Nokia 7 plus review

Android One Eight-point-One

The Nokia 7 plus is part of the Android One program - a boon for anyone that's a fan of pure Android, but finds the Pixels out of budget (or out of stock). Indeed, the promised timely updates are timely and the unit we've had for review is running Oreo 8.1 with the most recent April security patch.

Android as Google intended shows up when you wake up the phone - clock, notification cards, two shortcuts on the bottom. Ambient display will show you a clock and notifications when you pick up the phone even without waking it up, but be sure to enable it in settings.

Fingerprint enrollment uses the standard Oreo interface. Unlocking works as advertised and is quick and reliable.

Past that is the standard Android 8 homescreen with a pull-up app drawer.

Lockscreen • Ambient display • Fingerprint enrollment • Homescreen • App drawer

The quick toggles and notifications shade changes color depending on the wallpaper - white for lighter ones, black for darker ones. The task switcher is the usual rolodex and wouldn't it be great if Google put the 'clear all' button on the bottom instead of up top? Anyway, multi-window is supported natively since Nougat.

There are several gestures like double press the power button to launch the camera and fingerprint swipe for notifications.

Quick toggles • Notifications • Task switcher • Multi-window • Gestures

As for multimedia, it's all in the hands of Google and its default apps. Google Photos 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.

Google Photos • Google Play Music • Equalizer • File manager • Calendar

Synthetic benchmarks

The Nokia 7 plus is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset - top-of-the-line 600-series silicon with 8 Kryo 260 cores (4x2.2GHz + 4x1.8GHz). Graphics are in the hands of the Adreno 512 GPU. There are 4GB of RAM on board for quick multitasking, and 64GB of storage isn't bad either.

Kryo cores are nice, we like Kryo cores. GeekBench likes them too and in the single-core tests the 7 plus posts high marks. The Cortex-A73 in the Honor View 10's Kirin chip is still more powerful though, yet the same design isn't pushed that hard inside the Galaxy A8 (2018)'s Exynos 7885.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor View 10
  1902
• Nokia 7 plus
  1634
• Oppo R15 Pro
  1612
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  1532
• Oppo R15
  1520
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  913
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  882
• HTC U11 Life
  873
• Motorola Moto X4
  866
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  866

In the multi-core test the 7 plus edges ahead of the Oppo R15 Pro (same Snapdragon 660 inside), but the View 10 is a lot more powerful. Then again the Snapdragon 630 devices are nowhere near, just like the Galaxy A8 (2018) with its Exynos.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor View 10
  6738
• Nokia 7 plus
  5893
• Oppo R15 Pro
  5809
• Oppo R15
  5806
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  4418
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  4198
• HTC U11 Life
  4140
• Motorola Moto X4
  4136
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  3603

In graphics benchmarks, the Snapdragon 660 proves superior to the Snapdragon 630 (duh). The Nokia 7 plus and the Oppo R15 pro post the same results in offscreen runs, but the Nokia has an edge in onscreen tests. The flagship-grade GPU of the Honor View 10 is in another league.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor View 10
  38
• Oppo R15 Pro
  15
• Nokia 7 plus
  15
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  9.9
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  9.9
• Motorola Moto X4
  9.8
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  9.7
• HTC U11 Life
  9.6
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  4.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor View 10
  35
• Nokia 7 plus
  14
• Oppo R15 Pro
  12
• Motorola Moto X4
  11
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  10
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  10
• HTC U11 Life
  9.6
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  8.7
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  4.6

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor View 10
  22
• Nokia 7 plus
  9.1
• Oppo R15 Pro
  9
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  6
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  5.6
• HTC U11 Life
  5.4
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  5.4
• Motorola Moto X4
  5.3
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  2.9

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor View 10
  20
• Nokia 7 plus
  8.6
• Oppo R15 Pro
  7.6
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  6
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  6
• Motorola Moto X4
  5.8
• HTC U11 Life
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018)
  5.2
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  2.7

Pretty much the same goes for Antutu, except here the R15 Pro has pulled ahead of the Nokia 7 plus - not by much, though.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Huawei Honor View 10
  212708
• Oppo R15 Pro
  146526
• Nokia 7 plus
  140820
• Oppo R15
  140161
• Nokia 6 (2018)
  90918
• Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
  89110

Overall, the Nokia 7 plus with its Snapdragon 660 chip is a clear step up from Snapdragon 630 devices. The phone also outperforms the Galaxy A8 (2018) with the latest upper-midrange SoC from Samsung. The Nokia 7 plus also runs cool under load and in our testing never exceeded comfortable temperatures.