Admittedly, any Android phone can serve as a decent Microsoft/ Windows extension with a bit of finagling, but the new Nokia 7.1 seems like a device that embodies the old Windows Phone sentiment. Moving past the cacophony of current and former Windows phone users who still decry that there will never be a true Windows phone or Windows 10 Mobile replacement, I agree, wholeheartedly.
However, the Nokia 7.1 coupled with Microsoft’s earnest attempt to be a symbiote-like Android app developer, most of what made a Windows phone a premium Microsoft experience is not only found in this device but with the old camera UI retained by HMD Global, the photo experience begins to drum up those bittersweet nostalgic Lumia memories of old.
On October 4th, 2018, HMD Global, the new arbiters of Nokia’s hardware future, released the Nokia 7.1. On paper, the Nokia 7.1 sports a new but seemingly similar screen technology found in older Lumia devices and is paired with ZEISS Optics and a Lumia-like price point.
The exclusivity period that Microsoft held for the Carl Zeiss license is over and has been returned to Nokia for its future camera technologies.
The new Android phone also has an HDR display panel that will really help those color in photos pop while adhering to Nokia’s reputation of clarity and detail density optics. Nokia is calling the updated display on the Nokia 7.1 is being pitched as PureDisplay.
The Nokia 7.1 is the first smartphone to come with PureDisplay screen technology for stunning HDR cinematic quality entertainment inside and out. With YouTube now supporting HDR content as well as your popular releases on Netflix and Amazon Prime, take your viewing experience to another level with higher contrast and great clarity; revealing the detail in both light and dark areas and stunning vibrant colours. Supporting HDR10, the Nokia 7.1 PureDisplay delivers higher contrast (1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio) and greater clarity; revealing the detail in both light and dark areas as well as stunning vibrant colours.
Perhaps, more enticing than the display and camera technology is the Android One operating experience that comes stock on the phone. While the Nokia 7.1 does not house the latest and greatest from Qualcomm, the super light OS footprint should go a long way in mitigating the Android cruft that occurs with skinned Android.
We’ll have more on the device if/when we get our hands on it. As for now, the Nokia 7.1 is available for purchase globally in two variants – 3GB/32GB for319€ and 4GB/64GB for 349€ in Gloss Midnight Blue and Gloss Steel.
