HMD has been regularly launching new devices on the market. The latest one to roll out of its factory floor is the brand new Nokia 7.2, a supposedly mid-ranger that offers more bang for your buck. Coming in at a price of AED 999, the Nokia 7.2 offers boatloads of features mostly found on higher-priced smartphones. For one, the Nokia 7.2 is the company’s very first smartphone to feature a triple-camera setup (more on that later). Out of the box, the Nokia 7.2 feels sturdy, featuring high-end build quality and excellent overall finish and design. The body of the smartphone is clad in a matte coating, which gives it a premium look and feel.
On the front, the Nokia 7.2 flaunts a 6.3-inch IPS LCD PureDisplay with a resolution of 2280-by-1080 pixels. Since Nokia uses an IPS type of screen, you won’t have any issues with visibility, when looking at the screen under direct sunlight. On the top of the screen, you get a front camera that combines a 20MP image sensor with an aperture of f/2.0. The front camera is capable of recording 1080p Full-HD video at 30 frames per second.
On the left edge of the device, you get a dedicated button that invokes Google Assistant and the sim card tray which has two slots for dual sim, and a dedicated slot for the microSD card. On the right edge, you get the volume rockers and the power button. On the top edge, you get a 3.5mm audio jack and the bottom edge gives you a USB-C port and a speaker grille.
At the rear of the device is where you will find the triple camera module that features ZEISS optics. This is made up of a main standard wide-angle camera, an ultra-wide-angle second camera and a dedicated depth sensor for simulated bokeh shots. The primary camera uses a 1/2-inch 48MP Quad-Bayer sensor with 0.8µm pixels coupled to a standard wide-angle f/1.8-aperture lens with PDAF autofocus.
The Nokia 7.2 also uses an ultra-wide second shooter built around an 8MP sensor with a 13mm-equivalent f/2.2-aperture lens. The 5MP dedicated depth sensor comes into play when using the Portrait mode. You can capture video at either 2016p/30fps (4K) or lower-resolution 1080p/30fps (full HD) in default mode. Just below the camera module sits the fingerprint scanner.
Inside, the Nokia 7.2 comes equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 coupled with Adreno 512 GPU, and a combination of 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage.
I used the Nokia 7.2 as my primary phone for more than a week – all I experienced was a lag-free experience, even when continuously switching between apps, and playing graphics-heavy games. In terms of the operating system, the Nokia 7.2 runs Google’s Android One version of Android 9 Pie.
The triple-camera system is one of Nokia 7.2’s strengths. Under good lighting conditions, the Nokia 7.2 offered good exposure overall.
However, under low light conditions, we had to fiddle with a few of the settings in the Pro mode to get good shots. The colours on the photos were vibrant, while the autofocus did a decent job.
Videos shot using the Nokia 7.2 was quite good – in fact, better than many smartphones out there on the market that are available at similar price points. The front camera also does a very job of shooting selfies.
The night shot and the autofocus is some of the areas that could be improved upon, but overall, the Nokia 7.2 offers good photography and videography prowess.
The battery of the Nokia 7.2 easily lasts a day of usage before it needs recharging.
So who is the Nokia 7.2 for? The smartphone will appeal to those who want a smartphone that features brilliant design and build quality, good specs, and very good camera and performance, at the same time coming in at a very pocket-friendly price.
Price: AED 999
