Nokia Android

Nokia 7.2 Review

Name: Nokia 7.2 Review
Item: Nokia 7.2
Rating: 7.2
Author: Rado Slavov

by Rado Slavov

Jan 03, 2020, 8:19 AM

Summary

The Nokia 7.2 is a solid, affordable smartphone that caters to those who enjoy massive screens and clean Android software. It costs $330 at the time of writing, which positions it in the lower mid-range category.

Make no mistake, though, you are getting what you’re paying for with the Nokia 7.2. This isn’t to say that you’re in for any unpleasant surprises; it just means that no wonders should be expected out of this otherwise likable handset.

Nokia 7.2 quick specs

Display 6.3" 1080 x 2340 pixels
Camera 48 MP / 20 MP front
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, Octa-core, 2200 MHz
Memory
Storage 128GB + microSDXC
Battery 3500 mAh(26h 3G talk time)

Design & Display

Style-wise, the 7.2 looks exactly the same as its slightly lower-end sibling, the Nokia 6.2. The only two differences are that the Nokia 7.2 is also available in Cyan green color, in addition to black and ice blue, and that the rear glass panel on the 7.2 has been frosted (matte), instead of being a normal glossy glass.

The so called “Scandinavian cool” design is cool indeed, with its simplistic yet appealing lines. Nokia / HMD is making a big deal out of the plastic frame surrounding the device, probably as a means to offset the possible criticism it isn’t using real metal, but it is indeed a very nice and solid feeling plastic.

Because of the matte glass on the back, however, the Nokia 7.2 is an incredibly slippery phone in the hand. Many will probably opt to use it with a case, though, (making it even more gigantic), so that maybe isn’t such a big issue.

View more + 5 images

The 6.3” IPS LCD screen is of very high, FHD+ resolution, and delivers a pleasing overall picture quality. It's sadly oversaturated, which seems to be impossible to correct, but the predominant feeling we get from staring at it is positive. The display spreads almost from edge to edge, leaving a small tear-drop shaped notch on the top.

The phone can do some bonus visual tricks, such as “upscale” regular video content to “HDR” content, as well generally boost certain parameters like contrast and sharpness for an edgier image, depending on the application. The results vary in usefulness. There is a nice feature to automatically adjust color warmth based on the environment, though, similar to Apple’s True Tone.

Display measurements and quality

	Maximum brightness Higher is better	Minimum brightness (nits) Lower is better	Contrast Higher is better	Color temperature (Kelvins)	Gamma	Delta E rgbcmy Lower is better	Delta E grayscale Lower is better
Nokia 7.2	586 (Excellent)	5.2 (Good)	1:1447 (Excellent)	8042 (Poor)	2.16	3.96 (Good)	6.92 (Average)
Nokia 6.2	531 (Excellent)	4.5 (Excellent)	1:1249 (Good)	7986 (Average)	2.2	3.93 (Good)	6.57 (Average)
Motorola Moto G7	511 (Excellent)	3 (Excellent)	1:1599 (Excellent)	7599 (Average)	2.39	3.64 (Good)	4.8 (Average)
Samsung Galaxy A50	593 (Excellent)	1 (Excellent)	unmeasurable (Excellent)	6997 (Excellent)	1.95	2.2 (Good)	7.11 (Average)

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The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

These measurements are made using Portrait Displays' CalMAN calibration software.

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Camera & Audio

There is a triple camera setup on the back of the Nokia 7.2, featuring a main 48 MP camera, an ultra-wide angle 8 MP one, and a 5 MP depth cam.

Thanks to the high-resolution sensor, the resulting 12 MP photos are of satisfying detail (it combines 4 pixels into 1 superior pixel, thus the 48 MP sensor producing 12 MP images). They are generally good looking, with outdoor shots having a pleasant overall color balance. Indoors, we aren’t fully convinced by the color decisions the camera takes sometimes, as it tends to lean slightly towards the cold side. One area this camera doesn't seem to excel is dynamic range, as is usually the case with otherwise decent cameras in more affordable phones.

The secondary, extra-wide camera is of 8 megapixels and it tends to produce softer-looking shots of somewhat inferior quality. They are not bad, but it just won’t perform so well when used indoors or in lower light.

Unlike the Nokia 6.2, the selfie camera of which suffers from insufficient resolution, the 7.2 comes with a 20 MP front-facing snapper, and this one seems to be pretty good at capturing enough details. Unfortunately, just like with the 6.2, skin tones often end up pale, which makes for less than ideal selfie shots.

View more + 10 images

Video recording can be done at up to 4K resolution using the main rear camera, and the resulting footage looks fine. It's not as impressive or stabilized as 4K recordings from higher-end smartphones, but it's perfectly usable. This can't be said for the 1080p video you can capture using the ultra-wide angle shooter, as it lacks enough detail and resolution to be considered 'fine'.

The Nokia 7.2 relies on a single, bottom-firing loudspeaker, which is pretty mediocre but gets the job done. For what it's worth, the sound isn't too crackly or annoying.

There is a set of bundled earphones that can work as a wired handsfree, but the audio coming from them is quite bad. They're not suitable for listening to music.

Performance

Running inside the Nokia 7.2’s body is the Snapdragon 660. At this point, that octa-core CPU is by no means a screamer, but it tends to perform acceptably here. The SD 636 in the slightly cheaper Nokia 6.2 does feel a bit sluggish, but the 660 in the 7.2 is one or two notches faster, making the experience reasonable.

The GPU is the Adreno 512. Trying out a few popular games like AFK Arena and Mortal Kombat didn’t seem to pose any problems for the phone.

AnTuTu is a multi-layered, comprehensive mobile benchmark app that assesses various aspects of a device, including CPU, GPU, RAM, I/O, and UX performance. A higher score means an overall faster device.

name	Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	179253
Nokia 6.2	145557
Motorola Moto G7	107447
Samsung Galaxy A50	146732

name	Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	32.579
Nokia 6.2	26.236

name	Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	8.1
Nokia 6.2	5.7
Motorola Moto G7	3.6
Samsung Galaxy A50	8.3

If the T-Rex HD component of GFXBench is demanding, then the Manhattan test is downright gruelling. It's a GPU-centric test that simulates an extremely graphically intensive gaming environment that is meant to push the GPU to the max. that simulates a graphically-intensive gaming environment on the screen. The results achieved are measured in frames per second, with more frames being better.

name	Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	13
Nokia 6.2	9.2
Motorola Moto G7	6.6
Samsung Galaxy A50	13

name	Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	334
Nokia 6.2	276

name	Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	1478
Nokia 6.2	1237

name	Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	32.579
Nokia 6.2	26.236

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Battery life

We ran the Nokia 7.2 through our battery life test and it performed reasonably well, with a result of 8h 20min. That's slightly lower than rivals Moto G7 and Galaxy A50, but it still means you'll be getting a normal day of use out of the 7.2's 3500 mAh juice pack.

A full charge from 0 – 100% isn't too painful, at exactly 2 hours with the included charger, but again, it's a bit slower than its direct rivals, who can shave around 20 minutes off of this waiting period.

We measure battery life by running a custom web-script, designed to replicate the power consumption of typical real-life usage. All devices that go through the test have their displays set at 200-nit brightness.

name	hours Higher is better

Nokia 7.2	8h 20 min (Average)
Nokia 6.2	8h 6 min (Average)
Motorola Moto G7	9h 17 min (Good)
Samsung Galaxy A50	10h 46 min (Excellent)

name	minutes Lower is better

Nokia 7.2	120
Nokia 6.2	119
Motorola Moto G7	92
Samsung Galaxy A50	101

View all

Pros

Stylish, modern design
Large, high-quality display

Cons

Selfies exhibit pale skin tones

PhoneArena Rating:

7.2

How do we rate?

User Rating:

9.0

1 Reviews

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27 Comments

1. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

Seriously? How does one con in relation to selfies warrant a 7? You didn't really touch on the fact that it has a FPS and a headphone jack, something lacking on the inferior Pureview. That being said, the score is still higher than the Pureview. Objectively that makes this the better device.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 9:35 AM 1

2. Crispin_Gatieza

Posts: 3192; Member since: Jan 23, 2014

Besides the selfies there's the cold display and poor dynamic range from the main camera. they weren't listed as cons per se, but the author did mention these faults. What he didn't mention were items like call quality, audio performance or anything having to do with the UI or software. I have to give him a 3.5 for this review, the effort just wasn't there. Oh and by the way, the PureView is not an inferior product. It's just not well optimized by Nokia/HMD.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 2:06 PM 3

3. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Exactly, Crispin. HMD could and should have spent more time optimizing the camera software and hardware with the co-processors so that the the processing time wouldn’t have been so long. They also should have spent more time optimizing the in-screen FPS and the the battery, since it’s on the smaller side. But no way is it inferior to the 7.2 (which still provides a better stock Android experience than Pixels do, as all Nokia branded smartphones do because of the constant issues Pixels have) when it has a more powerful processor that gives it better performance, better build quality and far better cameras. These are all factual metrics that can be measured against the 7.2. Still, I’d choose 7.2 over any Pixel any day of the week. It has far less issues, thus providing the better experience, as I’ve mentioned before.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 3:50 PM 4

18. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

Omg will you just let it go. It's my bloody opinion. I'm here defending the 7.2 because it didn't get a fair review and you're still crying about the Pureview. I don't care about your "factual metrics." What matters most is usability and those features on the 7.2 are features users still care about having.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 11:07 AM 0

22. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Lmao facts are greater than ones opinion. You defending one thing doesn’t mean you are posting facts. Stop crying and being so dramatic about it. You don’t have to care about the facts for the facts to still be facts. The Nokia 9 Pureview is also as usable as any Nokia smartphone that’s out, but Nokia smartphones are the most usable stock Android smartphones.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 5:56 PM 0

17. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

I don't think this review had much effort put into it. The cold display is a given since it's using an LCD panel.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 11:04 AM 0

4. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

“Objectively that makes this the better device.” No it doesn’t. That’s not how these reviews work. These reviews are scored in relation to other smartphones in its bracket, which is why you see comparisons to other midrange smartphones and not flagships or low end smartphones. Using your logic, that means that this is “objectively” better than the Essential Phone as well, being that this has a higher score than the Essential Phone does.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 4:29 PM 4

5. Crispin_Gatieza

Posts: 3192; Member since: Jan 23, 2014

So the Palm Pre I have laying in one of my drawers is better than any iPhone, Galaxy or Pixel ever produced since it has a “10” score from PA? You gotta love his mentality sometimes.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 4:40 PM 2

6. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Exactly, Crispin. It’s clear some people don’t know how rating these smartphones work.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 5:13 PM 2

20. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

Since you put it that way, the Pixel 4 is better than the Pureview because it scored better on PA than the Pureview did.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 11:11 AM 0

23. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Some you put it that way, the Huawei P30 Pro is every bit as good as the Pixel because it has the same score as the Pixel does on PA. And using your logic, there are 12 smartphones with better cameras that the Pixel 4 (several Huawei smartphones are on that list, btw), since dxo rated them all higher than the Pixel 4.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 5:59 PM 0

19. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

You would have a point if the Pre was released relatively recently but it wasn't. It was a point of comparison between two recently released devices.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 11:10 AM 0

24. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

You would have a point if PA didn’t compare flagships to flagships, midrange smartphones to midrange smartphones etc in their reviews, but they do.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 6:01 PM 0

21. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

Well the Essential phone was never given a fair chance but nice deflection.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 11:13 AM 0

25. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

I can say the same about the Nokia 9 Pureview, but nice denial from you.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 6:01 PM 0

7. jellmoo

Posts: 2679; Member since: Oct 31, 2011

I really wish that Nokia would deliver devices in the upper mid-range area. They seem to litter the low end to the lower mid-range, and then have very few offerings after that. I'd like to see them throw out a device that was a smidge above the Pixel 3a, for example. If this device had an OLED panel and a 7xx series SoC (and maybe an extra 2GB of RAM if I'm feeling luxurious) I'd be all over it at like a $500 price point.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 6:34 PM 1

8. Subie

Posts: 2450; Member since: Aug 01, 2015

I couldn't agree more! I've been calling for what you just said for a while now. My thoughts are that the 8.2 should feature a newer 7 series Snapdragon but not holding my breath for an Oled. The bigger personal let down is that whatever Nokia puts out is virtually meaningless to me anyway as they don't officially release anything above the 6 series in Canada...

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 7:54 PM 0

9. Subie

Posts: 2450; Member since: Aug 01, 2015

I stand corrected. I just checked Nokia's Canadian website and THEY ARE selling the 7.2 in Canada. Maybe things are looking up for 2020.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 8:02 PM 0

10. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Let’s also hope that the 5G model they are working on with the SD765G is also released in your area, and that it is a sign of better things to come. I’m a huge HMD/Nokia smartphone fan, and I’ve been happy with the Nokia smartphones that I own (Nokia 9 Pureview, Nokia 7.2, Nokia 7.1, Nokia 6.1 and Nokia 6), but even I think it’s time for them to add more up to date SoC’s in their smartphones. They’ve been adding the batteries now thankfully, and they’ve increased the onboard storage of the current 7xx series, as well they are pausing the release of the Nokia 9 Pureview successor to add the most current SoC, so hopefully they keep things going in that direction. At least with their upper midrange and flagship offerings.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 8:26 PM 1

11. Subie

Posts: 2450; Member since: Aug 01, 2015

Yes, everything I've read rumor wise for the "8.2" looks promising. If it comes with an oled screen and is released in Canada It will most likely jump to the very top of my short list. Oh and btw, Happy New Year MG! jellmoo too.

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 9:02 PM 0

12. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Happy New Year, Subie! Happy New Year, Jellmoo!

posted on Jan 03, 2020, 10:34 PM 1

13. jellmoo

Posts: 2679; Member since: Oct 31, 2011

Happy New Year gents! And as a fellow Canuck, I couldn't agree more. I'd love for them to have a really solid upper mid-range device available (in more markets, here especially). I don't need blazing fast, I don't need gimmicks. I just want a really solid device that covers the essentials at a fairly decent price, that runs stock Android without all of the ridiculous bugs that Google bakes into their devices.

posted on Jan 04, 2020, 12:02 AM 1

14. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Absolutely agree!

posted on Jan 04, 2020, 1:53 AM 1

15. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

Nothing wrong with wanting a phone that works. I wanted a decent backup phone to hold me over in case my main phone went out. I wanted the 6.1, but I had to return it due to the lagging and the overheating that kept occurring in the phone.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 10:55 AM 0

26. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Having a phone that just works is great! It’s one of the reasons why I am going to give up my Pixel 4XL, because it doesn’t “just work”. Google bakes in too many bugs and issues.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 6:03 PM 0

16. Venom

Posts: 4004; Member since: Dec 14, 2017

I've been saying this for the longest. Enough of the foodstamp phones. They need to release more upper midrange devices, not flagship God no. They have been leaving the N. American market high and dry while the overseas market gets the good Nokia phones like the 7 Plus, the best Nokia phone ever released.

posted on Jan 05, 2020, 10:58 AM 0

27. meanestgenius

Posts: 22849; Member since: May 28, 2014

Actually, HMD has almost as many smartphones in North America now (the U.S. especially) as they do abroad, so they haven’t been leaving NA high and dry. For one, they have two of the best Nokia smartphones available here, the N9PV and the 7.2, with the N9PV being the best Nokia phone available at the moment. Can’t wait for their next flagship, the Nokia 9.2 to be released, as well as their 5G offering.