I couldn’t smuggle many sample photos out of my briefing, but I can’t not share this anecdote: While there with a few other reviewers, I snapped a quick photo of a good friend just to see what the camera was capable of. Upon reviewing the results, we found the 7.2 had rendered his well-lit face with such clarity that it was almost sort of a buzzkill. “When did we get old?,” he asked me. I don’t know, buddy. I just don’t know.
The biggest lesson HMD seemed to learn from the Nokia 9 PureView was about the value of good software. It’s non-negotiable. Thankfully, the handful of additional camera software tricks here seem pretty helpful. HMD says it partnered with Zeiss to recreate the signature bokeh characteristics of some old-timey lenses to give portraits an extra dose of photo-nerd flair. And while I haven’t tried it yet — our meeting was in the middle of the afternoon — the 7.2’s Night Mode is meant to combine up to 20 frames in low light into a single, improved Night shot.
The rest of the 7.2 is no slouch either: There’s a Snapdragon 660 inside, along with 4GB of RAM, which is more than enough to make the clean, Android One-certified version of Android Pie fly. The phone also packs 128GB of internal storage (which you can augment with microSD cards as large as 512GB), and a 3,500mAh battery. I half-wish HMD ran with a bigger battery here, but considering the price tag and the features involved, I guess they had to save money somewhere.
Thankfully, HMD did a fine job crafting a body to fit around these components. There frame here is made of polycarbonate sandwiched between panes of Gorilla Glass, and the phone’s back features a sort of satin-y, light-diffusing finish that gives the whole package a more premium look than you’d expect from a phone that costs this much. Oh, and word to the wise: If you’re even considering buying this phone (which you probably should), strongly consider the cyan green color way. It’s reminiscent of the Ocean Depths Essential phone from a few years back, and it’s just stunning. I doubt my photos are doing it any justice.
If for whatever reason the 7.2 is a bit too much phone for you, Nokia has crafted a backup plan of sorts. This year’s Nokia 6.2 essentially recycles the 7.2’s screen and body (albeit with some less swanky materials) but uses a 16-megapixel sensor as the centerpiece of its triple camera system. The Snapdragon 636 inside didn’t run noticeably slower than the slightly improved chipset in the 7.2, thankfully, and the rest of the spec sheet is largely the same. That’s not bad when you consider that the Nokia 6.2 is expected to sell for about €210 ($230), but after playing with the 7.2 for just a bit, it definitely seems worth the splurge for the camera alone.
Catch up on all the latest news from IFA 2019 here!
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