Nokia 3.1 Review

Nokia has again begun their game to connect people. Nokia got some of the great devices in the last year with their debut. After the amazing set of Windows & Symbian devices, Nokia is again looking to win the throne of Android devices. The competition is really tough and they are struggling with their devices. Their lineup till now has been great, but with moving technology, they have to change their lineup with the new one and they have launched the Nokia 3.1 with the latest 18:9 ratio trend, and a handy screen size of 5.2 inches. Let us see if Nokia succeeds in the game with Nokia 3.1 in the review ahead.

Design & Build

The device being a budget device in the Nokia lineup doesn’t have a great choice of materials. The phone is having a plastic back, which is then supported by a metallic frame. In 2018 where even most of the budget phone is rocking a unibody metal design, Nokia’s choice of plastic is not up to the mark. But the choice doesn’t affect the built quality of the device, the phone is good to hold in hand, and gives a handsome feeling.

Design wise the phone is pretty simple, with an old-school boxy design without any fluidity in the phone. On the back we have a camera to the center top position, with a flash just below it, exactly in the center of the back, we have the Nokia branding placed vertically. At the bottom, it comes with Android One branding. On the front, we have the Nokia branding to the top right corner, with the camera to the top right, with the earpiece on the center. The phone is kind of asymmetrical with the bottom bezel being quite big from the top one.

Display

The display is a handsome unit with just 5.2-inches in size and featuring the 18:9 ratio display. This is one of the smallest display we have seen on any newly launched device by any brand. The display being a small unit, the phone is easy to hold and comes with a resolution of HD+ which is more than enough for the images to look crisp.

Nokia 3.1 makes it with the right panel. The phone display has great colors and looks really amazing. The daytime visibility of the display is quite good and even in the daytime, you will not face any issue regarding the display. Even in the night, the display can get really dark which can make your experience of using the phone quite great.

Performance

The phone is offered with a MediaTek chip which is an MT6750. The chipset can be compared with the Snapdragon 425 in terms of performance. Another downside of the phone is the 2GB RAM which makes it a really average performer. The phone cannot even live without lagging if there are more than 5 apps open in the background.

The phone can perform the daily tasks without an issue, and you will enjoy the phone in the multitasking with relation to social media apps, phone calls, and other daily usages. The phone cannot really perform great in games and you will have a bad time if you even try to launch any particular games. Low-end games such as board games and some logic games can be played on the device. During the boot, we have just around 400 – 500 MB of RAM left which makes the phone kind of unusable even for heavy WhatsApp usage. We can even notice lags while the apps are to load, and even the Facebook main application cannot work properly if you have any other application loaded in the background.

Camera

The phone is featured with a 13MP rear camera and on the front, we get an 8MP unit. Both the camera is capable of capturing some great images, but they are also having shortcomings. The rear camera pictures are oversaturated in the daytime, and in HDR mode the camera can ruin the pictures with over sharpening. The camera interface of the phone is good, and you are going to have a nice time using the pictures for capturing the pictures of notes, and for social media.

The front camera on the phone is good and is capable of capturing some great selfies. In the daytime, the camera is the best in the range, and you will be mesmerized by the pictures it takes. The only downside is the lag which is persistent from the rear camera. The lag on the shutter button is quite pronounced and you must press the button a couple of seconds earlier. In the night time, both the camera is not able to perform quite well, with over-sharpening and grainy pictures coming too often.

Battery

Nokia 3.1 comes with a 2990 mAh battery. The phone is capable of making it throughout the day without any issue, but the main problem occurs when you have to use the phone quite efficiently with a lot of calls. If your phone is just used for calling and social media, it can make up to a day easily with at the end of the day you had around 25% of battery life.

But when you use the phone for heavy calling usage, and camera usage you will need to charge the phone by 4 or 5. The battery can be charged from 20 to 100 in less than 1 & ½ hour, but do note that you must not be using the phone.

Verdict

Overall the phone is a good unit for average users. Mostly the people who require the phone mainly for calling, and are used to the small phones. If you are someone looking for a performance-centric phone then you must look at some other devices from Xiaomi such as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro or the Huawei Honor 9i. But if you are looking for a good device which can make life with you till the end of the day for daily usage then you must head for the Nokia 3.1.

Will you be opting for the Nokia 3.1? do let us know in the comment section below.