Nokia 7.2 review

Android 9, in One flavor

As we've come to expect from recent Nokias, the 7.2 is part of the Android One program and runs a mostly stock version of Android, and our review unit is still on Pie for the time being. While Android One does carry a promise for timely updates, it's worth noting that carrier-specific versions might not receive them just as quickly as those sold in the unlocked (retail) channel.

The Nokia 7.2 has a rather basic implementation of the Ambient display feature which will wake up the screen for new notifications, but that's it - there's no lift to wake capability, nor is there an always-on feature, not that LCDs are known for it. On a positive note, the LED inside the power button will alert you of missed notifications.

Security is handled in a conventional way - a capacitive fingerprint sensor on the back is the go-to option, but there's also a camera-based face unlock too. The fingerprint reader works as expected and unlocks reliably though it's not among the fastest around. Face unlock is barely usable, and we found it to fail on occasion even in good lighting, not to mention anything dimmer - stick to fingerprints.

Ambient display • Lockscreen and security settings

Once unlocked, the 7.2's software is Android as Google intended it through and through. The standard Android 9 homescreen utilizes the default Android pill-based navigation. A tap on the pill button takes you Home, a quick flick from it to the right switches back and forth between the last two apps, while sliding it to the right takes you to one of the UIs for task switching.

Lockscreen • Lockscreen • Homescreen • Folder view • Notifications and toggles

A short-ish swipe up from the bottom evokes the 'other' task switcher which is also the way to go into multi-window, which we've ranted about on numerous occasions for its clumsiness. A longer swipe up takes you straight to the app drawer, though a second swipe up from Task switcher 2 will also work. And there's a back button on top of all that, to be replaced with a gesture come Android 10.

Task switcher 1 • Task switcher 2 • App drawer

As for multimedia, it's all in the hands of Google's default apps. The Photos app is in charge of gallery-related tasks and video playback, while Google Play Music is the audio player. There's a file manager with batch actions and Google Drive sync, and Google's Calendar is Nokia's calendar of choice. An FM radio receiver is available on the Nokia 7.2, and the app that goes with it is one of the more barebones takes we've seen.

Google Photos • Photos • Google Play Music • FM radio • Google One • File manager

Synthetic benchmarks

The Nokia 7.2 has the Snapdragon 660 inside, a chipset that was all the rage some two years ago when the Nokia 7 plus came out. Now, it's obviously not so hot with newer, more efficient, options available in the 600 and 700 series. The 14nm S660 is nevertheless decently powerful, packing an octa-core CPU in a 4x2.2 GHz Kryo 260 & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 configuration (Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A53 based, respectively) and an Adreno 512 GPU. Our review unit is the top-spec 6GB/128GB trim, with 6GB/64GB and 4GB/64GB options also available.

The Nokia 7.2's Kryo 260s struggle to match the performance of more recent midrange Kryo 360's in Snapdragon 710/712-powered devices like the Realme XT and the Xiaomi Mi 9 lite even if the difference isn't huge. Still, the Nokia does tend to occupy the bottom half of the charts in both single-core and multi-core tests in GeekBench 4 and 5 alike.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo V17 Pro
  6629
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  6584
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  6582
• Realme 5 Pro
  6106
• Realme XT
  6102
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  5989
• Nokia 7 plus
  5893
• Realme 3 Pro
  5881
• Motorola One Zoom
  5802
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
  5763
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  5549
• Huawei P30 Lite
  5523
• Nokia 7.2
  5440
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  5411
• Nokia 7.1
  4975

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A70
  2391
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  2388
• vivo V17 Pro
  2382
• Motorola One Zoom
  2084
• Realme 5 Pro
  1913
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905
• Realme XT
  1899
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  1851
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  1650
• Nokia 7 plus
  1634
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
  1611
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  1576
• Nokia 7.2
  1534
• Huawei P30 Lite
  1534
• Realme 3 Pro
  1471
• Nokia 7.1
  1344

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• vivo V17 Pro
  1657
• Realme XT
  1569
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  1471
• Nokia 7.2
  1425
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  1410
• Motorola One Zoom
  1409

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• vivo V17 Pro
  509
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  507
• Motorola One Zoom
  501
• Realme XT
  410
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  395
• Nokia 7.2
  336

The same hold true in Antutu, where the Nokia 7.2 is outperformed by pretty much every current competitor.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Realme XT
  185193
• Realme 5 Pro
  182765
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  180057
• vivo V17 Pro
  176791
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  175478
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  170102
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  167750
• Realme 3 Pro
  155647
• Motorola One Zoom
  146810
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  141600
• Nokia 7 plus
  140820
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
  140500
• Nokia 7.2
  139495
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  139075
• Huawei P30 Lite
  129887
• Nokia 7.1
  117175

In the graphics department, the 7.2 trails the 700-series competition, but it does match the S675 devices in some tasks, and it pulls ahead of them in others. So in this respect 660>=675.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  15
• Realme 5 Pro
  15
• Realme XT
  15
• Realme 3 Pro
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
  9.1
• Nokia 7 plus
  9.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  9
• Nokia 7.2
  9
• vivo V17 Pro
  8.8
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  8.1
• Motorola One Zoom
  8.1
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  8
• Huawei P30 Lite
  7.7
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  7.7
• Nokia 7.1
  6.3

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  14
• Realme XT
  13
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  12
• Realme 5 Pro
  12
• Realme 3 Pro
  11
• Nokia 7 plus
  8.6
• Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
  8.3
• Nokia 7.2
  8.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  7.7
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  7.3
• vivo V17 Pro
  7.3
• Motorola One Zoom
  7.1
• Huawei P30 Lite
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  7
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  6.9
• Nokia 7.1
  5.9

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• Realme XT
  2284
• Realme 5 Pro
  2253
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  2218
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite
  1959
• Nokia 7.2
  1427
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 7
  1409
• vivo V17 Pro
  1221
• Samsung Galaxy A60
  1123
• Samsung Galaxy A70
  1112
• Motorola One Zoom
  1107
• Huawei P30 Lite (perf. mode)
  988
• Huawei P30 Lite
  985

Two years is a long time and putting out a phone with the same chipset as the model two generations before it is a bit puzzling. The Nokia 7.2 isn't slow or anything - on the contrary, it delivers very decent numbers. Newer, better, more efficient and more powerful silicon options are available, however, and those do come in rival offerings.