Nokia 7.2 review: A fair mid-range phone, but not an exciting one

Where to buy

HMD Global is the company responsible for all of those Nokia phones we've seen on store shelves in recent years. While it's experimented with "classic" feature phones such as the Nokia 2720 Flip, the vast majority of its output has been low-cost Android handsets.

It feels harsh to say this, but in many ways, the Nokia 7.2 is yet another one, and that's about it. However, an upgrade from 2018's Nokia 7.1 was bound to grab my attention, simply because that handset was one of HMD's best last year.

The Nokia 7.2 is a solid and reliable handset in most respects, but the market has changed in 12 months, and the existence of so many high-quality competitors at its price point sadly makes the Nokia 7.2 less compelling than its predecessor.

Design

• 6.3-inch LCD display with teardrop notch
• PureDisplay does punch up video nicely
• Rear fingerprint sensor
• Google Assistant button
• No storage expansion

• Read our full review of the Nokia 7.2's design

  The Nokia 7.2 ships in Australia in a choice of three colours: Charcoal, Cyan Green or Ice. I've been testing out the Charcoal colour, which may as well have just been called black, because that's what it is.

  The Nokia 7.2's design story is one definitely told in two distinct chapters. At the front, it's very much the Nokia standard design, with smooth rounded corners, a 6.3-inch LCD display and a teardrop notch for the front-facing camera. Like HMD Global's other Nokia phones this year, you don't have the choice to "black out" the notch with a top bar, which still annoys me.

  The Nokia 7.2 uses an LCD display, boosted by what HMD Global refers to as its "PureDisplay" technology, designed to punch up SD visuals to a near-HDR level of quality. It's a nicer display than you'd expect out of an LCD, but predictably it still lacks the colour edge you get from a nice OLED screen.

  

  The Nokia 7.2 has a businesslike design that eschews the glossy rippling colours we've seen from brands such as Huawei, realme or Mintt, and there's bound to be some appeal there if you're not the extroverted type.

  The power button and volume controls sit on the right-hand side, while the left-hand side houses a dedicated Google Assistant button, which is one of those features you'll either adore if you use it frequently or curse when you mistake it for the power button. There's a headphone jack at the top of the phone, slightly offset to the right.

  Flip the Nokia 7.2 over, and the style story changes. My first impression of the triple camera array on the back was that this didn't look much like a Nokia phone. What it looks like is the design Motorola used to use for its Moto Mod capable handsets such as the Moto Z3 Play, because it's got quite the protruding camera bump. Before you ask, no, I don't think it's Moto Mod compatible.

  Just underneath that camera bump sits the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, which works quite well. The one design win here is that the prominence of the camera bump makes it very easy to find the fingerprint sensor without looking, and with little risk of smearing your fingerprints over the lenses.

Camera

• Triple lens camera, but it's really dual lens
• 48MP quad pixel primary camera shoots well
• Decent photos, but others at this price range offer more flexibility

• See sample photos and read our full review of the Nokia 7.2's camera

  HMD Global made a big splash earlier in the year with the Nokia 9 Pureview, arguably the most camera-centric phone of 2019.

  The Nokia 7.2 isn't quite so bold, and you wouldn't entirely expect that at this price point. Its headline feature is a primary 48MP lens at the rear, with a secondary 8MP ultra-wide lens and tertiary 5MP depth sensor. Like so many cameras in the mid-range, that depth sensor does what its name suggests, so you don't shoot directly with it. Instead, it's there to judge depth and add appropriate bokeh to your shots, particularly portrait shots. In practical terms, this is a dual lens camera with standard and ultra-wide modes.

  You can shoot at 48MP if you must, but it's not the primary shooting mode for the rear cameras. Instead, it uses quad pixels to effectively increase the underlying sensor size at a cost of overall resolution. That 48MP sensor, most of the time, is actually only shooting at 12MP. This is a fairly common technique even in the mid-range, and it can have some definite benefits when it comes to light balancing and focus for most shots.

  The Nokia 7.2 is a pleasant enough camera for basic photographic purposes, but it's stymied somewhat by the fact that we've seen so many competitors go further and better around the same price point. While it's a touch more pricey, the Google Pixel 3a still stands as our pick of the best of the mid-range, but even competitors such as the realme XT offer more photographic flexibility.

  The Nokia 7.2 is a fine camera phone, but that's about all it is. That would have seen it at or near the top of the mid-range camera tree 6 to 12 months ago, but now it's just adequate, rather than exciting.

  Nokia 7.2 sample photos

  

  

  

  

  

Performance

• Snapdragon 660 provides adequate power for a mid-range phone
• Android One means guaranteed upgrades

• View test results and read our full review of the Nokia 7.2's performance

  Adequate is also exactly the word I'd use to describe the Nokia 7.2's overall performance. The model mostly sold in Australia is running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor with 4GB of RAM, and at the time of writing, Android 9 ("Pie") onboard.

  That's a recipe for decent mid-range performance, but again we've seen a bit of a push of late in making more out of mid-range phones than the Nokia 7.2 entirely delivers. That's seen in the way it compares at a benchmark level, at least to some extent.

  Here's how it compares using Geekbench 5's CPU test. We've only got a small pool of test phones that have run this test, and it's sadly not comparable to the older Geekbench 4 CPU results.

  Nokia 7.2

  The Nokia 7.2 fares a little more competitively when you look at 3D performance, although like most mid-range phones this isn't a graphics powerhouse.

  Nokia 7.2

  Those benchmarks actually paint a slightly worse picture of the Nokia 7.2 than its real-world performance presents, however. For a mid-range phone it's fairly responsive across most apps, and it has the distinct advantage that it's an Android One phone.

  So what does that mean? Android One phones get their upgrades direct from Google, and they're shipped with a minimum of pre-installed bloatware. This means no annoying ad-filled "free" games you never wanted, no intrusive spyware (beyond that which Google wants there, anyway) and a guarantee of at least two year's worth of operating system upgrades.

  While the Nokia 7.2 I tested was running Android 9, it should see Android 10 directly and Android 11 at some point during its lifespan. That's not a claim that many of its competitors would make, and it does point to potential future gains in performance and maybe even lightly in features depending on what Google puts in Android 11.

Battery life

• 3500mAh battery drains faster than we'd like
• USB-C wired charging only

• View test results and read our full review of the Nokia 7.2's battery life

  The 3500mAh sealed battery in the Nokia 7.2 is again reasonable without being exceptional in this price bracket.

  With the shift to Geekbench 5, we've had to abandon Geekbench 4's battery test, instead flipping to a YouTube based test, running a full-screen video at maximum brightness with moderate volume for an hour. That gives us a comparative picture of how well a phone manages its battery relative to its competitors.

  Unfortuanately for the Nokia 7.2, while its PureDisplay technology does make our test video look a little better than you'd expect out of an LCD panel, it does so at a serious battery cost. Here's how it compares:

  Nokia 7.2

  My experience with handsets under this test is that anything under 90% indicates a handset that may not last a full day's usage under moderate load. That's very much the story of the Nokia 7.2, which can be pushed to a day's runtime, but not always.

  You'd be best advised to have a charger handy if you've got a big night planned after a day's work to be sure. It's no surprise that there's no wireless charging on board, as that's still very rare at this price point, but pleasingly it's using the newer USB-C charging standard rather than Micro USB.

Verdict

• One for the Nokia fans only

The Nokia 7.1 stood out even amongst the many phones HMD Global produced in 2018, but that's not the story of the Nokia 7.2. It's not just HMD Global's output, but the many alternative options you've got at this price point that deliver more than the Nokia 7.2 can provide.

There's still plenty of appeal in a cleanly designed Android One phone, and if you're a fan of Nokia's design and products, it's a perfectly acceptable handset – but that's all.

Pricing and availability

• Price: RRP $549
• Where to buy: Amazon | The Good Guys

Alternatives

If your budget can stretch a little further and you want guaranteed updates, the easy recommendation is the Google Pixel 3A.

If you're after a clean Android experience, for a little less than the cost of the Nokia 7.2, you could consider the Motorola Moto One Vision.

If you're after a phone with some serious camera chops, albeit one with heavily modified Android OS, consider the realme XT.

You could save yourself a chunk of change and step down in price where there's a whole host of options, including the Huawei Y9 Prime 2019.

Specifications