nokia 7 plus android,Nokia 7 Plus initial impressions: Ticking all the right boxes

Design is another area where the Nokia 7 Plus stands out. The phone is constructed out of series 6000 aluminum, and the six-layer ceramic coating at the back gives it a delightful matte texture. It feels great to hold in-hand, and the copper accents around the fingerprint sensor, camera module, and the Nokia logo at the back contrast the black color scheme very well.

The bezels up front are akin to what you'd find on the Pixel 2 XL, and although the device is on the larger side, the grippy back makes it comfortable to hold. I've been using the phone for just over a day now, and I like the overall design and the in-hand feel.

This is Nokia's industrial design at its best.

The mid-frame is also finished with a lustrous copper hue, and it adds a nice visual flair to the device. This is classic Nokia industrial design, and my wife says it's the right amount of bling for a phone. And being a Nokia-branded phone, you can be assured that it's built like a tank — the phone has the right amount of heft, and the overall build quality is top-notch.

The Nokia 7 Plus has a lot to offer on the hardware front as well — it is the first phone to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset in India. The chipset launched last year, and the OPPO R11 was the first phone to be powered by it. Xiaomi's Mi Note 3 also had the same chipset, as did Vivo's X20. All of these devices were limited to the Chinese market, so it's great to see a phone powered by the Snapdragon 660 make its way to India.

As for why the Snapdragon 660 is a big deal, it is the first chipset to feature Qualcomm's Kryo cores in the mid-range category. The chipset features eight semi-custom Kryo 260 cores split into two clusters — four cores clocked at 2.2GHz that are designed to handle performance-intensive tasks, and four energy-efficient cores clocked at 1.8GHz.

The Snapdragon 660 in the Nokia 7 Plus is a performance monster.

Essentially, you're getting performance that's equivalent to the Snapdragon 821, but in the mid-range segment. As for the rest of the specs, the Nokia 7 Plus comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC 5.1 internal storage, a microSD slot that can accommodate 256GB SD cards, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.0, LTE Cat 6 modem, and three microphones.

Another highlight of the Nokia 7 Plus is the dual camera at the back — a 12MP primary camera with f/1.75 lens, 1.4 micron pixels and Dual Pixel autofocus, and a secondary 13MP shooter with f/2.6 lens and 1 micron pixels that offers 2x lossless zoom. Both cameras feature Zeiss optics, and Nokia is bringing back the pro mode, a mainstay on its phones during the Lumia days.

I haven't had a chance to test out the camera extensively yet, but here's a preview of what you can expect from the Nokia 7 Plus on this front: