Nokia 3.1 Plus Review | Lost in Ambition

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HMD global has been releasing quite a number of devices lately to revive the Nokia brand once again. With some solid devices like Nokia 6.1 Plus, Nokia X7 etc, Nokia also release a low budget device “Nokia 3.1 Plus”. It houses a Dual camera unit and an 18:9 display with no notch on top. The design and build quality looks pretty solid too.

Let’s take a closer look at the Nokia 3.1 Plus in our in-depth review.

Design and Build

Nokia 3.1 Plus is one of the budget device which doesn’t comes with a notch. The design looks quite similar to devices like Redmi 4 but the build quality is impressive. While the back of the device is made up of Aluminum, the top and the bottom are made up of plastic. The back is pretty smooth to touch and resist fingerprints unlike the glass devices which are hard to keep clean.

The Nokia 3.1 Plus feels comfortable to use but it’s surely on the heavier side. It has a total weight of 180 grams, slightly higher that what we like, and has a thickness of 8.2mm. The back of the device curves into the sides which makes it easy to hold and provides a reassuring grip to it. The Nokia 3.1 Plus is available in 3 different colors which are- Blue, White, and Gray.

Well, there is an 18:9 display with no notch on the front. Above the display, there is an earpiece, proximity, ambient light sensor and a selfie camera. The chin is slightly big but the bezels are slim. The audio jack, which Nokia still preserves, can be found on the top and the Micro USB charging port along with a single speaker and mic can be found at the bottom. On the left is the SIM tray while on the right, there are the Volume keys and Power key. On the back is a Dual camera unit positioned vertically and just below it is the Fingerprint scanner.

Overall, the Nokia 3.1 Plus is comfortable to use with a solid build but there is no IP certification pretty usual in budget devices.

Display

Nokia has gone for a more dated look on the 3.1 Plus with no notch. It still keeps the 18:9 stretched ration which means the you get more room for content on the display. While the look is surely classy with no notch, people have different preference. Some like the notch and some doesn’t and personally, we have no issue with the notch.

The Nokia 3.1 Plus sports a 6.0 inch IPS LCD panel which has a disappointing resolution of 1440 x 720 and a pixel density of 268 pixels-per-inch. Such low resolution while almost every budget smartphone comes with a 1080 panel makes it a matter of preference. Except the resolution, the colors are good and the viewing angles are also decent.

Also, the sunlight visibility is pretty good too but you have slide the brightness level to the Full to make the display properly visible. It’s a pretty decent display but if you look closer, the pixelation is easily visible due to the low pixel density. However, multimedia consumption is fun and immersive if you really don’t care about the low resolution.

Performance and Software

Performance on the Nokia 3.1 Plus might be the biggest down point. Under the hood, it is powered by the Octa-core MediaTek Helio P22 processor couple with PowerVR GE8320. The Octa-Core processor can reach a max frequency of 2.0 GHz but it isn’t powerful for any intense usage.

Starting with basic tasks like web browsing, scrolling through social media etc, certain hiccups can be noticed quite often which isn’t good performance indicator. Moving to the heavy games like PUBG, Asphalt 9, the games aren’t playable even in the lowest graphics settings. The frame drops heavily and the game freezes at certain times. The Nokia 3.1 Plus comes in two RAM and storage variants-

• 2GB RAM / 16 GB internal
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• 3GB RAM / 32 GB Internal
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Apart from that, you can throw in a MicroSD card to expand the memory up to 400GB.

With the tag of Android One on the back, the Nokia 3.1 Plus shines with stock Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box. However, the weak processor takes away the responsiveness of the Oreo. The apps takes time to load and multitasking is just flat average. Occasional hiccups can be noticed when it comes to navigating through the UI.

On the good side, the device is completely bloat free with assurance of next three years of software updates. Also, it will be updated to Android Pie near the end of this year.

Camera

The camera quality on the Nokia 3.1 Plus is just Okay. One the back, the Dual-camera unit houses a 13 Megapixel f/2.0 sensor and a 5 Megapixel f/2.4 Depth sensor. Upfront, there is an 8 Megapixel selfie cam with f/2.2 aperture. The camera app comes with all the basic features like HDR, panorama etc but there are some advanced options too like Portrait mode, Slow-mo, Time lapse and Pro mode. However, the pro-mode allows you to only control White balance, exposure and focus.

With that being said, the images captured on the Nokia 3.1 Plus aren’t super detailed. The colors are decent but the camera lows away the bright areas in the scene almost every time. There is a lag when you press the capture button and the time when the image is actually clicked which is kinda annoying. Portrait shots aren’t great either with average edge detection, but, you get the option to adjust the blur level which is impressive.

Night time shots are blurry and contains high amount of noise with one of the main reason being the lack of OIS. The front camera also does a respectable job and nothing impressive. Video quality is pretty impressive too but the lack of OIS can be felt while video recording. The rear an can record 1080p videos @ 30fps while the front cam can record 720p videos at 30fps.

Battery Life and Features

The battery life on the Nokia 3.1 Plus is surprisingly solid. It houses a 3500 mAh battery which provides a Full day of battery backup easily with moderate to heavy usage. However, if you are a basic user who doesn’t play games (low-end games as heavy games won’t work), you can squeeze around 1.5 days of battery life easily. Hence, for a moderate user, the battery life evaluates to around 6 hours which is pretty impressive. These results are based on our battery so the results can be different. It uses a standard 5W/2A charger which top-ups the device from 0% to 100% in around 2 hours and 15 minutes. However, Nokia is still using the classic Micro USB port instead of the modern Type-C.

Nokia 3.1 Plus supports Dual SIM and Dual Standby functionality. It also supports expandable storage through a MicroSD card. Other connectivity feature on the device includes WiFi, Bluetooth, and AGPS. The list of sensors on the Nokia 3.1 Plus includes Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, and compass. While like other budget devices, it lacks NFC and IR blaster.

The rear-mounted Fingerprint scanner is quick and reliable too. However, it is surely not the fastest one around. Also, there is no Facial recognition feature on the device so if you really want it, you can use the “Trusted faces” lock option found in the Smart Lock section.

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