Lucky number 7?

The ₹22,000 to ₹29,000 smartphone bracket is currently a strange place. It isn’t too populated, and one reason for that might be the ‘neither here nor there’ conundrum. It’s a simple approach a lot of buyers take, really. If someone is in the market looking for an economical daily-use smartphone, they aren’t willing to spend beyond ₹20,000. And those looking to spend a little extra for a high-performance phone have options starting right from ₹30,000 and even slightly less, which give you flagship-level specs.

So smartphones populating this tricky price bracket really need to offer something more to customers in order to justify spending that extra amount. And that’s exactly what Nokia is looking to do with the Nokia 7 Plus, the company’s ‘one-rung-below-flagship’ smartphone.

Copper shine

The first thing that once notices on unboxing the Nokia 7 Plus is the way a copper highlight runs all the way along the phone’s periphery, adding some subtle shine to the solid black. The rear camera assembly and fingerprint sensor are also ringed with copper, not to mention the border lining the screen and top and bottom bezels.

Bezels. They’ve been mostly shaved off but still remain and this goes well with the copper highlighting. There’s no notch or full-frontal screen here, and given that the competition in this segment is mostly going for the notch, the 7 Plus is a welcome alternative.

The power button on the right sits almost in the middle of the phone and can take a while getting used to. I found myself inadvertently pressing the volume rocker when I wanted to lock my screen. For those with long fingers, the fingerprint sensor placement is almost perfect, but those with shorter fingers could find themselves trying to reach for it. The camera assembly protrudes, and ‘ZEISS’ is visibly emblazoned on it, reminding you that the experts are at play here. The other branding on the back is the obvious ‘Nokia’, along with ‘AndroidOne’. It has a 3.5 mm jack, to the relief of many, I’m sure. The back does well with keeping smudges and fingerprints to a minimum and if you aren’t a clumsy customer, you could use this one without a case, showing off all that copper bling. It feels solid and exudes a confident fit when held.

Almost flagship?

What specs does the Nokia 7 Plus pack under its hood that justify the pricing? For starters, it’s powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 mobile platform, which was the ‘below-flagship’ processor before the Snapdragon 710 came along, recently. It’s smooth and that’s helped by the 4 GB RAM, which makes apps chug along without any glitch. Nothing really puts you off on this front, except for the back getting warm easily at times. I experienced this when shooting videos, especially the ‘bothie’ feature unique to Nokia phones, and on playing some games for prolonged times. Loading up too many processor-intensive tasks such as multiple app updates, for example, and gaming at the same time can cause a bit of a lag.

That being said, the only thing that separates the 7 Plus from the likes of the Honor 8 Pro on the hardware capability-front is the processor. With a Snapdragon 835, this phone could have taken it on. But the Nokia 8 Sirocco being the company’s flagship, it is the phone that gets those better specs.

Battery life is definitely a feature this phone scores on. The 3,800 mAh battery can easily last longer than a day on regular use and even on extensive camera usage, leaves you with enough to power your other basic tasks. The charger in the box juices it up very quickly too.

Software

AndroidOne (Android Oreo currently on the 7 Plus, with the promise of regular updates). We really need more phones running this in the market. Clean, no slowing-down bloatware, fast updates, simple icons. Of course, there are many who would prefer other OS, but there’s an ease that stock Android or almost stock-Android brings that’s quite irreplaceable. With Nokia adopting AndroidOne, are we poised to witness the best of both worlds — Nokia hardware and Google software? Going by initial use, it’s an exciting prospect, but the market’s verdict is what will matter.

Camera corner

Nokia has been bringing ZEISS optics to its more expensive phones for a while now, and the 7 Plus gets a dual rear lens set-up — 12 MP and 13 MP. The camera can do everything that its competitors can — a good portrait mode, sharp images, well-saturated colours that at times can come across as embellished, and clear video recording. Indoors and under low light, it manages to deliver decent pictures, but they are on the softer side. Colour reproduction at night is noteworthy.

The camera app interface is simple, with icons on the top letting you switch cameras, select the ‘bothie’ or picture-in-picture feature, or set a timer. The menu on the side can be pulled out to select the bokeh mode or the pro mode, etc.

‘Bothie’ video recording is a lot of fun and the picture-in-picture especially can help you shoot a video with your commentary, without really distracting the watcher from the subject. More mobile journalism, anyone?

The selfie camera is a good 16 MP and with the quality of images it churns out, it can well take on the brands that claim to be experts in this domain. The bokeh mode for the front camera actually works well under good lighting conditions. Go ahead and be a little vain.

The Nokia 7 Plus has appeal in looks and features. If you find yourself looking for ‘neither budget nor flagship’, look at this one.

Price: ₹25,999 (online)

Pros: Sleek, shiny looks, AndroidOne software, good specs, fun and capable camera

Cons: Awkward power button, certain intensive tasks can heat it up quickly

COMMENT NOW