A couple of days ago, we did a quick hands-on take of the Nokia 7.2. Now it’s time to check out our full review to find it is enough to stand its ground in the competitive mid-range market. Read on!
Table of Contents
Upon holding the device, one would immediately feel the smartphone’s matte finish, different from the glass back and glossy plastic finishes the majority of smartphones have nowadays. Our unit here is in the Charcoal color, but the 7.2 is also available in two other colors, namely, Cyan Green and Ice. Due to the matte finish, the smartphone doesn’t feel slippery when held. It also feels exquisite and robust in the hands. A downside, though, is that smudges and fingerprints are more difficult to wipe off compared to glass backs or glossy finishes.
We move on to the Nokia 7.2‘s highlight — its triple camera setup, housed in a circular module, placed on the rear. The module protrudes slightly from the body of the smartphone, making the device wobble when set down on a flat surface. Right beneath the cameras, one can find the fingerprint scanner.
Turning the device over, we’re greeted by the 7.2’s display. The drop notch up top houses the front camera, while slim bezels surround the panel. The chin is slightly broader than the rest as it has the Nokia logo stamped across it.
On the right, we have the volume rocker and the power button-LED indicator combination. The placement is rather high, and people with small hands might find it difficult to reach one-handed.
A dedicated Google Assistant button resides on the left side of the device, with the dual SIM tray and dedicated micro SD card slot sitting a few paces above it.
Located at the top of the device are the noise-canceling microphone and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The bottom houses the speaker grille and microphone, with the USB-C port sandwiched between them.
The Nokia 7.2 sports a 6.3-inch IPS LCD PureDisplay with a resolution of 2280 x 1080. Additionally, it has a 10-bit HDR certification, and thanks to its 500 nits of brightness, using it outdoors isn’t much of an issue. Although it’s not an OLED-based panel, the 7.2 still gave us accurate colors, good contrast, and a well-saturated display. It also delivered pretty good viewing angles.
Setting the audio at maximum volume gave us surprising results as it sounded balanced. It didn’t feel too tinny, mids were present, and the lows can be heard from time to time. The single downward-firing speaker can also get loud and fill up an entire room. We do recommend to take advantage of the 3.5mm headphone jack equipped in the 7.2 for a better listening experience.
For its operating system, the Nokia 7.2 runs on the Android One certified Stock Android 9 Pie. That means there’s no bloatware or other third-party apps installed on the device; it’s a fresh and pure Android system out of the box. Having Android One also means faster and frequent updates to the OS. Icons of newly-installed apps can be found on the home screen, but for everything else, they’re arranged in a drawer-style that can be viewed by swiping up from the bottom.
The 7.2 is available in two storage capacities, namely 64GB and 128GB, with the unit we have on-hand having the latter. As there are Google apps pre-installed on the device, about 105GB of it is usable. If that isn’t enough, users do have the option of expanding the storage up to 256GB via micro SD.
The Nokia 7.2 uses a circular module for the cameras, which include a 48MP 1/2″ Quad Pixel F1.8 primary camera, an 8MP f2.2 ultrawide, and a 5MP depth sensor, together with ZEISS optics. Meanwhile, situated in the notch upfront is a 20MP quad pixel front camera.
Photos taken with the 20MP quad pixel front camera look decent in ample light conditions, with details coming out rather sharp and colors looking natural. An issue does surface when it comes to portrait photos, as the edge detection is quite poor. Some parts of the subject end up looking blurred as well.
As for the 48MP primary camera, the images delivered have sharp details; however, the colors tend to look oversaturated than how they are in real life. Despite that, they’re still good photos, and they’re good enough to use in social media. Portrait mode using the rear cameras look much better than the selfie camera as the blur appears to be more natural. In ultrawide, the images produced aren’t just up to par with the 48MP camera, both in color and quality.
When it comes to video, the 7.2 can record up to 4K at 30fps. Just like the photos, the video’s colors also tend to look oversaturated. It’s also a bit of a struggle when it comes to locking the focus on the subject.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 powers up the Nokia 7.2, along with an Adreno 512 chipset. Our unit here has 6GB of RAM, but a 4GB RAM option is also available. The device yielded the following benchmark results:
The Snapdragon 660 is a reliable mid-range chipset. However, we do think that it would’ve been better had Nokia equipped the 7.2 with a newer chipset. Nevertheless, it still gets the job done. The 7.2 delivered well in doing basic tasks, social media browsing, navigation, and gaming, among others.
The Nokia 7.2 has your usual connectivity features, which include Dual-SIM, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and USB Type-C. Google Maps, Waze, and other location-based apps also worked pretty well.
Keeping the device running is a 3,500mAh battery. In our standard video loop test, the Nokia 7.2 totaled us 10 hours and 35 minutes, which is rather disappointing. Charging the device to a full 100% takes about 2 hours, even with the 10W charger included in the package.
Priced at PHP 15,990USD 272INR 23,099EUR 260CNY 1,984, the Nokia 7.2 can stand its ground in the competitive mid-range market. While we wish it came with a better chipset, we can’t deny that the Nokia 7.2 is a competent smartphone with cameras that deliver well. Also, let’s not forget, this device runs on Stock Android, and the Nokia 7.2 fills in that gap in the market for an affordable device running on Stock Android. If you’re looking for that pure Stock Android experience alongside satisfying cameras and a solid design, then consider the Nokia 7.2 in your choices.
6.3-inch FHD+ PureDisplay
2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass
Qualcomm Snapdragon 660
4GB, 6GB RAM
64GB, 128GB storage
microSD up to 512GB
48MP 1/2? Quad Pixel F1.8 (main) + 8MP F2.2 (ultrawide) + 5MP (depth) rear cameras, ZEISS Optics
20MP Quad Pixel front camera
Dual-SIM (nano)
4G LTE Cat 6
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac
NFC (excluding Latin America, USA, and India)
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo
USB 2.0 Type-C
3.5mm audio jack
Bluetooth 5.0 w/ aptX
FM Radio
2x microphones w/ spatial surround sound capture
Google Assistant Button
Fingerprint scanner (rear-mounted)
Android 9 Pie
3,500mAh battery
159.92 x 75.15 x 8.25 mm
180 g
Charcoal, Cyan Green, Ice
What we liked:
What we didn’t:
With additional input from Alex Barboza.
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Nokiaalwayssmallbattery says:
Wow kasinlaki ng galaxy a20 ang nokia 7.2 pero 3500mah lang ang battery. Sana ginawa nilang 8.5mm for 4000 or 4,200mah. Bawi na lang ang nokia sa 7.3 next year
Jose Estil says:
Its frustrating to get your mobile locked up without your knowledge, and reboot is impossible w/o taking to Nokia sevice center.