Video: First international impressions of the Nokia X71
The new Nokia X71 was launched in China and Taiwan this month. A very interesting device that comes with a punch-hole screen, 48MP main camera, an ultra wide-angle camera, an LED indicator integrated with the power button, and also has a 3.5mm headphone jack. While we covered the first review of the X71 from Taiwan, now we find some videos in English going hands on with the X71.
Most of the videos, that follow down below, are hands-on videos and first impressions. It’s not a complete review, but we get to see how the device fits in hand and other tidbits about the phone. They follow down below.
The problematic stuff about the X71, what I managed to grab from the videos, is the main loudspeaker which seems to be bad on max volume, which is disappointing. There are also some smaller UI things like the battery icon almost touching the edge of the screen, which makes it not pleasant to the eyes. Lim Reviews also mentioned that the phone tends to get hot, so hopefully HMD Global will spot those issues early and fix them for the international version (if one will arrive).
The great thing is definitely the design and it’s nice to see HMD continuing with the central camera placement, with the notification LED in the power button being a nice additional feature that differentiates the device from competitors. Screen was also complimented (with a bit of ghosting spotted by Frankie tech around the punch-hole and lower bezel) and the performance overall seems solid. It’s hard to give any conclusions regarding the camera from YouTube videos (without comparison shots), but we can say that the camera is versatile with the 48MP (Sony sensor) main camera, 8MP ultra wide-angle camera and the 5MP depth sensor.
At around 300 euros, Nokia X71 packs Snapdragon 660 as the SoC, which many see as the biggest drawback of the device and it surely is when you compare the phone to cheaper phones with Snapdragon 710 or similar. Nokia X71 does have other features that might compensate for the “weaker” SoC, if performance-to-price ratio isn’t the only/primary thing that interests you.
I hope HMD will soon bring the X71 outside China, while they are still one of the few manufacturers with a punch-hole display and other interesting features, or in other words, before it gets “outdated” on all fronts. It’s also a matter of time before some other phone appears with the “LED power button” and seeing how slow HMD is in bringing the X71, 3.2 and 4.2 to the market, other vendors could easily capitalize on HMD’s “innovation”. Considering the back is glass, throwing wireless charging to the mix would make the X71 even more attractive.
