Nokia 7.1 in for review

The Nokia 7.1 is another mid-range smartphone from HMD, and one that has something unique to offer. And yes, we are talking about the screen - it's undoubtedly the centerpiece of this new phone.

If you don't mind the notch, the Nokia 7.1 has an excellent IPS display that supports HDR10 and can convert SDR videos into HDR in real-time. Nokia calls it PureDisplay and it comes in a 5.84-inch diagonal and packs 1080 x 2280 pixel resolution. That's pretty hard to come across in the mid-range segment.

The rest of the specs, however, do sound like your typical mid-ranger. We've got Snapdragon 636 chip on board paired with either 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage or 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Support for microSD card expansion is also present.

The glass back holds a fingerprint reader and the dual-camera setup that consists of a 12MP main shooter with f/1.8 aperture and Zeiss optics and a 5MP secondary unit used for depth sensing. The camera on the notch has an 8MP sensor and f/2.0 opening and once the full review comes out we'll know how all of the cameras perform.

The design of the phone is another noteworthy feature as the manufacturer claims 85% of the whole surface is glass. The chamfered edges on the aluminum side frame do help with the grip, but as every glass phone, the 7.1 is still rather slippery. HMD doesn't say what the back is made of but confirms the Gorilla Glass 3 on the front so our best guess is that the back panel is a simpler affair and thus more prone to picking up scratches.

A 3,060 mAh battery powers the Nokia 7.1 and given the efficiency of the Snapdragon 636 chipset, we can expect at least above average endurance. And, of course, as almost all HMD phones, the 7.1 joins the ranks of the Android One with pure Android experience. It runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box and should get updated to 9.0 Pie next month.