panorama, HDR
• Video: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps (gyro-EIS)
• Secondary:
  – 8MP, f/2.0, 24mm
• Video: 1080p@30fps

Sound:

• Loudspeaker: Yes
• 3.5mm Jack: Yes
  – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

Comms:

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot
• Bluetooth: 5.0, A2DP, EDR, LE, aptX
• GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
• NFC: Yes
• USB: 2.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB on-the-go

Features:

• Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Battery:

• Non-removeable Li-Ion 3060 mAh battery
• Charging: Fast battery charging 9V/2A 18W

Misc:

• Colours: Gloss Steel, Midnight Blue
• Price: As seen in above post

Tests:

• Performance: Basemark OS ||: 2394 / Basemark OS || 2.0: 1940 / Basemark X: 14963
• Display: Contrast ratio: 1300:1 (nominal), 2.804 (sunlight)
• Camera: Photo / Video
• Loudspeaker: Voice 75dB / Noise 76dB / Ring 81dB
• Audi Quality:  Noise -91.0dB / Crosstalk -93.3dB
• Battery life: Endurance rating 80h