Nokia 3.1 Plus first impressions: Budget phone with large display sans the notch

Nokia 3.1 Plus is HMD Global's latest offering in the budget smartphone segment. Nokia 3.1 Plus is priced at ₹11,499 and will go on sale starting from October 19.

Nokia 3.1 Plus stands out with its large 6-inch display up front. Nokia 3.1 Plus doesn't have a notch nor a glass body like the recently launched Nokia smartphones. It is still good looking featuring an aluminium body topped with a matte finish. You'll get the Nokia 3.1 Plus in three colour options of blue, white and Baltic.

As far as the large screen goes, a lot of people love bigger display for better multimedia experience. Take Xiaomi's Mi Max series for example. Also, HMD Global says Nokia 3.1 Plus is aimed at offering people an immersive video experience, especially for streaming buffs.

Note that the phone has a large screen but just HD+ resolution. During my brief usage, the smartphone's HD+ display looked pretty good indoors and outdoors as well. There's a 2.5D curved glass on top. Streaming videos on this phone should be a good experience, but more on that in our detailed review.

Under the hood Nokia 3.1 Plus is powered by a MediaTek Helio P22 processor paired with 2GB and 3GB of RAM. The smartphone's real capability will be tested out in our detailed review. However the smartphone's response was slightly slow during my usage. Navigating across the phone was slow, and apps took good time to launch. This occurred even without downloading any additional apps.

HMD Global does promise a long battery life on the Nokia 3.1 Plus. The smartphone packs a 3,500mAh battery claimed to last for two days. There's no compromise on the software experience as Nokia 3.1 Plus runs on Google's Android One platform. Here, you get stock Android Oreo along with assurance of regular security and OS updates.

For photography, Nokia 3.1 Plus sports a dual-camera setup of 13-megapixel and 5-megapixel rear cameras. Up front there's an 8-megapixel selfie camera. There's no 'bothie' camera feature or ZEISS lens on the Nokia 3.1 Plus. HMD Global has instead added live bokeh on the smartphone's cameras. This feature lets users adjust the background blur effect before capturing a photo.

Nokia 3.1 Plus sits in the popular budget price segment which is already dominated by Xiaomi smartphones like the Redmi 6 Pro and Redmi Note 5. The recently launched Realme 2 is also a strong challenger to Nokia 3.1 Plus. Stay tuned for our full review of the Nokia 3.1 Plus on in-depth insight on performance, camera and more.