Nokia 7.2 review: Android One smartphone with Zeiss lens

While the Chinese competition is evermore aggressive, Nokia keeps to the fundamentals. With its Nokia 7.2, the Finnish manufacturer focuses on a solid design, good quality materials, and software updates. Taking advantage of its partnership with Android One, Nokia provides access to a pure version of the Google OS.

Priced at (Check on Amazon.com), the Nokia 7.2 goes toe to toe with the Xiaomi Mi 9T (Check on Amazon.com) and its extraordinary price/quality ratio and the Google Pixel 3a (Check on Amazon.com) with its excellent photography.

Nokia 7.2 – Design

The Nokia 7.2 sports a slim body with slightly rounded edges and a big display with a dewdrop Notch while the Gorilla Glass back has a pleasant rough matte finish. It feels rather nice in hand and you can hardly see any smudges or fingerprints. The circular camera on the back is reminiscent of the classic Lumia 830.

Nokia 7.2 – Display

The Nokia 7.2 uses a 6.3 inch LCD Full HD+ display. The screen is quite pleasant; colors are fairly natural, and a special PureDisplay option adjusts them to the content you are viewing for an extra rich experience.

The screen supports HDR10, which means that videos have extra contrast. This makes the Nokia 7.2 ideal for binge-watching your favorite Netflix series. Also nice the fact that this display can be fairly bright and easily readable outdoors.

Nokia 7.2 – Photography

The highlight of this Nokia 7.2 and at the same time the main difference to the Nokia 6.2 is the camera. The main 48-megapixel camera comes with the brand new Samsung Isocell GM1 sensor, which reaches up to 48-megapixel resolution. There is also a wide-angle lens (8 megapixels, 118° viewing angle) and a depth sensor (5 megapixels), which should provide better bokeh effects. The main camera is quite bright with an aperture of f/1.6 and sports electronic image stabilization. Zeiss not only delivers the lens on the Nokia 7.2 but has also worked on image processing and some extras of the camera app.

In practice, we are reasonably satisfied with the results. Especially in daylight, the scene detection works great and nicely adjusts the colors to the environment. However, on a large screen, we can see that the details are missing.

We are, however, pleased with the portrait mode: the 5-megapixel depth sensor does a great job and can distinguish between what is in the background and foreground, most of the time. The wide-angle lens is a nice addition, but the resulting photos look rather gray and are often full of noise.

You can also choose to shoot images at 48 megapixels (12 megapixels by default). We note here that the overall picture is a lot sharper in good lighting conditions. However, the end result is a bit more grainy.

As expected, the Nokia 7.2 performs worse in low light conditions, and the Night mode is not very good. We also find curious the extreme amount of processing that takes place with the 20-megapixel front camera. Our faces look a lot grayer and this effect cannot be switched off!

You can shoot video at 4K, but then you lose the electronic image stabilization. We, therefore, prefer 1080p and 30 frames per second. The results are reasonable, with good color reproduction, but the images remain a bit jerky.

Nokia 7.2 – Performance

The Nokia 7.2 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor and, depending on the model, 4 or 6GB of RAM. You can also choose between 64 and 128GB storage (expandable via microSD card) and Single or Dual Sim.

Multitasking is great and the same goes for gaming. It may slow down here and there when under extreme load but it will run even the most demanding apps.

The Nokia 7.2 sports a 3500mAh battery, which will last you a full day of intensive use, and although it supports fast charging there is no fast adapter included in the package.

Nokia 7.2 – Software

As always, Nokia offers a pure Android experience with no added bloatware (apart from Nokia’s camera app). It comes with stock Android 9.0 Pie out of the box but it will receive Android 10 soon, something that even the most premium Android phones cannot boast.

Nokia 7.2 – Verdict

The Nokia 7.2 (Check on Amazon.com) fits perfectly in the relatively conservative line of HMD Global devices. There is nothing wrong with that, on the contrary: with the new Nokia’s you just know that you will get the most bang for your bucks.

Nevertheless, the Nokia 7.2 could have been way better if it wasn’t for the badly implemented 48-megapixel camera. The camera software falls far behind, especially when we compare it with Google’s Pixel 3a (Check on Amazon.com) device. The photos are certainly good for social media but do not expect poster-worthy snapshots.

Read more: Google Pixel 3a review: the Pixel camera at half price

Fortunately, the Android One license ensures that we can recommend the Nokia 7.2 to anyone looking for a phone with good battery life and an attractive design. When you purchase this smartphone, you are assured of getting Android 10 and Android 11, and that is a good deal!