Summary: Nokia 7.1 is an excellent value-for-money Android One phone with stock Android, a pretty good camera and decent performance.
User since Nov 2018
I bought the Gold version of the Nokia 7.1 at Poorvika Mobiles since they offered me a good exchange on my old phone. After using the phone for nearly a year, I have provided my review and ratings on various features of this phone below. As with all my reviews, I don’t go into the detailed specifications but only provide a crisp and honest review of my experiences with this phone.
Operating System
Stock Android with zero bloatware, Frequent security updates, quick refresh of Android version (Android Pie rolled out within a month of reaching the Pixel)
Screen Resolution
Excellent screen resolution. Crisp display and renders well at any angle and under various light conditions.
Camera
Excellent picture quality in both daylight as well as dim light conditions. Video records at good HD quality. The camera app is a little rusty though…hangs occasionally and needs to be restarted.
Processor and Memory
For this phone’s price point, it has a pretty good processor and adequate memory to run graphic-rich games. It plays videos and movies with no perceptible lag. Pretty good value for money in my opinion
Storage
Has an expandable memory slot but it is not a dedicated slot. This slot is shared with the second SIM slot…so a bummer if you need two SIMs AND an external memory card.
Connectivity
Wifi and Mobile network connectivity is average. Keeps dropping wifi and mobile tower signals frequently, in comparison with other similarly priced mobiles that I have in my house. I do have occasional issues connecting over Bluetooth with my car stereo and Samsung Galaxy watch.
Battery and Charging
Battery life is very decent. Charges rapidly (takes about 2 hours to go from near empty to 100% charge) and on a full charge, lasts about 2 days for typical use (regular emails, social networking, some Youtube videos, very little graphics games) However, I had a bad experience with the charging port breaking down and needed a visit to Nokia Care to get this port replaced for free – thankfully it was under warranty. Apparently, this was a manufacturing defect but it sucks that Nokia waits for a customer to experience it, rather than proactively replace it. I give a Red on this count alone.
Miscellaneous
The fingerprint sensor is good. Note that you can accidentally unlock the phone since it’s located on the rear.
The gold variant looks pretty nice from a design perspective and often drew comparisons to an iPhone. But you either need a transparent cover or no cover at all, to draw attention. If you have an opaque cover, you lose the beauty of this phone’s design.
Has good sounds out of the box for alarms, ring tones etc