Nokia 8.1: Battery Life and Camera Anything Else I Should Know?

Nokia 8.1: Battery Life and Camera Anything Else I Should Know?

Battery Life

• A 3,500mAh battery packed inside
• OK performance, but isn't getting to last you quite each day
• If you’re after a mid-range phone with reliable battery life, the Nokia 8.1 will suit you. We haven’t got particularly excited about the battery life the Nokia 8.1 offers, but it’s reasonable enough.

You’ll get a solid day from one charge of its 3,500mAh battery, but it won’t be capable of doing far more. The battery is way improved once you use the built-in automatic brightness also, as that way the screen won’t get on full brightness in the least times.

We used the handset for each day at full brightness and located the battery to die out around 10PM approximately. That’s okay considering we were powering that screen to its absolute limit.

With automatic brightness on, the phone lasted up until midnight with a leftover 10% within the tank. With more limited usage you'll get two days charge out of the phone, but it isn’t getting to last any longer than that.

We played a 90 minute video on the complete with brightness up at 100%, and therefore the battery went from fully charged to 80%. That's not atrocious, but it isn't great either considering the similarly priced Honor 10 dropped to 84% within the same test or that we weren't impressed by that either.

To recharge the Nokia 8.1, you’ll just be using the USB-C slot at rock bottom of the phone. It doesn’t accompany wireless charging built-in, which may be a little bit of a shame considering there’s a glass design.

Instead it opts for fast-changing technology, which is far more useful. Meaning you ought to be ready to pump your phone up from zero all the thanks to full during a matter of a few of hours instead of having to attend overnight for it.

Camera

• Not as powerful as a flagship camera, but good performance
• Focus isn't incredible, but high resolution dual sensor rear camera
• Selfie shooter is top notch with a 20MP sensor

The camera on the Nokia 8.1 is suitable for a mid-range phone, but don’t expect top-end photo taking performance from this handset.

It are often quite slow, which suggests you'll run the danger of missing the odd photo of moving objects. We frequently found moving objects like animals were a touch too fast for the autofocus on the camera, leading to blur.

On paper, the camera on the rear of the Nokia 8.1 doesn’t sound faraway the Nokia 8’s flagship shooter. It’s a dual-sensor shooter with the most one being a 12MP f/1.8, while the second sensor (for depth sensing capabilities) may be a 13MP one.

On auto mode, you’ll often get some good shots in high resolution. Low light is where the camera begins to struggle that bit more though and that we found it really struggled in the dark to require an honest shot.

In terms of video, you'll record 720p, Full HD and UHD 4K video. That last one is essentially useless if you're playing to observe it back on the Nokia 8.1 because it's only a Full HD display, but we found the standard of all video on the phone to be ok for what you'll expect.

Like when shooting pictures, the camera isn't getting to be stun you but it's ok to require the odd little bit of video you'll upload to social media.

The selfie camera features a 20MP sensor, and that’s beneficial for video calling or if you would like to require shots of your face for social media tons. It’s only f/2.0, but the top-end selfie shooter that you simply don’t get on all phones are going to be a highlight for a few.

We found the shots it takes to be clear and good, but again it won’t be ready to blow you away with its performance.

The company’s bothie feature is additionally back, but this point it’s just mentioned within the software as ‘dual’, which we assume refers to the twin cameras. That’s where you'll take an attempt at an equivalent time on both the front and rear cameras.

This is a feature you'll only get on Nokia handsets in 2019, but unless you’re regularly streaming video from your phone we struggle to consider many use cases for this sort of camera format.

Software

• Running the newest Android 9 Pie software right out of the box
• Part of the Android One program that guarantees future updates
• Software is straightforward to use and lacks any bloatware

HMD Global may be a a part of the Android One program, which suggests if you get the software from Nokia it'll be within the closest state to what Google intended, aside from if you were to shop for a Google Pixel phone.

We liked the software on the Nokia 8.1, and it’s running Android 9 Pie straight out of the box. Meaning you’ve got all the newest features – including Digital Wellbeing monitoring tech – directly.

You’re also bound to get timely software updates from the corporate for subsequent two years and security upgrades for a minimum of three years. HMD Global may plan to support software for the handset for even longer, but that’s up to the corporate.

The software is straightforward to use, and albeit you haven’t used an Android phone before you ought to find this relatively intuitive compared to another companies, many of which use heavy overlays..

There aren’t any extra Nokia-added features here, but Digital Wellbeing may be a useful addition you don’t get on many other phones at the instant. It allows you to ascertain what proportion you’re using your phone also as providing a breakdown of the info, like what apps you’ve been using and for a way long.

You can then set limits for yourself so you stop using Facebook such a lot or keep checking your phone at various times of the day. It’s a stimulating idea, and if you would like to stay an eye fixed on what proportion you’ve been using your device throughout each day this is often the simplest thanks to do this .

Music, Movies and Gaming

• Bluetooth headphones and wired headsets are supported here
• Only one storage variant, but it's enough at 64GB
• Gaming performance isn't getting to blow you away

The only version of the Nokia 8.1 you’ll likely be ready to buy features 64GB of storage. There’s a 128GB version of the phone out there within the world, but it seems to mostly be reserved for those in China.

That may mean you struggle for space, especially given 13GB of that's haunted with the system software. But considering the handset comes with support for 400GB microSD cards you’ll likely be okay within the end of the day.

We didn’t manage to fill that 64GB with apps and media, so you ought to be okay to a minimum of for starting out, but you'll want to seem at a microSD card if you’re getting to store tons on your phone.

If you’re after a powerhouse media player though which will store many films and music you almost certainly won’t choose this handset.

Listening to music is a pleasant experience, with Bluetooth headphones supported – with a solid connection throughout our testing – also as a 3.5mm headphone jack at the highest of the handset that permits you to use wired headsets.

That’s almost a rarity now and positively isn’t something you’ll get on every phone, so you ought to appreciate the three .5mm headphone jack if you purchase this device. There isn’t much that creates the Nokia 8.1 stand call at the department of music aside from that though.

As for watching video, we liked the display enough but it isn’t incredible. If you’re not using headphones, you’ll find it a struggle to carry the Nokia 8.1 and still be ready to hear the speaker. It’s a singular speaker at rock bottom of the phone, and annoyingly it’s right where our hands were placed when watching video on the phone.

It’s something you’ll get wont to after a short time, but it’s not the foremost intuitive placement we’ve seen.

Games on the Nokia 8.1 perform okay, but the performance here isn’t getting to blow you away. Everything we tried to play on the phone was ok, but it didn’t offer fantastic performance such as you may expect on top-end handsets.

If you’re happy to attend for a few slightly slower load times you shouldn’t run away scared from the Nokia 8.1.

Performance

• Features a tried and tested Snapdragon 710 chipset with 4GB of RAM
• Apps load quickly and speedily
• Won't offer flagship performance, but it's ok for many

This doesn’t feature a top-end chipset, but it does feature one among subsequent best things. It’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 chipset which we’ve seen during a sort of other mid-range phones, and it works well considering the worth of this phone.

You’ll likely only be ready to buy a 4GB variant of this phone, but there's a 6GB version that’s available in some markets including China. We used the 4GB one, and in day to day usage we found the phone to be powerful enough to try to everything we would have liked.

Gaming was ok on the handset, and apps opened speedily with none lag or delay. That’s an enormous bonus of the Nokia 8.1, and while it's going to not offer top-end speed just like the Samsung Galaxy S9 or Huawei Mate 20 Pro you’ll be impressed by what it can do.

In terms of benchmarking, we found the phone to possess a mean score of 5,864 on Geekbench 4. That’s not the simplest score we’ve ever seen, but neither is it the worst. Basically, if you’re happy to attend a couple of extra seconds throughout your day for things to figure on your device you’re not getting to get annoyed with the Nokia 8.1.