The phone maker Nokia has shown itself to be resilient and withstanding the squalls of time. The name refuses to back down, taking challenges head-on. Under HMD Global, the Nokia phones turning up are many steps above any of their previous releases.
At 10K, the Nokia 3.1 Plus manages to leave a high impression. The 6-inch screen sports a 720x1440, which provides decent details and bright colors. We should remind you that this isn’t a phone with a screen that can melt your eyes with its colors and brightness, but at this price point, the Nokia 3.1 Plus has an excellent screen. We also enjoy the really slim bezels, which brings out the immersion while binge-watching shows.
It’s powered with a Mediatek octa-core processor and backed up with 3GB of RAM. It’s no flagship powerhouse like the Nokia 7.1 Plus or the Nokia 8, but these are nice stats for an entry-level phone.
We checked the device with some of the popular gaming apps like Mobile Legends and Arena of Valor and these two games ran smoothly without trouble. Others, such as PUBG Mobile, you’ll still be able to play without too much concern. But overall, our gaming impression with the 3.1 Plus is good.
The 3500mAh battery is one of the higher qualities of the Nokia 3.1 Plus. That’s more power than your average smartphone. With the coupled screen and processor, the 3.1 Plus managed to keep up throughout the day and the next. For added context, our test involved normal usage – which consisted of SMSs every now and then, social media which totaled to over two hours, and two episodes of Kingdom from Netflix.
The rear 13MP camera is decent. The picture quality you’ll be getting is something you’d be proud to share on any social media platform. Camera features like slow motion and Live Bokeh are included, so there’s room to get creative with your shots. The front-facing 8MP camera is good enough to give you some sweet-looking selfies, and in case you’re not satisfied for whatever reason, there are a ton of photo editing apps that can be downloaded in the Play Store.
As for the OS, you kick off with Android Oreo, which you can upgrade to Android 9 Pie later, as the Nokia 3.1 Plus is part of the Android One platform. Basically, this means you get the vanilla Android experience, which is clean to look at. Plus, there’s no bloatware at sight, which takes away the time to delete all those excess apps.
Biometrics is not absent from the Nokia 3.1 Plus. At the rear is a fingerprint sensor and don’t let the entry-level standing fool you, because we’re quite impressed with the speed and accuracy of the phone when scanning our prints.
Bottom line is this: If you’re looking to switch phones at a reasonable price, there’s really no reason for you not to pick up the Nokia 3.1 Plus. Style-wise, it looks incredible. Yes, yes, we’re aware it’s a tiny slab like any other smartphone out there, but if you look closely there are some small details indicating that this is a Nokia phone and that the name is here to stay.