First Impressions: Nokia PureBook Pro

The Nokia PureBook Pro 17 is one of the most affordable 17-inch Windows laptops that you’ll likely find. And while it isn’t boasting the most impressive specs, it seems like it could be a good educational laptop for the price – although the hefty weight means you probably won’t want to take it outs on the go.

Introduction

The Nokia PureBook Pro 17 is not the most impressive laptop in terms of specs, but for the price point is a perfectly serviceable device that should see you through your work or school day.

The Nokia PureBook Pro 17 was announced alongside the Nokia PureBook Pro 15, with both packing the i3 variation of the latest 12th-gen Intel Core chips. Both laptops have also been manufactured by French company Off Global, and are using Nokia licensing.

At MWC 2022 I was able to get to test out the PureBook Pro 17, so this article will cover my first impressions of the device. This will not be a full review seeing as I wasn’t able to fully test out the laptop’s performance or battery, though we will be covering the overall design and the specs.

Pricing

The Nokia PureBook Pro 17 is being priced at €799, with the PureBook Pro 15 coming in at €699. Off Global has said more configurations could be revealed later in the year (including one with an i5 processor) but right now we’ve only got the details for the base models.

The upoming laptop will apparently launch in Western Europe (including UK), Morocco, Tunisia, Canada and Thailand in the second quarter of 2022.

We will be sure to update this article when the UK and US pricing becomes available, as well as the release dates.

Design and keyboard

• Unresponsive trackpad
• Quite heavy
• Feels very sturdy

The Nokia PureBook Pro 17 comes in at 2.5kg; I wasn’t able to comfortably lift it with one hand, and combined with the large surface area I don’t think I would be willing to use this as an on-the-go laptop. That’s a shame, since many people are currently hybrid working and need a device that can be transported.

However, the heft does make this device feel remarkably sturdy. When typing on the keyboard and holding the laptop, it felt like it would be able to take a couple of knocks and bumps without suffering any damage, which might be best for younger children or a busy house where things are likely to get knocked over.

The design is pretty basic, which I thought worked fine considering the price. It did still look professional, with the lid looking smarter than the inside chassis, but the chunky design doesn’t look as attractive as other large laptops, like the Huawei MateBook 16.

The lack of a Thunderbolt connectivity is also a little disappointing, limiting the speed of its physical ports. But again for the price point, it’s not too surprising.

Looking at the keyboard, I really liked the responsiveness of the keys and the large surface area gave you a lot of room to work with.

I can’t say the same for the trackpad though, as it felt like I had to really drag my finger across to get the mouse to move, with the small amount of oil on my fingers really disrupting the process. It reminded me of trackpads on laptops I had as a child, and I can’t say that I would be keen to do a whole day of work with it.

Screen

• 17.2-inch screen size
• Sharp 1920×1080 display resolution
• Also comes in a smaller variation

There were two Nokia PureBook Pro laptops at MWC, but I was told that the 15-inch PureBook Pro 15 on display was not what the final product would look like, so I am only going to be covering the larger model.

Despite the weight of the laptop, the large screen is definitely a plus and would work well for anyone needing multiple tabs or applications open at once. The more I used it the more I thought that it would be a good educational laptop, as the screen overall was perfectly serviceable, but not outstanding.

The IPS display has a standard resolution of 1920×1080 and a refresh rate of 60Hz. I wasn’t able to watch a full movie, so I can’t comment on the quality in that sense, but browsing the web and watching YouTube clips looked fine, if just a little underwhelming.

Colours were definitely vibrant and the YouTube clips I watched looked good, but I don’t think it would do a feature film justice, with Nokia also claiming that the brightness clocks out at 250nits which is below the average for modern laptops.

However, browsing the web was where this laptop shined most, as I could easily view multiple tabs at once without anything feeling too close together. If you could get used to the trackpad, I feel that this would be a good mid-range productivity laptop, especially for people that aren’t as bothered about having the high-end screen specs.

Performance and battery

• Packs a 12th-generation i3 Intel processor
• Limited to Intel UHD graphics
• Only one configuration avaiable

Since this is a Hands on, I can’t comment on the performance of the Nokia PureBook Pro 17, but I can go through the specs.

This base model of the laptop features an Intel i3-1220P processor with 8GB RAM and 512GB of storage. A Micro SD slot included if you wanted more storage, alongside an integrated Intel UHD GPU.

Considering the price, these are decent specs, however, that i3 Intel Core processor is going to be limited to a basic tasks such as web browsing, streaming video and running apps such as Spotify and Netflix. Don’t even think about gaming or video-editing on this portable.

Nokia will be launching the PureBook Pro 17 with an i5 processor eventually, providing people the option of a faster productivity performance. But it will be interesting how such a configuration will be priced, as you can get far nicer laptop designs closer to the £1000 mark.

Nokia has also made no claims about the battery life of the PureBook Pro 17, just that it comes with a power capacity of 63Wh. We’re not expecting a great battery life here, with this laptop clearly intended as a desktop replacement at home.