Since phones became smart, people have been buying ‘dumb phones’ to take a digital holiday from the super-connected online world. More and more, the tranquil, low-tech world of the ‘dumb phone’ seems like a lovely getaway, especially if you’ve spent far too long in the social metropolis of a smartphone.

‘Dumb phones’ – which were previously known as ‘feature phones’ until Gen Z rediscovered (and renamed) them – are essentially low-tech mobile devices that resemble the earliest portable mini-phones (think the Nokia 3310, Sony Ericsson W58oi and LG Chocolate). In recent years, they've been reimagined as digital detox tools, and industry stalwart Nokia recently jumped on the dumb phone trend by releasing a modern-day Nokia 3210.

The 3210 costs £74.99 in the UK (it’s not on sale in the US), and is based on the feature phone of the same name that Nokia released way back in 1999. It brings a few new features to the table – namely a camera, Bluetooth connectivity, 4G connectivity and, weirdly, a YouTube Shorts-compatible news app – but this updated 3210 is still a far cry from today's best phones.

In order to see whether there really is still appeal in the dumb phone – or feature phone, as I’m going to call it from now on, because ‘dumb phone’ is a dumb name – I decided to try out the Nokia 310 for myself. Not just try it, mind, but completely abandon my smartphone for a week in order to put the Nokia 310 through its paces; I didn’t just talk the talk, I walked the walk! 

Below, then, I've highlighted five things I found myself really enjoying about this Nokia dumb phone, as well as five things I missed about my regular smartphone.

By way of a disclaimer, this isn’t my first digital detox, though it is my first optional one. In the fall of 2023, I went on a 10-day wilderness hiking trip, and knowing that I'd be miles from the nearest socket, I bought a fourth-gen Nokia 105 so I could still check in and let everyone know I was still safe. 

However, that was a very low-tech mobile, even by feature phone standards (for context: it’s a third of the price of the 3210) and I was using it out of necessity, not choice. All this is to say that I have experience in the feature phone world, but using the Nokia 3210 was my most involved testing with this kind of mobile since I owned one back in the olden days.

What I loved

I barely needed to charge

Hi, my name’s Tom and I’m a charge-aholic. I always need my phone to be as close to 100% as possible before I leave the house or office, as though it’ll somehow run down to 0% over the course of my trip to the shops, leaving me unable to pay for my cheese. Yeah, my smartphone gives me a lot of battery anxiety.

This is a fairly new problem for smartphones, as feature phones would last ages without needing to be plugged in, and when returning to the Nokia 3210 I was overjoyed to be saved from my battery anxiety.

I could use the phone for whatever I wanted and it’d end the day with only a few fewer pixels on the battery bar – I only had to charge it once during the week. That's in stark contrast to almost all modern smartphones, which require charging daily.

I had some futuristic features

As I’ve already mentioned, the Nokia 3210 isn’t my first feature phone, but it brings one big upgrade over my Nokia 105 fourth-gen model that I really appreciated – it’s much more futureproof.

The phone charges using a USB-C cable, which is the standard in this day and age, however feature phones have dragged their heels in upgrading from microSD for a while now. The brick phone I bought a year ago had that.

A USB-C port means I can use one charger for everything: headphones, e-reader, laptop or tablet, headphones and some smartwatches too, without needing to carry a separate one for the Nokia. When transferring photos from the phone (more on that later) I could easily plug it into my computer with the same cable I use for my smartphone and tablet.

In adding a USB-C port to the phone, Nokia has made its 3210 ready for the future, and I appreciated every second saved with its fast charging.

I got to play Snake

When listing my favorite things about using the Nokia 3210, Snake was the first by a country mile; I only moved it to number three to seem a bit more professional.

Snake is such a classic feature phone game and one of the few things I remember about owning a feature phone when I was younger. It’s so simple but so perfect, easy to get a grip on but hard to master. Playing it on a big bulky smartphone just isn't the same

For a week, Snake took over my life. In down time with my smartphone, I’ll look at various things: the news, social media, casual games, dating apps, puzzle apps and so on. However, every time I picked up the Nokia, I’d open one app and one app only: Snake. I got pretty good at it too!

I wasn't drowning in messaging apps

The best and worst part of using a feature phone is that they’re just not great at keeping you in touch with the rest of the world; a lack of WhatsApp or iMessage means you’re not going to be looped in on texts and messages from your friends.

For some people, that’s the whole point of a a feature phone, and for others that’s the whole reason they’re staying away. But if there’s one thing I definitely didn't miss, it's checking my phone to see random messages from all sorts of people over a smorgasbord of messaging apps.

I basically use WhatsApp for every form of communication, but given that every app these days has some kind of built-in communication tool, I’m often overwhelmed by random unwanted messages on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, any form of email, Strava, the list goes on. None of that on the Nokia, though.

No – to reach me on the Nokia 3210, you need to know to text me, and it meant I could keep the ‘invite list’ to my phone very small indeed. No more random spam messages through the day; I could be the hermit I wanted to be.

I got to enjoy an old-school cool camera

Polaroids are really 'cool' these days – not just with hipsters any more, but with people who are verging on being normal. There’s an appeal of the ‘old-school cool’, of photos that show the metaphorical creases and wrinkles of the technology used to capture them. Photos taken on a feature phone don’t exactly fall under ‘old-school’ or even ‘cool’, but they definitely have a kind of low-fi charm to them.

The photos I took using the Nokia 3210’s 2MP camera don’t look great. The dynamic range is awful, the slightest bit of light totally blows them out, and everything looks so blurry and grainy – these resemble snaps you’d find in the journal of an adventurer who's vanished in the jungle, not something taken on a device released in 2024.

But that’s what I like about them – they’re artistic, and open to interpretation. JMW Turner isn’t my favorite painter because his paintings are easy to make out, but because their expressionist grubbiness leaves something open to interpretation. And it’s the same with this Nokia (anyone who even vaguely likes art is already hating this comparison, I bet).

You don’t get that on smartphones. With high-resolution cameras, AI tools to tweak photos, and software designed to find that ‘perfect shot’ as dictated by boring algorithms, smartphone pictures can look clean… but also totally vapid too.

No, I think I’ll stick to my feature phone selfies, which make me look like a noir detective with half of my face shrouded in darkness, or my impressionist landscapes where nothing is clear, over the boring plainness of a smartphone camera.

What I missed

Googling answers to stupid questions

I was surprised about the thing I missed most about having a smartphone. Surprised, and a little worried about what it says about me...

The best and worst thing about the digital era is that it’s easy to Google the answers to things you can’t remember when out and about. I don’t mean important things: ‘which rail lines are closed today?’ (I live in London, the answer’s usually ‘all of them’) or  ‘when’s the next bus?’ (you just missed it), but stupid things that you usually discuss or can’t remember after a few drinks at the pub.

Many of these things stem from disagreements between two impassioned people who are certain they’re right (I'm one of them).

But when using the Nokia I couldn’t simply Google whether the Netherlands and France have the same flag (color-wise they do, but the former has horizontal stripes and the latter vertical), or whether it was Donald or Kiefer Sutherland who had tragically passed away that day (the former) or whether pink food coloring in food is made out of ground-up insects (it is).

I was obviously right in 100% of these cases and more, but I couldn’t prove it because I only had a feature phone. And my friends refused to use their phones to fact check because they knew deep down that they were wrong.

And yes, there is an internet app, but you're about to find out why I never fell down an internet rabbit hole using it...

Being able to type at a reasonable speed

For all that we’ve lost in our super-connected futuristic modern world, one thing we’ve gained is all the time we previously spent trying to text people.

It’s not something I remember from when I was young, but old phone keypads, which require multiple button-presses per letter, take ages to use. You wear out your thumbs hammering out letter after letter, on keyboards that Victorian orphans would consider antiquated.

It's an issue I found on my previous digital detox, and I nearly gave up texting people to let them know I was alive and well on the Nokia 105 (shown below) because it took so long!

Bear in mind that you need to physically depress the button, not just press on a screen where the letter icon shows. Such effort!

When I returned to using my smartphone, I wanted to weep tears of joy for how easy, quick and painless it was to use the on-screen QWERTY touch keyboard. I also noticed that my texts became a lot longer, since it was easy to type responses to friends – I stopped being the blunt and to-the-point messager that I was with the feature phone.

Listening to music on the go

It was pretty easy to forgo many of the entertainment apps I have on my smartphone when I moved over to the Nokia. No matter how convenient they are, I didn’t really miss being able to use Netflix to watch TV shows on the go or the New York Times app to play little puzzles between sets at the gym.

What I did miss though, is Spotify. Anyone who’s seen my Spotify Wrapped figures will know that I listen to a disgusting amount of music each year – hundreds of hours, easily – and I typically spend a good portion of each day with tracks playing, either directly into my ears or in the background somewhere.

Not with the Nokia 3210, though – I found myself stuck in silence a lot of the time. The phone does have a radio, and you can upload songs onto it for use with the 3.5mm headphone jack, but I’m in my mid-20s, so don’t listen to the radio and don’t own digital music.

No, I listen on Spotify, and without that (or any other music streaming service) on the Nokia, I had no option but to go music-free.

Always knowing where my phone is

Of all the stupid arguments in this article, this one may be the dumbest reason to miss smartphones. 

When I’m out and about, I never lose my smartphone, and I always know where it is. It’s not as huge as some mobiles go, but it’s large enough that I can always feel which of my many pockets it’s in. Not so much for the svelte little Nokia 3210.

This slender little compact device kept disappearing about my person. I couldn’t easily sense which of my pockets it was in just by the sensation of it digging into my leg; I’d have to hunt around by patting myself down like I was preparing for a flight.

And let’s not even mention my repeated ventures losing it in my bag; I’d have to rummage and dig around in my backpack’s pockets like a spelunker trying to find treasure in the deep recesses of a mine. I came to miss my giant Xiaomi Mi Note 10, which always made itself known with its big body.

My friends

I’ll end this list in the same way schlocky TV shows end, with some unwarranted schmaltz: the thing I missed most when giving up my smartphone was my friends.

While I previously said that being hidden from a constant barrage of messages is a good thing, a point I stand by, it does also mean I missed out on group texts and well-meaning messages from people who didn’t know that I wasn’t on WhatsApp. 

These include last-minute plan arrangements, invites to events and general check-ins – all things I wish I could have seen.

Sure, I should have told more people that I was only contact-able by text, but even that wasn’t enough all of the time. In a few cases, texts mysteriously only showed up when I put my SIM card back in my smartphone – I think this has to do with them being RCS messages, but I’m not too sure.

If there was to be a perfect digital detox phone, I think it’d need a way to let you still receive WhatsApp messages, because otherwise, you still need to keep your ‘proper’ mobile around to see who’s trying to contact you.

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HMD Global, the company behind the Nokia brand, has announced three new retro-inspired feature phones based on classic designs from the early 2000s to the 2010s.

The Nokia 6310 (2024), Nokia 5310 (2024), and Nokia 230 (2024), are modern takes on handsets from 2001, 2007, and 2015 respectively, and have been upgraded with modern functionality including advanced accessibility features, Bluetooth 5.0, and USB-C charging.

The three phones were unveiled on the HMD website, which provides a full list of features and specs but doesn’t currently include pricing or release dates, although previous re-releases have usually been priced under £100 / $125 / AU$200. 

However, don’t expect to play Call of Duty Mobile or scroll Instagram on these phones. While the hardware may be new, the experience is closer to that of the original Nokia phones than the best phones. That means no app stores, limited internet functionality, and only 2G support, which won’t work on newer networks. This could be a problem for users who no longer have access to 2G networks as these are slowly being shut down in some countries.

These types of phones offer a much simpler UI, long standby battery life that’s measured in weeks rather than hours, and a design that harks back to Nokia’s older phones, which some of us grew up with. 

Nokia says the more limited features make these phones easier to use and help provide a ‘digital detox’ from things like social media. However, as you’d expect, they have a much less capable camera, no touchscreen, no access to streaming music and video apps, and few of the other features we take for granted on modern phones.

This isn’t the first time HMD has brought back classic Nokia designs. It released updated versions of the Nokia 130 and 150 released last year, and a reimagined 6310, which was released in 2021 and had a smaller battery than its 2024 counterpart and used Micro USB.

Retro specs

All three phones feature similar specs and use some of the same hardware. They have 2.8-inch QVGA IPS displays, and a removable 1,450mAh battery that provides up to 27 days of standby time. 

They run on a Unisoc 6531F chip that’s paired with 8MB of RAM and includes 16MB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card.

The main differences between the three phones are the design and a few minor hardware changes – for example, the Nokia 230 (2024) has a 2MP camera, while the other two handsets have a very basic 0.3MP rear camera. 

The new edition of the 5310 is also equipped with dedicated music playback buttons, as well as dual front-facing speakers for playing music, just like the original. All three phones feature built-in classic apps, like the game Snake, and FM radio. 

These 2024 reboots of the Nokia 6310, Nokia 5310, and Nokia 230 could be more of a nostalgia nod to the past rather than a practical phone, appealing to both retro tech enthusiasts and those who grew up with the originals.

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Hot on the heels of the G22 launch earlier in 2023, Nokia owner HMD Global has announced the Nokia G42 as the next in its series of repairable smartphones. The G42 continues Nokia’s quest to make at-home smartphone repairs simple, accessible and affordable, but the headline feature in this latest release is the inclusion of 5G connectivity (something that was missing on the G22).

Repairable and replaceable parts on the Nokia G42 include the screen, the battery and the charging port and in order to make the G42 repairable – and to provide the parts with which to repair – Nokia has continued its partnership with global repair community iFixit. 

Nokia’s intention with the G42 – and its G22 sibling – is to allow owners to keep using their phone as if it were new, long after the included warranty expires. 

Aside from its repairable credentials, the Nokia G52 arrives with a 50MP camera, which in tandem with the company’s latest imaging AI technology, aims to deliver clear and detailed pictures that comfortably compete with (or better) phones in a similar price bracket. 

It makes use of the Snapdragon 480 Plus 5G processor – one that’s used in many other affordable phones such as the Motorola Moto G53 5G – which won’t win any awards for outright speed, but crucially, it brings 5G connectivity to customers at a more accessible price point.

While the brand is under new ownership – and has even produced a new-look logo – in true Nokia fashion, the G42 claims to last up to three days on a single charge. The company even says the health of the battery will still be ticking at around 80% after 800 full charging cycles. But of course, even if the health does dwindle, you can easily buy a new one to replace it.

The G42 is available now in the UK for £199 and will arrive in Australia in “late July” for AU$449. There is currently no word on US availability. When we first saw the G22, which retails for less at £150 / AU$349, we felt it could become one of the best cheap phones of 2023, and the same suggestion can certainly be made of Nokia’s latest release. At-home Fix Kits and replacement parts start at AU$42.99 in Australia, while UK pricing is currently unavailable.

It’s available in just the one configuration of 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage, with microSD expansion up to 1TB. In addition to this, the Nokia G42 sports a 6.56-inch HD+ display with 90Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 560 nits with brightness boost. There are two colours to choose from: So Grey and So Purple. Nokia has also promised three years of monthly security updates for the G42, along with two years of OS updates.

Analysis: Is nostalgia the future?

Cast your mind back (if you're old enough) to the time when Nokia phones were all the rage. We had some wacky designs, interchangeable cases and we'd all be sending songs and ringtones to each other via Bluetooth. It was at this time that batteries were removable and could be replaced easily, should anything have gone wrong. 

I personally don't remember having any issues with any Nokia phone I owned, however, and to this day they're still remembered as being some of the toughest things on the planet. Put simply, if you wanted a phone that would last, it had to be a Nokia. 

Now under the ownership of HMD Global, the Finnish company is clearly keen to really tap back into Nokia's routes, by offering customers phones that have the potential to last much longer than we've come to expect of the current crop of smartphones. 

I'm especially pleased to see that the screen can be replaced at home by following some simple steps. Dropping your phone and cracking the screen is up there with the worst feelings one can feel, largely due to the high cost of having to replace it. With the Nokia G42, you will be able to buy a new screen for AU$89.99 (UK pricing is tbc). That's not a particularly significant amount of money, and is certainly a cost that is easier to stomach than having to spend hundreds more on a new phone. 

Not only does the offer of repairability mean the phone can lost longer, but I also think that giving the Average Joe the tools to carry out repairs themselves is pretty cool. It allows us to become more attached to our tech and understand more about what goes into their production. 

It would be great to see repairability come to more high-end devices in the future, not only because I think it would have even wider appeal, but reducing the number of smartphones we each own will surely help to reduce the amount of e-waste and then in turn, help the environment. 

At TechRadar, we pride ourselves on comparing, critiquing and testing some of the best small smartphones in the world – 5G mini-beasts with ever impressive snapper lenses, video resolutions, audio chops and ecosystem enhancements to make our collective lives that little bit easier (and hopefully more sociable) with every new iteration. 

And this phone is nothing like those. 

To some, the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio is little more than a novelty burner with free true wireless earbuds squirrelled into the back. But through slightly older eyes (read: mine) it's a beautiful and inexpensive joy, serving up not only a slice of pure nostalgia with added 4G, but also a lesson in how far we've come in two decades. 

Remember what getting your phone up and running used to be like, back in the day? Even if you weren't alive in 2000, you get that experience here. 

I relished the chance to take a fresh 1,450mAh battery from its little plastic wallet, whip the back off my new device, line up the three battery contacts, slide it into the handset, squeeze the whole thing back together again with a wish and a prayer, turn the handset back around and fire up the power button like it's 1999. It's like riding a bike… 

But now, there's new stuff to do! With the 5710 XpressAudio, you also get to slot the bundled, color-matched earbuds into the back of the phone to power them up (there's a sliding door which oddly, covers the camera lens when open) then follow on-screen prompts to pair them to the 5710 and lo – you can listen to MP3s! Or, do as I did and head straight over to the FM radio tab in the menu and listen to your chosen station's pick. 

It's an oddly futuristic retro experience – original "wireless" meets new-school wireless connectivity, but in a device whose most recent relative is the XpressMusic line of Nokia mobiles that was discontinued in 2010.

In truth, the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio feels older, despite its 4G capability. In my hand, it harks back to the Nokia 5310 launched in 2007, or even my beloved 3210, when playing a "hidden" game or composing my own ringtone was to enter a cutting-edge, expert-only realm.

Opinion: I yearn for weeks-long battery life

Yes, there's Snake Xenia onboard (still just as addictive) and yes, the earbuds fit OK – although they are basic affairs and if you're after something that sounds good and doesn't need to come with its own phone, head to our best budget wireless earbuds roundup. 

But the real reason I think people will love this dual-sim Nokia has nothing to do with the bundled earbuds, fun though they are. 

Its features are humble, and in an era of wildly expensive flagship foldable smartphones, the Nokia 5710 XpressAudio's 48MB of RAM and 128MB of internal storage (that can be extended by up to 32GB with a MicroSD card, where the little SIM slots are) presents a reassuring proposition with known, wallet-friendly boundaries – there's a cost of living crisis on, people. 

The phone comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA display and a 0.3 MP rear camera with an LED flash module, which is very little to write home about. It is powered by a Unisoc T107 processor and comes with the Nokia’s S30+ operating system. 

But here's the thing: it's 138.9 mm long, 47.7 mm thick and 16.2 mm thick and the display is nice and big. It weighs 129.1g and there's two big volume buttons on the left side, as you look at the screen – but you can, of course, lock those. 

For me, the big draw is this: Nokia claims the 5710 can "last weeks on standby". Now, this truly is Nokia of old! Imagine a phone that you could rely on for days… and days. My iPhone is all out by 5pm, and that's on a good day! I crave this kind of stamina. 

Perhaps, in these uncertain times, I'm yearning for a little piece of the past but with added 4G and earbuds – I still love my 'dumb' 2006 iPod Classic because it does fewer things than any smartphone, after all. I believe the desire for a handset that just does its dedicated job of communication well enough and little else, for a low-end fee, is growing. 

The Nokia 5710 XpressAudio will cost just $76 / £75 (around AU$129) and is already available at Nokia, but it will hit other retail outlets and online platforms on September 19. 

Will it become one of the best Nokia phones of 2022? It feels unlikely. But that doesn't mean there's no place for it. Quite the opposite in fact – and I'll beat anyone who says otherwise at Snake Xenia… 

Among the many IFA 2022 announcements, we’ve heard about five new products from HMD Global, the maker of Nokia handsets: three cheap phones, a tablet, and an intriguing subscription.

Let’s start with the phones, and specifically the Nokia X30 5G, which you can see below. This in many ways sounds like a fairly standard cheap phone, with a 6.43-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen, a 90Hz refresh rate, a max brightness of 450 nits, a Snapdragon 695 chipset, 5G support, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of storage.

It also has a 4,200mAh battery with 33W charging, a 50MP main camera plus a 13MP ultra-wide one, and runs Android 12 with the promise of three years of updates. It comes in blue and white shades, and interestingly it has an IP67 rating, which makes it more water-resistant than most cheap phones.

What’s even more interesting about the Nokia X30 5G is that, according to HMD Global, it’s the most eco-friendly phone the company has ever made, with a 100% recycled frame and camera bump, along with a 65% recycled plastic back. So if you want a new phone while minimizing your environmental impact, you could do a lot worse than this.

If you're interested, you'll be able to grab it in the UK from late September starting at £399 (around $465 / AU$675), with no word yet on availability or pricing for other regions.

Next up there’s the Nokia G60 5G, which is pictured at the top of this article. This lacks the eco-friendly credentials of the X30 5G, but it has a 6.58-inch FHD+ screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a brightness of 400 nits. It also has a Snapdragon 695 chipset, 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of storage.

The battery is 4,500mAh with 20W charging, the phone supports 5G of course, and there’s a 50MP main camera, a 5MP ultra-wide camera, and a 2MP depth sensor.

This also comes with Android 12 and three years of updates, so while there’s no mention of recycled materials, it should at least remain a viable handset for a while, which also helps the environment as you won’t have to upgrade as often.

It starts at £249 (around $290 / AU$420) and is out now in the UK, but again there isn't currently any information on availability elsewhere.

The third new phone is the Nokia C31, which looks like it should be the cheapest of the trio, starting at just 129 euros – that's roughly $130 / £110 / AU$185 but there's no information on availability for the UK, US or Australia. Not surprisingly, given that price tag, the specs are nothing to write home about: it has a 6.7-inch HD+ screen, a Unisoc 9863A1 chipset, 3GB or 4GB of RAM, 32GB, 64GB or 128GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and a trio of cameras, with a 13MP main one and two 2MP sensors.

There’s a large 5,050mAh battery though, albeit with slow 10W charging, and it has a fingerprint scanner on the back, a 3.5mm headphone port, and runs Android 12.

The Nokia T21, meanwhile is a newly announced budget tablet with some environmentally friendly credentials of its own. They're not quite as impressive as those of the Nokia X30 5G though, with the slate containing just 60% recycled plastic for the antenna cover and SIM tray.

It has a 10.4-inch 2K screen, a Unisoc T612 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. It also has an 8MP rear camera, an 8MP front-facing camera, an 8,200mAh battery with 18W charging, and runs Android 12. 

The T21 will cost you £189 (approximately $220 / AU$320) for a Wi-Fi model, or £209 (around $240 / AU$355) for a version with 4G as well, and it's hitting UK stores in October.

Analysis: eco-friendly beyond the hardware

Some of these devices are more eco-friendly than others, but HMD Global is trying to encourage people to be environmentally conscious in more than just their phone choice.

The company is doing this by trying to get buyers to hang on to their smartphones for longer, as you can see in part from the promise of three years of updates on some of these handsets.

But it doesn’t end there, as the company has also announced a subscription service called ‘Circular’, which will initially be launching in the UK and Germany, with other regions to follow.

This lets you buy some of the company's devices on subscription, with the Nokia X30 5G, at £25 (roughly $30 / AU$40) per month, and the Nokia G60 5G, at £12.50 (approximately $15 / AU$20) per month – being among the first included devices. In both cases there's also a £30 (around $35 / AU$50) setup fee.

The subscription gets you more than just the device. It also covers you against loss, theft and damage, and the longer you keep your subscription for, the more 'seeds' you'll gain, which are essentially reward points that can be used to plant trees, clean rivers, and provide connectivity to those in need.

Plus, when you eventually replace your phone or tablet through the scheme, HMD Global will ensure that your old device is reused if possible, or as fully recycled as possible.

So it looks as though the likes of the Fairphone 4 could soon have some real competition on the environmentally-friendly front.

IFA 2022 is Europe's biggest tech show, and TechRadar is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and announcements, plus our hands-on first impressions of the new TVs, wearables, audio devices and other gadgets on show.

The best Nokia phones tend to focus on providing consumers with affordable and mid-range options. Nokia doesn't release as many phones each year as some of its rivals, but it still has lots worth checking out.

We're still waiting to see if Nokia will branch out into high-end phones as there continue to be rumors about the penta-lens Nokia X50 along with the Nokia 10.

For now though, this list includes the best Nokia phones you can buy right now. This includes the likes of the ageing but consistently excellent Nokia 9 PureView as well as the newer, mid-range Nokia 8.3 5G. 

In recent times, we've seen a new number one too in the form of the Nokia XR 20 5G, plus there's room for the Nokia G50, G11 and G21 too. 

Keep reading to see where they all rank, along with an overview, pros and cons, plus links to their full review.

Don't forget to check our guides to the best phone, best Android phone, best iPhone, and best cheap phones, if nothing takes your fancy here. 

Best Nokia phones 2022

The Nokia XR20 5G is rugged yet packs in a good-looking design. It's a remarkably thin phone for a rugged design with the front offering Corning Gorilla Glass Victus for extra safety. 

Besides its military grade level of protection, it offers some reasonable power with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 chipset powering the 6.67-inch display. The display offers a resolution of 2400 x 1080 and it looks reasonably sharp. 

Elsewhere, you get a rear camera of 48MP+13MP with a front camera of 8MP for selfie-taking. The true highlight though is its use of Android One so you get a super clean interface, just how Google wants you to see it. It's the purest way of enjoying Android right now and it's perfect if you want simplicity backed up with fast 5G speeds, a hardy build, without worrying about extra features. 

Read our in-depth Nokia XR20 5G review.

The Nokia 8.3 5G offers some strong specs for the price with a large 6.81-inch display that's ideal for watching movies while on the move or playing games. With a chunky battery lfe, it'll last you all day too, even if you are enjoying that extra screen space to its fullest. 

There's a dedicated Google Assistant button that invariably gets in the way and proves annoying, but otherwise, the Nokia 8.3 5G is reasonably well designed if unremarkable looking. Similarly, while the camera setup sounds impressive on paper, the macro sensor is rather mediocre so we wouldn't recommend this one for avid photographers.

Still, the Nokia 8.3 5G is an ideal Nokia-flavored option if you're desperate to try out 5G. With its strong battery life and large display, it should keep most people happy, despite its flaws. 

Read our in-depth Nokia 8.3 5G review

The Nokia 7.2 is a solid mid-range phone, but it struggles to stand out in the sea of Nokia Android devices. That said, it has smooth performance, a premium design and good quality main cameras. 

Unfortunately the wide-angle camera is not up to scratch, which is disappointing when that can be a fun shooter to use. It is also a very slow phone to charge up and isn’t waterproof.

But the Android One version of Android 9 Pie is a godsend, with attractive stock design and a guaranteed two years of OS updates and three years of security updates, which is as good as the Google Pixel line.

Read our in-depth Nokia 7.2 review

The Nokia G50 is a cheap way of enjoying 5G while still offering you up to two days of battery life. Like with other Nokia phones, it has a a clean Android build so it's a delight to use even if it isn't the fastest of phones. A Snapdragon 480 chipset is competent but not much more.

Similarly, the 6.82-inch LCD is large and bright but offers only a functional 720p resolution with 60Hz refresh rate so it's hardly thrilling. 

Camera performance is similarly adequate with the 48MP main sensor working well with solid images quality, but the moment you step into low-light scenarios, it suffers.

At this price though, everything works well even if nothing truly excels. 

Read our in-depth Nokia G50 review

Considering it only costs £149 the Nokia 5.3 performs well with a Snapdragon 665 and Android One, the bloatware-free, clean version of Android that guarantees you two years of updates. 

The screen isn’t great though at only 720p, and you won’t want to go anywhere near high-end mobile games as the phone will likely struggle. But the cameras are surprisingly decent and the clean, simple design is a perk.

With a rear mounted fingerprint sensor, headphone jack, and decent battery life, this is by no means a bad phone, but be aware that while it handles the basics well you won’t want to push it too hard. 

Read our in-depth Nokia 5.3 review

The Nokia 9 PureView is Nokia's most recent flagship phone, even though it's years old - the company just hasn't made a newer one since. The handset comes with cutting-edge features to match. In particular, it comes with one important feature (or five depending on how you count it) in the form of its five-sensor rear camera, which is the most we've seen in a smartphone.

We found this great fun to test out - even though it's not the best camera phone in the world, it's a novel attempt to take that trophy nonetheless.

It's not exactly an expensive phone either, compared to some of the flagships you can buy today, so if you want a photographic smartphone powerhouse without taking a chunk out of your bank account, this may be the phone for you.

The Nokia 9 PureView has problems, as most phones do, and we had issues with the way it sits in the hand, as well as with its middling features outside of the camera department. But with several years of price cuts, we're sure you can look past that.

Read our in-depth Nokia 9 PureView review

The Nokia G11 is pretty slow when it comes to anything other than basic tasks but it has a surprisingly nice 6.5-inch screen with a smooth 90Hz refresh rate. That's the highlight of the show but the Nokia G11 still works well enough.

It comes with a clean install of Android 11, avoiding the risk of bloat and it simply works. Simple being the key word here, right down to its functional triple-lens setup of a 13MP wide lens, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensor.

However, if you're looking for a cheap yet effective phone that is light on bloat yet surprisingly robust in design, the Nokia G11 does the job without any fuss. 

Read our in-depth Nokia G11 review

The Nokia G21 is a good choice if battery life and low costs are essential. It's pretty slow if you expect to game on it but you do get up to three days of battery life in exchange. 

If you simply want a functional phone, the Nokia G21 does the job. It has a camera that takes passable shots in daylight albeit in a somewhat limited fashion, but HDR helps out here.

However, on the plus side, despite a somewhat dim screen, it also offers a 90Hz refresh rate and a functional design that's reliably robust and offers up a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. 

At this price, you can't expect too much but the Nokia G21 works well enough as a basic smartphone. 

Read our in-depth Nokia G21 review

• HMD Global is bringing Nokia back to its former glory

Two-minute review

It's easy to forget that for many users, a phone is just a phone rather than something that will revolutionize their life. Nokia seems to be tapping into that market, appreciating that a lot of people want reliability and superior battery life rather than speedy performance and the world's greatest camera. 

The Nokia G11 is stoically reliable. Easily providing three days of battery life without a problem, it's also a fairly tough phone that feels like it could take a few knocks without an issue.

The price you pay? Well, not a lot. The Nokia G11 is remarkably cheap at $255 in the US or £119 in the UK. In exchange, you get basic features but if you're on a tight budget, you'll appreciate that Nokia promises twice as many security updates as the competition and two years' worth of software upgrades. 

When so many budget phones miss out on these kinds of updates, that counts for a lot if you want a phone that will last. And we suspect it will last. The handy thing about the simplicity of the Nokia G11 is there’s not a lot that could go wrong. 

It comes with a clean install of Android 11. While a handful of optional apps are pre-installed, like Spotify, Netflix, and ExpressVPN, they're placed in a folder so everything is neatly kept together. It's a welcoming touch among so many Android phones with too much bloat. 

The Nokia G11's star of the show is its 6.5-inch screen, which offers a suitably smooth 90Hz refresh rate. That's where the phone starts and ends with 'ooh' worthy features, but it's a great choice for a phone focused on browsing and staying in contact.

The Nokia G11 is a bit sluggish at times with its Unisoc T606 chipset being potent enough for web browsing and not much else. And don't count on much storage. There’s just 32GB in the current model, though you can add a microSD card to increase that. 

Camera-wise, you get a triple-lens setup consisting of a 13MP wide lens, a 2MP macro one and a 2MP depth sensor. The selfie camera is an 8MP wide lens. All are functional and none stand out in the slightest. 

Functional yet unremarkable is the best way to describe the Nokia G11, but we loved the three-day-long battery life. Unlike other phones, it didn't take much to accomplish this kind of longevity, meaning this is an ideal phone in an emergency.

Just don't count on it as your fun piece of tech. This is purely for those that want the basics from a smartphone and nothing more.

Nokia G11 price and availability

• Available for $255 / £119 (around AU$345)
• Choice of two color schemes

The Nokia G11’s options are simple, as you'd expect. Available for $255 / £119 (around AU$345), there's a choice of two color schemes - Charcoal or Ice. Charcoal, a shade of gray that's close to black, is the easier color to get hold of . Ice is a blue-green color and is already out of stock in the UK. 

The standard Nokia G11 offers 32GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM and that's the one we tested. A second model offering 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM exists but isn't currently available to buy.

Design

• Plastic frame
• Dual SIM cards
• Fingerprint and Face Unlock support

The Nokia G11 is a decent size. Its dimensions of 164.6 x 75.9 x 8.5 mm are just what you would expect from the average smartphone. It weighs 189g, which means it's far from hefty. 

We had the Charcoal model for review and it's the definition of the average-looking phone. That's not to say it's ugly. The back looks quite professional. It's just that it lacks anything that makes it stand out from the crowd. A wave-style texture on the back feels nice to the touch but doesn't affect the grip in the slightest.

On the back of the phone is its three-lens camera system. The lenses don't stick out much, which is a convenient touch when seeking a robustly made phone.

On the front, the selfie camera is a notch on the top center of the screen. It's standard stuff. Again. Similarly, the volume rocker, Google Assistant and power button surround the edge, with the SIM card slot on the side too. The power button doubles up as a fingerprint sensor with Face Unlock also supported.

As is almost standard now, there's no headphone jack but there is a USB-C port.

Display

• 6.5-inch IPS display
• 720 x 1600 resolution
• 90Hz refresh rate

The star of the show for the Nokia G11 is its display. While much of the phone is standard stuff, its 6.5-inch display offers a delightful 90Hz refresh rate. 

Many phones pricier than this stick stoically to 60Hz so it's great to see it here. It makes browsing a quicker and nicer experience. 

Granted, elsewhere it's business as usual. The Nokia G11 screen looks fine in reasonable lighting but once you take it somewhere bright, it struggles until you tweak some settings.

Camera

• 13MP + 2MP + 2MP rear camera
• 8MP selfie camera
• Limited options

Taking photos with the Nokia G11 is fine but don't count on many fun options. The phone has three lenses on the back, including its main 13MP camera, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP one for depth. On the front is a 8MP selfie camera.

Snapping an image with the 13MP lens instantly shows that the Nokia G11 isn't capable of capturing much detail. Photos are a little dark at times. HDR tries its best to soup things up but often makes colors look weird and excessively vibrant.

When taking photos of flowers, detail was lost in favor of unnatural vividness. Our poor cat lost some definition too.

The macro lens is a huge disappointment and the Nokia G11 can't really handle low-light scenarios either.

It's hardly surprising at this price but it does mean that budget photographers need to steer clear of the Nokia G11.

Camera samples

Specs and performance

• Powered by Unisoc TS606
• 32GB of storage
• Slow performance

In our tests, the Nokia G11 achieved a single-core score of 312 when using Geekbench 5. It was so low that it didn't even meet the bottom of the pile's Xiaomi Redmi Note 7's 328. 

Multi-core performance was similarly weak at just 1,135 and a compute score of only 516.

In everyday use, the Nokia G11 doesn't feel quite as hideously slow but there is still a slight pause when you open up Chrome or another basic app. 

On the plus side, simply unlocking your phone is speedy enough, helped by the Nokia G11 offering a fairly pure Android 11 experience. 

This will never be a gaming device or one to be wowed by but it does the job.

Battery life

• 5,050mAh battery
• 18W charging
• Long battery life

Besides the screen, the Nokia G11's other highlight is its battery life. Nokia promises about three days of battery life and it easily delivers that. We're guessing that's because it's fairly slow but it's nice to have a device that doesn't need regular recharging.

When you do need to recharge it, 18W charging support helps out well enough with a full charge taking a couple of hours. 

Unsurprisingly, there's no wireless charging support.

Should you buy the Nokia G11?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

First reviewed: April 2022

Two-minute review

The Nokia G21 is an affordable 4G Android phone, the kind that may make a lot of sense if you want to buy SIM-free, putting an end to the days of paying big mobile bills each month. 

We’re always game for this kind of Android, but the Nokia G21 isn’t one of the best. The screen is too dull to keep up with rival headsets. It’s something you’ll likely notice every time you use the phone outdoors.

Display color is slightly weak, too, although may not prove off-putting if you like a laidback appearance. The Nokia G21 also has an unusual Unisoc processor that means you miss out on 5G. Handling demanding games isn’t this phone’s forte, and in this regard the speaker doesn’t help either; it isn’t loud and it’s rather thin sounding. 

The Nokia G21's camera could be worse. It takes passable shots in daylight, with images displaying decent enough colors. However, the rear camera is less interesting than it first appears, offering only one field of view, one 'zoom style', making the G21 feel more like a single-camera phone. Its predecessor, the Nokia G20, included an ultra-wide camera; this phone comes without. 

Battery life is the one true Nokia G21 big-hitting feature. HMD Global (the company behind modern Nokia phones) says this handset can last up to three days from a single charge. Based on our experience, we’d say close to two days is a more realistic expectation to cling to. Nevertheless, that’s still pretty great.

Nokia G21 price and availability

• Out now in the UK and Australia
• Costs £149.99 / AU$299 (around $200)

The Nokia G21 was announced in February 2022, along with the even cheaper Nokia G11. The latter device is similar, but features a lower-end camera, and may be worth considering if you’re looking for a phone just for the basics.

For the G21, you can expect to pay £149.99 / AU$299 (roughly $200), but it's not currently available in the US.

Design

• Plastic casing with a grippy, ridged finish
• A pragmatic approach comes off well at this budget level
• Side-mounted fingerprint scanner

You’re never going to confuse a cheap phone like the Nokia G21 with a high-end one, but there’s a certain admirable honesty in Nokia’s entry-level designs.

The Nokia G21 has a lightly ridged plastic rear, one that does not try to pass itself off as glass or metal from a distance. There’s no light-reactive layer, so its appearance is fairly low-key. And the textured rear effect adds some grip. 

In the previous generation device, Nokia opted for a round camera housing. The Nokia G21 comes with a more unassuming rounded rectangle that sits in one corner of the device.

You’re not getting anything too dynamic with the G21, but there are some features to note. The Nokia G21 has a teardrop notch rather than a punch-hole unit. Its side-mounted fingerprint scanner is reliable, and while a beat off the speed of a mid-range Android, it kind of matches the tempo of the phone in general.

Along the bottom edge of the Nokia G21 you’ll find a single speaker. It isn’t particularly loud; in fact, it sounds rather thin, and obviously delivers a poorer sound field than a stereo pair. Currently, you’re seeing budget devices include some pretty impressive speakers; the unit here is mediocre.

Display

• Limited peak brightness reduces outdoors visibility
• 90Hz refresh rate
• 720p resolution, lower than that of some rivals

The Nokia G21 has a 6.5-inch LCD screen, and on paper it’s exactly what we’d expect to see in a budget device. It’s a 720p panel, not the 1080p one you’d see included in a phone from a class up. 

However, in 2022 even fairly cheap display panels can be remarkably good. Sadly, this isn’t the case here. The Nokia G21’s panel is below average, despite having a 90Hz refresh rate that makes menus appear to scroll more smoothly – when they’re not afflicted by mild UI judder, which happens fairly regularly.  

The color depth is very much “sRGB”, lacking the vibrancy of OLED phones and even plenty of LCD-based units that cost just a little more. We don’t mind this less-saturated look at all – years of reviewing phones and their cameras tends to make you more sensitive to over saturation than the opposite – but you may feel differently.

Note, too, that the panel’s native color temperature is cool, leaning towards blueish whites. However, you can tweak this in the Settings menu. We think it looks better with the slider nudged over to “warm”. 

However, it’s brightness that’s the Nokia G21’s major issue. On taking the phone outdoors to take some photos, we could barely see what was in the preview window. The phone just doesn’t offer the peak brightness required to deliver respectable clarity in high levels of ambient light. 

To be fair to Nokia, it told us as much. The screen is rated for 400-nits of brightness, not the 600-plus seen in budget phones with high brightness modes that engage when there’s plenty of light. The 400-nits here is more what you’d expect from a decent laptop screen; it doesn’t cut it in a phone. 

If you want a better display, look to Realme and Xiaomi phones. The Xiaomi Redmi 10 delivers superior colors, a higher resolution and better maximum brightness. However, you may need to spend slightly more to get the 600-plus nits of brightness that we think is the minimum for a truly versatile phone display.

Software and performance

• Tastefully plain interface
• Some basic navigational lag
• Poor gaming performance

The Nokia G21 runs Android 11, now the older version of the operating system. The newer Android 12 makes some neat surface-level changes – such as more color in the menu system – that would potentially enhance a phone such as this one.  

Why might the Nokia G21 benefit, in particular? It runs an unusually clean version of the software. No superfluous apps, and no contentious additional interface elements.   

This is classic Nokia, which has for years been the primary proponent of “naked Android” initiatives such as Android Go and Android One. A clean and clear interface is always welcome, although these days we find ourselves pretty happy using most manufacturers’ third-party skins. 

Like other Nokia phones, you can choose to navigate the system using swipe gestures or classic soft keys.

The appeal of the Nokia G21’s clean software is dimmed a little by the phone’s performance. While not a laggy mess, there is noticeable judder in the interface at times, games take a little while to load, and you’ll notice the beat before more complicated websites populate. There’s often a lag of a few seconds when you bring the phone out of sleep, too. 

This doesn’t ruin the overall experience of using a Nokia G21, but phones costing not much more have managed to make the real-world performance differences between cheap Android devices and more expensive models start to disappear.  

The Nokia G21 has a slightly unusual Unisoc processor, the T606. This entry-level SoC is only used in cheap phones such as the Samsung Galaxy A03 and the step-down Nokia G11. 

It scores 1165 in Geekbench 5, which is far lower than the ~1640 achievable in a phone featuring the Snapdragon 480. That’s one of Qualcomm’s entry-level 5G processors.

It’s this humble power, along with internal storage that can only read/write at speeds of around 120MB/second, which will cause slight slow-down when navigating through apps that haven’t been cached in the phone’s RAM. And since our model of Nokia G21 comes with only 4GB of RAM, it can’t afford to keep many processes in this kind of “fast recall” memory.

The Nokia G21’s performance is uninspiring stuff, but nothing out of line with our expectations of a handset at this end of the market. 

You should consider its real-world impact on gaming, though. Fortnite wouldn’t install at all, listing the phone as unsupported, even though the 4GB of RAM should have meant the Nokia G21 met the minimum requirements. 

Ark: Survival Evolved had a slideshow-like quality with the graphics maxed-out. To get it to a nicely smooth playable speed we had to set the graphics to “low” and bring down the resolution, making it look more like a PS2 game. 

Gameloft’s Asphalt 9 ran much better. The frame rate wasn’t perfect, but it was completely playable at “high” graphics settings. We’ve seen theoretically more powerful phones run the game far worse, suggesting that either Gameloft has made some optimizations, or that the version of the game 720p phones run is less taxing than the one 1080p Androids get.

Cameras

• Limited fine detail and a soft character to images
• Good HDR for both normal shots and selfies
• Video is very bad

The camera is the main reason to buy the Nokia G21 over the Nokia G11. The phone comes with a 50-megapixel primary sensor, which seems to be this week’s hot resolution, seen in flagship phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S22. 

The version of sensor here can’t compete with those included in high-end phones, of course. In classic Samsung fashion, the company takes what’s popular and has made a bargain-bucket version of it for the masses. 

That said, the Nokia G21 offers sound camera performance for a near bottom-tier phone. Shoot in daylight and it captures photos with a slightly warm-leaning color temperature, solid HDR processing and color that, while perhaps a little “one note”, seems natural enough as a result of an almost complete lack of oversaturation.

Having often struggled to compose shots properly as a result of the Nokia G21’s dim screen, we were mostly pleased with the results. 

However, what you shouldn’t expect is what the high-res sensor appears to promise: detail. The Nokia G21’s images don’t hold up as expected when zoomed-in. They’re a tad soft down at pixel level, and dense textures such as the leaves of distant trees just don’t look all that realistic up-close. 

This is a classic example of what you get in a small pixel-binning sensor, designed to use several pixels of the sensor to create one in the final image. Matters don’t significantly improve when you use the 50-megapixel mode, either. Note, too, that we found the HDR mode a bit inconsistent. 

Shoot the same scene a second apart and the Nokia G21 might leave highlights overexposed in one photo, only to correctly handle them in the next. It makes us wonder if the image processing stage is cut short or simplified when you shoot multiple images in succession, in order to avoid you having to wait for the camera to do its thing.

Night-time images are fairly poor; but we actually expected them to be worse given the Nokia G21’s small sensor. There’s a dedicated Night mode, which takes somewhere between one and two seconds to capture an image, with significant improvements to detail – both in the darkest areas, and to the sharpness of detail in the brighter parts. 

We’re still miles off the quality of a great night-time shooter, but “mediocre” is better than “awful”. 

We don’t recommend using the Nokia G2’s 2x zoom mode. This phone doesn’t have a zoom lens, and the poor close-up quality of standard pics is only emphasized when you digitally zoom into them. 

So, if there’s no zoom, then what are the other two cameras on the back? There’s a poor 2-megapixel macro camera and a basic depth sensor for background-blurred portrait pictures. 

Selfies are often surprisingly good, for the same reason that standard pics are: HDR. The Nokia G21 will have a good stab at managing the brightness level of images even if you shoot a selfie indoors with a background of a bright window. Fine detail isn’t remarkable – the software is the star – but it isn’t a bad result. 

Video quality is awful, however. You can only shoot at resolutions up to 1080p, there’s no software stabilization at all, and the actual image looks more 360p resolution than 1080p. 

Several ups and downs mean the Nokia G21 camera ends up being merely “OK”. If you don’t expect miracles from the tantalizing 50-megapixel sensor then you might come away satisfied – as long as you don’t plan to shoot video.

Camera samples

Battery life

• Battery life is great, suitable for charging every other day
• Charging is slow using the bundled charger
• Supports up to 18W charging

The Nokia G21 has a high-capacity 5,050mAh battery that Nokia claims can last up to three days between charges. Given two-day use is the typical optimistic claim we hear, this is a big one. 

Most people are unlikely to see that kind of longevity, but real-world stamina remains excellent. Charging every other day is a realistic proposition with a Nokia G21, even if you use it for frequent messaging and photo-taking. 

Thirty minutes of high-end gaming consumes 7% off the battery, suggesting that a full charge will last you a little over seven hours. Again, this is excellent. 

The Nokia G21’s charging speed is a let-down, however. While the phone supports respectable 18W charging, the phone includes a slow 10W charger. This is going to take the best part of three hours to recharge the phone. That’s fine for overnight charging, but quick top-ups won’t be possible unless you get hold of a more powerful charger.

Should you buy the Nokia G21?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: April 2022

With the cheap phone market dominated by big Chinese names like Redmi, Realme and Pocophone, it can be easy to forget about the stalwart mobile manufacturers – but HMD Global has just given us a reason to pay it some heed.

HMD Global, which makes Nokia phones, debuted three new super-budget mobiles as part of annual tech conference MWC 2022.

These new mobiles are the Nokia C2 2nd Edition (the original came in 2020), Nokia C21, and Nokia C21 Plus – they're all part of the company's C line, which is its lowest-end collection, compared to the slightly-higher-end G and verging-on-mid-range X families.

As we said, these are super affordable handsets. The first and last phones are launching in the UK, and we have their prices as £75 (roughly $100, AU$140) and £100 (around $130, AU$190) respectively.

Here are their specs, so you can see how they compare:

If you're confused about the C21 Plus' battery situation, it seems that you can opt between two sizes, just like how many mobiles offer you a choice in RAM and storage.

In an age where every budget phone maker is trying to put out a super-flashy, specs-heavy monster, it's slightly refreshing to see genuine true budget phones. Seriously, how many phones do you see nowadays with just 1GB RAM, or with a single rear camera?

Obviously, these devices aren't going to run like your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy device, but they're designed for people who don't need a best-in-class smartphone. They're cheap and cheery, perhaps for seniors or technophobes who can't totally put off the tech-ification of the world.

Alongside the new smartphones, HMD Global unveiled a few headphones and earbuds, and they're all affordable devices just like their mobile counterparts.

The Nokia phones are coming to the UK starting in April, but we don't know if they'll be arriving elsewhere, so we'll have to wait and see.

These aren't the only cheap phones we've seen at MWC, either. TCL unveiled its own selection with impressive rear cameras and big batteries, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. We're expecting more to launch all the time, so stay tuned in the coming days for more.

• MWC (Mobile World Congress) is the world's largest showcase for the mobile industry, stuffed full of the newest phones, tablets, wearables and more. TechRadar is reporting on the show all week. Follow our MWC 2022 live blog for the very latest news as it happens and visit our dedicated MWC 2022 hub for a round-up of the biggest announcements.

HMD Global has just unveiled two new budget Nokia-branded phones, dubbed the Nokia G21 and the Nokia G11, and while some budget phones struggle to stand out, these two have at least one obvious selling point – they both promise up to three days of battery life.

In a world where even many flagship phones struggle to get beyond one day, that’s an impressive stat – though we haven’t yet put these phones to the test, so we can’t verify it.

Still, they have decently large batteries, with both phones including a 5,050mAh battery. They also support charging at up to 18W, though only a 10W charger comes in the box.

The company is also keen to point out that these phones will get twice as many security updates as the competition does on average, with 36 updates promised – presumably meaning three years of updates. Actual Android updates will be limited to two years though.

Beyond that, the Nokia G21 has a 6.5-inch 720 x 1600 screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, a Unisoc T606 chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a microSD card slot, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, a 3.5mm headphone port, and Android 11.

There’s a triple-lens camera on the back, with a 50MP main sensor, a 2MP macro one, and a 2MP depth sensor. There’s also an 8MP camera on the front. So this is a basic phone in many ways, with its plastic build and lack of 5G further highlighting that fact.

The Nokia G11 is even more low-end, if only slightly. It too has a 6.5-inch 720 x 1600 90Hz screen, a Unisoc T606 chipset, Android 11, a microSD card slot, a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, and a 3.5mm headphone port, and it’s also made of plastic and limited to 4G connectivity.

Where it differs is in the camera, with the Nokia G21’s 50MP main one replaced with an 8MP one, though the other lenses have the same megapixel counts. It also has lower RAM and storage, at 3GB and 32GB respectively.

If you want to buy the Nokia G21 and you’re in the UK, then you can grab it now for £149.99 (around $200 / AU$285) in Nordic Blue or Dusk shades. The Nokia G11 meanwhile is landing in the UK in March, for £119.99 (roughly $160 / AU$230). There’s no word yet on US or Australian availability.

Analysis: a small upgrade from the Nokia G20

While the battery life of the Nokia G21 sounds impressive, it’s worth noting that the company made the same claims about its predecessor, the Nokia G20, so this isn’t a new feature for the range.

That said, HMD Global has experience of delivering strong battery life, so we’d expect it to be good here, anyway.

The Nokia G20 is also a similar phone in a lot of other ways, with the same screen size and resolution, the same price, and the same storage, RAM, and battery capacity.

The main actual upgrades for the Nokia G21 appear to be the charging speed (though only if you use a different charger to the one that comes in the box), the refresh rate, and the chipset, which is a MediaTek Helio G35 in the Nokia 20.

The main camera also has slightly more megapixels on the new phone, but on the other hand, there’s no ultra-wide lens, which there is on the Nokia G20, so it’s not all upgrades.

• These could rank among the best cheap smartphones

We've been hearing Nokia 10 rumors for three years now, since the Nokia 9 PureView in 2019, but so far the company has shied away from putting out another top-end mobile like that one.

Loads of names for the anticipated flagship Nokia phone have been touted since the PureView came out - most recently the Nokia X60 was rumored, but before that Nokia 9.2 and 9.3 were also leaked, as well as the one at the top of this article.

You'd be forgiven for abandoning hope at seeing a new flagship phone from HMD Global, which makes Nokia phones, as for the last few years the brand has focused on its main point of interest: budget phones. But never say never.

While Nokia is typically a mid-range and budget phone champion, it does release the odd flagship from time to time, and that's exactly what we're expecting the Nokia 10 to be: the new best phone from the company.

The company's foray into 5G devices with the likes of the Nokia 8.3 5G gave us a fine but uninspired device; hopefully the Nokia 10 will allow the company to show off some cool new camera tech or other top features.

The following article works best not as a typical phone rumor hub, but as a historical document charting the various news and leaks we've heard about the mobile since 2019.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The new top-end Nokia phone
• When is it out? Probably 2022, if ever
• How much will it cost? Likely at least $699 / £549 / AU$980

Nokia 10 release date and price

The latest release date rumor points to the Nokia 10 (or Nokia X60 as it might be called) launching before November 11 2021, which very clearly didn't come about, since we're in 2022 and there's still not a sniff of the mobile. 

That was easy to believe though, since it was in line with another release date rumor which suggested the phone had slipped into the second half of 2021. Previous release date rumors have been and gone, and these ones have just joined the growing pile of wrong leaks.

We're looking to 2022 for a release now.

Note that the phone could launch as the Nokia 10, but as noted we've also heard that we might see the Nokia X60, Nokia 9.2 or Nokia 9.3, an improved version of the Nokia 9 PureView that was launched at MWC 2019.

Regarding price, the Nokia 9 PureView launched for $699 / £549 / AU$980, and we'd expect a new 'better' phone to cost at least that much, if not more. Saying that, unless it's a huge upgrade on the older phone we wouldn't expect it to cost a whole lot more.

Nokia 10, Nokia X60, Nokia 9.1, Nokia 9.2 or Nokia 9.3?

We're calling the new smartphone the Nokia 10, because its predecessor was the Nokia 9. However, as noted above we've heard a few different names that the brand could use for its new smartphone.

Given that the brand has launched new G, C and X ranges, there's a good chance that the Nokia 10 will have a letter ahead of its number, and leaks specifically point to a Nokia X60 - along possibly with a Nokia X60 Pro.

There's also the Nokia 9.1, which makes sense in a way, because when the company releases updated smartphones it uses a decimal system – the Nokia 7.1 was succeeded by the Nokia 7.2, for example. This name would suggest the new flagship is just a slightly improved version of the 9 PureView, not an entirely new device.

Then again, we've also heard Nokia could skip 9.1 and leap straight to 9.2, a name possibly chosen to make up for the fact it's been delayed so long. We've even heard it referred to as the Nokia 9.3, so take your pick.

Nokia 10 was posited as a name since it's a step up from Nokia 9, and the 9.-something names all imply the phone will be a small step up from the 9 PureView, rather than a whole new thing. 

The name 'Nokia 10' seems somewhat likely as, in October 2020, an official Nokia document leaked that name-dropped the phone, though the X60 also has a lot of weight behind it given that's more in line with the brand's current naming conventions.

Nokia 10 / Nokia 9.3 leaks, rumors and news

We've heard the successor to the Nokia 9 PureView could be a 5G handset. That would make sense, especially now that many phones are 5G - including the company's own Nokia 8.3 5G.

We'd also heard that Nokia's next flagship wouldn't be shown at MWC 2020, so that it could have the high-end Snapdragon 865 processor, as the Nokia 9 had a slightly outdated chipset and it suffered as a result. The cancelling of MWC 2020 made that somewhat of a moot point, though.

However, the Snapdragon 865 has been available for ages now, and we're now hearing that the Nokia 10 has been further delayed so that it can include the Snapdragon 888.

More recent leaks suggest the Snapdragon 775 processor, new for 2021, is going to be the chipset that powers the Nokia 10 (or whatever it's called). Along with that it will apparently have a sapphire glass display and a stainless steel frame.

Something else we've heard about the next Nokia phone, possibly the Nokia 10, is that it could have an under-screen selfie camera instead of one housed in a notch or bezel, which is a premium feature that could be slightly out of place on a Nokia phone unless this is a truly top-end device.

Presumably this device wouldn't be a Nokia 9 PureView successor, then, as that's a high but not quite top-end phone. For this feature we'd expect a truly cutting-edge flagship.

Speaking of cameras, a source speaking to Nokia Power User claims the Nokia 9.2 PureView (as they call it) will have a very different camera setup to the Nokia 9, though they don't elaborate on how it will differ. There has been talk of a 108MP primary camera and five rear cameras in total, so it looks as though the handset could score highly in the photo-taking department.

More recently we've heard of a flagship phone called the Nokia X60, which could have a 200MP camera, a 6,000mAh battery, a 144Hz refresh rate for its curved screen, and a secondary screen on the back, all of which certainly sounds impressive. That said, the report also suggested the phone would run HarmonyOS rather than Android - a claim which has been denied by the brand.

Finally, we've heard that Nokia has a foldable phone in the works, and while it's highly unlikely the Nokia 9.1 or 9.2 would be this device, it's possible Nokia could release this handset as the Nokia 10, marking it out as a big leap.

What we want to see in the Nokia 10 /  Nokia 9.2

Here are some features we'd hope to see in the next Nokia flagship phone, to make it's a true contender to the other premium phones out right now.

1. A versatile camera

While the Nokia 9 PureView had five rear cameras, we actually found the photo-taking capabilities weren't great, and that's because the cameras all had the same lens and resolution, with the only difference being that some were black and white.

The company did this to ensure its phone took fantastic standard pictures, but because of this it didn't have any snappers with an ultra-wide or telephoto lens, and therefore there was less versatility in terms of pictures you could take.

In the Nokia 10, or whatever the new Nokia flagship is called, we'd hope for a few different lenses, so we can take zoomed-in pictures, decent macro shots, and more. Higher-res sensors wouldn't hurt either.

2. A powerful processor

While the Nokia 9 PureView didn't have a terrible chipset, its Snapdragon 845 chipset was the top-end piece of tech from the year before, and so plenty of phones from 2019 beat it in terms of performance.

Since one of the phone's unique selling points was that it took five photos at once, and exported them as RAW files, a good processor would have been useful.

We'd like to see the current top-end chipset in the Nokia 10 or Nokia 9.2, which will almost certainly be the Snapdragon 865 if the new phone releases in 2020.

This processor would provide the phone snappy processing (obviously), which should be great for photo capture, graphical rendering for games, and even possibly 5G connection, since that chipset has a built-in 5G modem.

3. 5G compatibility

It seems like 2020 could be the year that 5G phones really start becoming affordable, with devices like the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G and Oppo Reno 5G from 2019 all setting you back quite a bit to buy.

We'd like to see Nokia lead the cheap 5G phone charge, with a device that most people can afford (although a 5G plan will still probably be pricey). The Nokia 9.2 could be a prime candidate for this if prices are kept in line with its predecessor.

4. A more comfortable design

One thing we found about the Nokia 9 PureView is that it wasn't exactly the most comfortable phone to hold, with steep angles on the edges and a totally flat screen, in a year when lots of flagships started using curved displays.

On top of that the phone didn't seem to have oleophobic coating, which meant your fingerprints really easily showed up on its screen and body.

If HMD Global really wants its flagship to compete with the other top-end, or even mid-range, smartphones of 2020, it's going to need to create a phone that's great to look at, not just to use.

• Check out the best Nokia phones

Please note: TechRadar didn't receive imagery on HMD Global's new phones prior to embargo, so the mobile shown above is the older Nokia G50.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing phone launches of CES 2022 isn't the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE's reveal, the OnePlus 10 Pro teasers or the debut of the Vivo V23, but a collection of four new affordable Nokia phones shown off by HMD Global.

The new selection consists of one flip phone, the 2760 Flip, and four smartphones: the Nokias C100, C200, G100 and G400. They're part of a big push on behalf of HMD Global in the US, and as such, they'll only be going on sale in the United States.

We'll run you through most of those mobiles below, but we want to highlight the most interesting one, and that's the top-end one of the bunch; the Nokia G400. This will be going on sale for $239, so even as the best of the bunch it's still very reasonably priced, but its specs are impressive.

The mobile has a 6.6-inch screen which boasts a FHD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a 48MP main camera, 5,000mAh battery, 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. Oh, and it's 5G compatible making it one of the most affordable mobiles we've seen that can connect to 5G networks.

With that range of specs, the phone promises to be a cheap and cheery masterpiece, and we'll be testing it out when it launches to see just how good it really is.

Just note, we don't know everything about the new phones just yet, so await a fuller specs list closer to launch (though we don't actually know when that is just yet - all these mobiles will be launching in the "first half of 2022").

And the other three Nokia phones

Let's slide down the range backward from the G400. Next, the Nokia G100 is part of HMD Global's top-tier family, but doesn't have exactly the same specs. 

The mobile will launch for just $149 and has a 6.5-inch HD+ screen, 5,000mAh battery, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner and three rear cameras.

The Nokia C200 will launch for $119 and has a 6.1-inch HD screen and 4,000mAH battery. This is the device we know least about right now.

The last smartphone is the Nokia C100, which will go on sale for just $99. It has a 5.45-inch screen, so it's lovely and compact, and will have a 8MP front-facing camera as well as a rear snapper of the same resolution. It has a 3,000mAh battery which seems small, but fits the little phone's overall size.

Finally we've got the Nokia 2760 Flip, which as the name suggests is a flip phone, and it'll sell for $79 exclusively from TracFone. Features include an emergency button that can call an emergency contact and share your GPS to them, a small external display for notifications, and the KaiOS operating system.

Since we don't know a release date for these phones, we can't say when we'll get full reviews on them, but we'll endeavor to bring you timely buying advice when they do go on sale.

• 10 best upcoming phones of 2022: the handsets we're excited to see

November 2021 marks 10 years since the first Lumia phone, the Nokia Lumia 800. It was one of the most interesting developments in mobiles since the arrival of the iPhone and Android OS, years before.

The Nokia Lumia series was ultimately a failure. What promised to be the third pillar of mobile phone systems eventually crumbled to dust, blown away on the breeze by 2017. 

It’s remembered fondly by some, but other younger tech fans may not know it ever existed. However, Nokia Lumia gave us some of the most memorable and distinctive phones from the last decade for both how they looked and the tech they used inside.

Let’s look back at the Nokia Lumia range through the lens of some of the classic models in the series, which still have a special place in our memories to this day. 

Nokia Lumia 800 (2011)

The Nokia Lumia 800 was the first Lumia phone. It was announced in 2011, just a few weeks after the iPhone 4S. 

Ever the European, Nokia initially released the phone to UK and EU markets, at £399 — roughly $625 in the exchange rate of the time. The Nokia 800 was bold, inside and out. This was the phone that pulled off a minor miracle of making plastic seem cool. 

Its shell was polycarbonate, with colorful finishes whose color wasn’t just a paint layer you could chip off to reveal the cheap white plastic underneath. 

The hardware was made to create an impact, but its true importance was its place as the flagship Windows Phone 7 mobile. 

In 2021, it’s easy to forget that versions of Windows on phones and mobile devices had been around since 2000. Windows Phone 7’s job was to turn a fusty old system made for PDAs, personal digital assistants, into something to rival Apple’s iOS. 

It worked... initially. Windows Phone 7 was a slick operating system with a tile-based home screen that moved more fluidly than Android, and it had an excellent virtual keyboard. 

However, the Lumia 800 was not the first to use this swanky version of Windows. In 2010, the year before, we saw Windows Phone 7 handsets from Dell, HTC, LG and Samsung. 

In what might have been one of Microsoft’s key mistakes, though, the company didn’t exactly make it easy for manufacturers to justify supporting a system without a huge existing fanbase. 

Microsoft reportedly charged licensing fees of up to $15 per handset, where the testing required to use Google’s GMS — the library of services like Maps and Gmail that sits on top of the open source Android kernel — might be less than a dollar per phone.

This was a symptom of the hubris that arguably affected both Microsoft and Nokia, and led to Nokia only releasing its first true iPhone rival in 2011, four years after Apple’s first phone. Both companies had fallen in love with their creations — Windows Mobile and Symbian OS — and it seemingly took years for them to realize the wider world had moved on.  

The turning point, the reason Nokia Lumia became a concrete thing, was likely the rather cool reception of the Nokia N8. It was Nokia’s 2010 flagship phone, and showed no amount of surgical nips and tucks could turn Symbian into a system worthy of the post-iPhone era. According to Morgan Stanley analyst Patrick Standaert, the iPhone outsold the Nokia N8 6-to-1 at one point.  

Nokia Lumia 620 (2012)

The Nokia Lumia 620 marked a slight gear shift in the Lumia series, likely caused by somewhat disappointing sales of the first wave of phones.

Initially, lower-end Lumia phones were aimed at developing markets like India. The 2012 Nokia Lumia 620 and the slightly later step-down Lumia 520 were sold more widely, and were among our favorite affordable phones at the time. 

These proved the worth of the Windows Phone OS in a manner the top-end phones could not. Both had just 512MB RAM but ran beautifully compared to some of the cheap Androids you might buy at a similar cost. 

Windows Phone’s animated transitions could mask spots of behind-the-scenes lag and, lower screen resolution aside, the system brought affordable style to lower-end buyers. 

At the time we got the sense this was not the direction the Microsoft/Nokia partnership originally wanted to take. Every phone manufacturer looks jealously at the Apple approach, where a relatively small market share in terms of the number of devices sold can still lead to market domination in profits. But other companies are not Apple, and do not have the iPhone. 

ASymco analyst Horace Deidu published an interesting graph that showed the state of play at the time. While Lumia sales might have looked okay to some, they in no way made up for the loss in sales of Nokia’s Symbian handsets, with total sales drastically lower even than the tail end of 2010, when Nokia already seemed a spent force to many. 

The US was a big problem for Lumia. While the series’s phones sold well in certain territories including, no surprise here, Nokia's homeland Finland, they simply didn’t gain much traction in the US. Nokia’s US strategy was dubbed “rolling thunder”, a sequence of launches intended to give the sense of rolling hype and activity. It didn’t seem to work. 

Nokia Lumia 1020 (2013) 

No Lumia phone symbolizes classic Nokia magic better than the Nokia Lumia 1020. It was a camera-first PureView phone, a follow-up to the 2012 Nokia 808 PureView, which was one of the dying gasps of Symbian as a high-end phone system. 

Its camera tech sounds impressive even today. It has a 41MP 1/1.5-inch sensor, larger than that of the Samsung Galaxy S21’s primary camera. Nokia described it as having a 4x “lossless” zoom, because the high resolution sensor allowed for a straight crop using native pixel read-out, rather than just enlarging the image using digital zoom. 

We had a lot of fun shooting with the Nokia Lumia 1020. It steamrolled the competition for image quality, without simply jamming a compact camera and phone together, as seen in the Samsung Galaxy Camera from 2012. 

However, we found it difficult to recommend to most people even back in 2013. At this point we were a couple of years out from the Nokia Lumia series’s launch, three years from the first Windows Phone 7 devices, and these phones were still begging for more apps. 

It became a consistent complaint in our Windows phone reviews; a boring but necessary one. Much as the situation is today, apps often tended to debut on iOS, see an Android release a little later, and only a few would filter down to other platforms. 

Today it’s a problem that affects Amazon tablets, which are Android-based but use an Amazon app store, and Huawei phones. Back then it was Windows Phone’s most glaring issue. 

Microsoft did not help matters. Its Phone Store had pretty poor discoverability tools, damaging an already pretty faulty argument as to why developers should put the effort and money into porting their apps to Windows phones. 

Slow sales of the first waves of Nokia Lumia phones had led to a relatively small potential audience for these developers to engage with. And the Nokia-Microsoft partnership bumped other manufacturers into an undesirable “second tier” status, compounding the adoption problem alongside Windows’s high licensing fees. Huawei, HTC and Samsung made a smattering of Windows phones in 2013, but none were sold as widely as their Androids siblings. 

The result? With each year, Nokia flagship phones like the Lumia 1020 became a tougher and tougher sell. All that power and promise, so little to actually do with it. 

Nokia Lumia 930 (2014) 

The Nokia Lumia experiment was not going to so well. Something had to change, and it did in September 2013. 

Microsoft bought Nokia’s mobile division for 5.4 billion Euros, around $6.4 billion by the exchange rate at the time. Talk of this buy-out had been rumoured years, and it was not announced with a party. 

“I feel sadness because inevitably we are changing Nokia and what it stands for,” said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.

The Nokia Lumia 930 was the first flagship phone in the series released after the Microsoft acquisition although, considering the timing of its April 2014 announcement, it was likely in development beforehand. It saw a slight shift away from the iconic all-plastic rounded bodies of Lumia phones, using aluminium sides and a “color pop” plastic backplate. 

By now we were in the era of Windows Phone 8.1, where Microsoft tried to bring the phone software in closer alignment with its desktop computer relative. It had voice assistant Cortana and the Internet Explorer 11 browser, for example. 

We called the Lumia 930 "a colorful handset that battles against Windows Phone”, a neat summation of how Microsoft’s failure to create a truly thriving ecosystem meant any Nokia Lumia phone could only hope to be a partial success. 

This would be the last high-end Lumia phone to use the Nokia name. However, the branding partnership did at least go out with a bang. 

Nokia also released the Lumia 2520 tablet six months before the Lumia 930. It ran Windows RT, using the Snapdragon 800 chipset. This was just a year after the original Surface RT. We now think of the Surface series as a success, but the Surface RT was failure. It had software somewhat similar to Windows Phone 8.1 in style, and similarly limited access to apps you actually wanted to use. 

It was more proof Microsoft didn’t really “get” mobile in this era.

2015 and beyond: Microsoft Lumia 950 and the Lumia aftermath

Nokia was reduced to a silent partner in the Lumia series's final years. Its last top phone was the Microsoft Lumia 950, the very final model 2016’s Lumia 650. 

These were Windows 10 phones. By this time the “Windows Phone” nomenclature had disappeared entirely, a sign of quite how obsessed with its new OS Microsoft was at this point. The idea was to bring phone, tablet and desktop together using a feature called Continuum. 

Plug a keyboard and mouse into your phone and use it like a desktop? No thanks. 

Active development of the phone version of Windows 10 ended in 2017, which we like to think of as Microsoft finally getting some therapy and realizing, at least for a while, that it doesn’t have to make, or even like, smartphones. 

Still, this wasn’t the end for either Microsoft or Nokia in the phone world. 

The lively but unfashionable feature phone side of Nokia was sold to HMD Global in 2016, and a separate 10-year licensing agreement allowed HMD Global to start producing the Nokia smartphones we have today. 

This newer Nokia is less of an ego-driven exercise in aspirational market domination, more a pragmatic box-shifting operation that seeks to ensure there’s an option for anyone who wants a somewhat affordable Android, regardless of their budget. 

The few deviations from this model, like the Nokia 9 PureView, show the no-nonsense splatter gun approach is probably the right one. 

And Microsoft? It can’t resist the occasional lurch to the floor for a bit of dad dancing. Microsoft released the Surface Duo in 2020, flushed with the confidence of its Surface series’s success. It's an extremely expensive semi-foldable phone: the screen itself doesn’t fold, there are two screens and a hinge in the middle instead.

The Microsoft Surface Duo is neat, but would we tell friends and family to buy one? Only if they're a very particular customer.

There was even a suggestion from an analyst in October 2020 that Microsoft has plans to buy Nokia again. But don’t reach for your heart medication just yet. 

This would be for its network infrastructure division, not the phone stuff.  Windows 11 Mobile is not a thing, and Microsoft’s use of Android in the Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2 suggests it will continue to not be a thing — for which we should all be truly thankful.   

• The very best Nokia phones of 2021

Getting the best value when buying a new phone can be tricky. You can always just buy the latest and greatest thing, but not everyone has $1,000 to drop on a new phone every year, and those expensive phones often have you pay for features that go unused. Many Americans opt for cheaper phones, but shopping on a budget under $250 does require a bit of care to make sure you get a phone that has the features you want and need alongside capabilities and construction that’ll help it hold up in the long run. It won’t be a good value if you have to replace it right away, after all.

So, when choosing a smartphone for less than $250, there are a few things to keep your eye on. You’ll want a display that’s big and bright enough so you can easily use the phone. The battery should be more than enough to make it through the day. And, you should be able to rely on the cameras when the moment strikes. Since your phone will also be a primary means of connecting to friends, family, and the internet, it needs a reliable signal.

From your first cell phone to your next smartphone, Nokia has always had a portfolio offering that strikes that value note while providing quality and reliability. The new Nokia G300 continues this tradition with the latest in 5G technology for your everyday needs.

The value of the Nokia G300 starts with its price. You don’t need to wait until Black Friday to get a good price as you can snag this phone for just $199. There aren’t a lot of new phones that’ll let you score such a deal, and there are even fewer with 5G connectivity. 

With 5G network support, the Nokia G300 prepares you for the future, giving you faster, lower-latency connectivity to stream movies, play games, and share on social media faster and with a more dependable signal. As network carriers move further toward 5G, this feature is going to become a must-have, and the Nokia G300 won’t see you get left behind.

The Nokia G300 provides you with a big screen for everything you want to do on your phone. The 6.52-inch display has an HD+ panel to keep imagery and text sharp, but the phone maintains reasonable dimensions, so you can still slip it into your pocket or purse. 

Nokia has also put an emphasis on the features that matter, not on weighing you down with a bunch that don’t improve everyday usability and just inflate the price.

The Nokia G300’s camera system will let you capture important memories with crisp 16MP still images or broad shots with a 115-degree wide angle. When you really want to highlight your subjects, the depth camera can enable a blur effect for more artistic portraits. You can also capture life in action with 1080p video that provides a smooth, life-like recreation at 60fps. 

Since your phone has to keep up with you on any adventure, Nokia has packed in a beefy battery and an efficient chipset, so the Nokia G300 can run for two days before you need to recharge it. And, so you don’t have to wait long, the phone supports 18W quick charging.

So, when you’re looking for your next phone and want to score a deal on a device that’s ready for all-day, everyday, the Nokia G300 awaits. You can find it now on Tracfone and Straight Talk.

The Nokia G300 is the company’s next budget phone, and at $199 (around £145 / AU$269), it’s one of the cheapest 5G phones on the US phone market.

The phone has a 6.5-inch HD Plus 20:9 ratio display, 6GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage (expandable up to 1TB of storage) – which is more than you’ll get from the 32GB that come standard on most budget phones. For rear cameras, it has a 16MP f/1.8 camera, 5MP ultrawide, and 2MP depth sensor, along with an 8MP front-facing shooter.

The phone’s design isn’t too advanced, which is to be expected from a budget device, with a teardrop notch and thick chin bezel that look a bit dated. But the enlarged lock button with fingerprint sensor is a nice touch, it packs a 3.5mm jack, and the phone looks reasonably sleek.

Budget phones: now with 5G!

5G connectivity is the highlight of the Nokia G300, but its other specs put it competitively with other smartphones at its price tier. Our best cheap phone around the same cost is the Moto G Fast – but since it runs Android 11 out of the box, the Nokia G300 has the edge. 

Of course, with Android 12 just coming out, we’re eager to see which budget phones get the upgrade first. Budget phones are often the last to get updated, and the cheapest phones usually don’t get more than a single OS upgrade, so what comes in the box is nearly the extent of what they’ll ever have. But for their price, like the G300, they’re the cheapest ways to get 5G speeds.

• iPhone 13: the best Apple flagship yet

Two-minute review

Like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G and the Realme 8 5G before it, the Nokia G50 gives you a 5G-ready smartphone for a very low price. And like those two preceding phones, the Nokia G50 has to make a handful of compromises in order to meet its exacting brief.

Those compromises include an LCD display that, whilst big and bright, can only manage a 720p resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. It’s hardly the best showcase for all that media content you’ll be streaming over 5G.

Still, those 5G capabilities mean more and more as time goes on. With 5G connectivity increasingly available, especially in and around urban centers, there’s starting to be a genuine use case for affordable phones that can access broadband-like speeds whilst out and about.

This still feels like a somewhat niche scenario, however. How many people with such a limited smartphone budget will have the kind of data allowance that permits them to make the most of 5G’s data-munching attributes?

While a Snapdragon 480 5G chipset is fine for general tasks, it might just prove the bottleneck here when you’re accessing a top-notch 5G connection.

The Nokia G50’s main camera is competent, and capable of taking decent 48MP shots, though its supplementary sensors aren’t up to much. It’s the usual affordable phone story, to be fair.

One area in which the Nokia G50 really excels, however, is battery life. With a 5,000mAh cell and relatively frugal components (5G modem aside), you can expect two days of usage out of a single charge under normal or moderate conditions.

It’s a shame the promise of 18W charging support isn’t matched by the charger bundled into the box, which somehow feels a little deceptive. But it’s tough to pick a hole in the phone’s stamina all the same.

This is also a really well-built phone, with a metal frame and a luxurious smooth-touch plastic rear cover. This comes at the expense of easy portability, however, with a thick and unusually heavy body.

Nokia’s typically solid software offering is always welcome, with a crisp stock UI and a two-year Android update promise. In a market full of ugly custom UIs, the Nokia G50 stands out right alongside the Moto G50.

Ultimately, the Nokia G50 is a solid choice for anyone seeking to prioritize 5G connectivity on a $300/£200/AU$450 budget. But it’s far from alone in this specific sub-category, and it doesn’t really stand out from its similarly spec'd rivals.

Nokia G50 release date and price

• $299.99/£199/AU$449, with differing storage provisions
• Out now in the US, UK and Australia

The Nokia G50 is out now in the UK at a price of £199, which will give you 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Over in the US and Australia, there's a model with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $299.99/AU$449.

Either way, this is very cheap for a 5G smartphone. It’s not uniquely cheap, however.

The Realme 8 5G, the Redmi Note 10 5G, and Moto G50 have all pulled off the same trick in 2021, among others. You have a great deal of choice if you’re looking to prioritize 5G but don’t have a lot to spend.

Design

• Thick, heavy chassis
• Relatively premium materials

Since it took the reins of Nokia’s smartphone business, HMD Global has been keen to maintain the brand’s reputation for solid, dependable designs. The Nokia G50 certainly continues that trend.

It’s a very well-built device for the money, with a metal frame and a pleasingly soft-touch and gently curved plastic rear cover.

As good as that rear cover looks and feels out of the box, its subtle sheen and the glowing Ocean Blue shade of our model (you can also buy it in Midnight Sun) combine to make it highly susceptible to sweaty fingerprints.

One trait the Nokia G50 shares with other recent Nokia phones is size. It’s a big boy alright, with a 173.8 x 77.7mm footprint and a considerable thickness of 8.9mm. Meanwhile, the phone weighs a quite startling 220g.

Just to compare that with some of its contemporaries, the Realme 8 5G weighs 185g, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G weighs 190g, and the Moto G50 weighs 192g. It’s quite the difference, and it’s one that doesn’t flatter the Nokia.

Not that the Nokia G50 is unpleasant to wield. Along with those premium-feeling materials, the manufacturer has been smart about its button placement.

The power button, which also happens to house a speedy and reliable fingerprint sensor, has been positioned halfway up the right edge of the device, making it easy to reach. It sits in a slight dip too, which makes it easy to distinguish from the volume rocker above it.

HMD Global has once again given us a dedicated Google Assistant button on the opposite edge, which feels as superfluous as ever. But the 3.5mm headphone jack is a welcome inclusion on the top edge.

Display

• 6.82-inch LCD is large and bright
• 720p resolution isn’t optimal
• Only a 60Hz refresh rate

The Nokia G50’s display is absolutely huge by almost any standard. At 6.82-inches, it’s even larger than super-flagship behemoths like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Those are the first and last times we could really compare such phones to the Nokia G50 in all good conscience. Aside from brightness, where the Nokia G50 hits a respectable 450 nits in typical usage, it’s found rather wanting in all the ways that matter.

This is an IPS LCD display, and not a particularly vibrant example at that. There’s a slightly washed out, faded look to content viewed on the Nokia G50, with slightly orangey reds and pale greens - at least when compared to an OLED.

More problematic is the fact that it doesn’t get nearly sharp enough, which that huge canvass only accentuates. With a resolution of 720 x 1560, aka HD+ or 720p, it produces a pitiful 252 pixels per inch.

Another retrograde step is the inclusion of a mere 60Hz refresh rate. Scrolling through content feels sluggish and blurry here.

This isn’t an elitist point either. The Realme 8 5G, the Redmi Note 10 5G, and the similarly named Moto G50 all offer similarly priced 5G packages, yet still manage to include an elevated 90Hz refresh rate with it.

If you’re willing to drop the 5G, you can even bump that figure up to 120Hz with the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, or even access OLED panel technology with the Realme 8.

Elsewhere with the Nokia G50 you get a fairly regular 19.5:9 ratio, so widescreen movie content fits quite well in landscape. You’ll have to make do with a teardrop notch eating into the top of the screen though, which seems rather dated in these times of punch-hole cut-outs.

Camera

• 48MP main sensor does an adequate job
• 5MP ultra-wide is way off on tone and detail

As is the somewhat frustrating trend for cheaper phones these days, the Nokia G50 packs in a triple camera system that isn’t really a triple camera system. It’s a dual camera system, and then only just about.

The package is led by a respectable 48MP wide sensor with an f/1.8 aperture. This is backed by a much lesser 5MP ultra-wide and a 2MP depth assistant. The latter really isn’t a camera in its own right.

Selfie duty is handled by an 8MP front-facing camera, stashed in that aforementioned teardrop notch.

Image quality from the 48MP main sensor is solid, with pixel-binning techniques turning out crisp, bright 12MP shots. Snaps look relatively natural, with solid auto-HDR implementation keeping extremes on an even keel.

Take the Nokia G50 into murkier conditions, however, and it’ll start to suffer. Even well-lit indoor shots contain a fair amount of grain, while Night Mode shots lack detail even as they get reasonably bright. There’s a crucial lack of optical image stabilization (OIS) here, of course, which you don’t tend to get in such affordable phones.

Overall, that 48MP sensor bears all the weight with the Nokia G50. Besides regular shots it’s also pressed into action when taking 2x zoom snaps. These simple crops carry evident amounts of grain, but at least you get some form of tonal consistency.

The same can’t be said for ultra-wide shots, which utilize a much more modest 5MP dedicated sensor. It’s immediately apparent that such snaps are using inferior hardware, with a drop in vibrancy, detail, and contrast.

Selfies don’t look too sharp at all, with smudged skin tones and a general lack of pop. But selfie portrait mode is worse, smudging edge detail on your subject (that’s you) whilst dropping the ball on HDR.

The Nokia G50's camera is fine for the basics, but again, you can get a slight performance bump by shopping in the non–5G market.

Camera samples

Specs and performance

• Snapdragon 480 5G chipset
• 4GB of RAM
• Clean Android One software

The Nokia G50 runs on a fairly humble Snapdragon 480 5G, which is the same modern entry-level chip that powers the Moto G50, the Nokia XR20, and the Oppo A54 5G.

It’s a solid low-end runner that nonetheless falls a little short of its rivals.

In the Geekbench 5 multi-core CPU test, the Nokia G50 scored an average of 1,560. That compares to 1,677 for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G and 1,765 for the Realme 8 5G, both of which run on the MediaTek MT6833 Dimensity 700 5G.

Even the Oppo A54 5G, which runs on the same Snapdragon 480, scores 1,664, though it scores about the same as the similarly equipped Moto G50.

You get 4GB with all of the models we’ve seen, though apparently there’s a model with 6GB out there. It’s unlikely to make a massive difference to day-to-day performance, which is adequate.

With such a setup, gaming is possible on the Nokia G50. But we wouldn’t choose this phone if this was a major priority. The Poco X3 NFC will do you much better for similar money, at the expense of 5G connectivity.

Call of Duty: Mobile defaults to High graphical settings, which is roughly the middle tier of what’s on offer. With these and the higher HD texture package installed, we achieved a solid frame rate.

On the storage front, UK users currently get 64GB, while US and Australian users get 128GB. Whether there’ll be wider availability in each of the territories through Nokia or third-party retailers remains to be seen. Either way, there’s a microSD card slot for expansion purposes.

One of the key advantages for any Nokia-branded phone these days is the brand’s commitment to Android One, an extremely clean and unadorned version of Google’s mobile OS.

There’s no overbearing custom UI, as with the Oppo A15 or the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G. It’s just pure Android, with Google’s stock apps and widgets serving your basic needs for email, photos, file management, music and the like.

There are a handful of additional apps, but they’re largely obvious inclusions like Netflix and Spotify, and they’re stashed away in their own separate app folder.

The company also promises two years of Android upgrades with this phone, which is another appealing facet of this brand’s whole trustworthy angle.

Battery life

• 5,000mAh battery for genuine two-day stamina
• 18W support, but only a 10W charger in the box

Battery life is the Nokia G50’s key weapon. It packs a large 5,000mAh cell, and puts it to excellent use.

Together with the phone’s low-res display and low-power processor, we were able to get a full two days of moderate usage out of the G50, just as Nokia claims.

More specifically, a 16-hour day with three hours of screen-on time (what we’d call light to moderate usage) left us with an impressive 70% left in the tank. That’s genuinely excellent.

Though it’s great in general mixed use, however, the Nokia G50 fails to escape its low-budget roots when it comes to sustained media consumption. The TechRadar battery test, which involves a 90-minute looping 720p video with the screen brightness cranked up to full, sapped 15% of a full charge here.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G, with a similar hardware setup, lost 10% in the same test.

When it comes to recharging, the Nokia G50 supports 18W fast charging, just like the Realme 8 5G and the Redmi Note 10 5G. However, unlike those rivals, you only get a 10W charger in the box.

That’s an improvement on the likes of the Nokia X20, which doesn’t give you any brick at all, but it still feels ever so slightly deceptive.

Should you buy the Nokia G50?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: October 2021

There are few 5G phones that are as affordable as the best 4G cheap phones, but the new Nokia G50 is one of that select company. It's just been launched by HMD Global, ahead of an October event when people thought we'd be seeing the device.

This is a supremely affordable phone, costing only £199 in the UK. That converts to just $270 or AU$380, though we don't have availability information outside the UK just yet – either way, that's one of the cheapest 5G phones we've ever seen.

That's not all there is to like about it though, as it has a giant 6.82-inch screen, which makes it slightly bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It's a HD+ screen, so doesn't have as many pixels as a mid-range or top-end phone, but many people won't mind, especially when streaming videos over the internet.

• These are the best Nokia phones
• Check out our Nokia 5.4 review
• What you need to know about 5G

There are three rear cameras, with a 2MP depth-sensing and 5MP ultra-wide snapper joining a 48MP main. The chipset is a Snapdragon 480 which is a low-end processor and could be the main issue with the device.

There's a 5,000mAh battery which promises to keep the phone ticking for days, as well as an 18W charger which will likely take several hours to power the phone up.

When we've spent a long amount of time with the phone we'll bring you a full analysis, but for now we've written an initial Nokia G50 review.

Analysis: perfect for streaming fans

Take any form of public transport, whether it's a cross-country train or a small-town bus, and you'll probably see people watching TV or a movie on their smartphone.

The Nokia G50 feels designed for that kind of user. Thanks to its 5G, you can easily and quickly download videos onto your chosen streaming app, or just stream them straight from the web if you want. 

With a big screen, you'll be able to see the video in good detail, and for something like this, it's better to have a big HD+ screen than a small FHD+ one, as you'll still be able to see more.

Plus, the big battery ensures you'll be able to watch an episode of something on your way to work and still get a day of use from the phone, which is a useful extra perk. 5G and big screens can also be a big draw on power, so you could argue the 5,000mAh battery is necessary.

Sure, some people might want a higher-res screen, a more powerful device so they can game too, or perhaps some other feature which costs a bit more. But HMD Global's whole strategy is aiming at the popular budget phone market, and the Nokia G50 promises to be an important and competitive device there.

• Is Nokia looking to ditch Android for Huawei's HarmonyOS?

HMD Global has announced the addition of three new Nokia phones to its refreshed portfolio which have been specifically designed with longevity in mind.

The first devices is the new life-proof Nokia XR20 and this rugged smartphone can withstand extreme temperatures, 1.8m drops, one hour under water and other conditions that are far harsher than the rough and tumble of everyday life. 

The device also features Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus which brings a two-time improvement in scratch resistance over its Gorilla Glass 6. In addition to longevity, HMD Global will provide the Nokia XR20 with four years of monthly security updates and three years of OS upgrades.

• We've built a list of the best rugged smartphones available today
• These are the best business accessories on the market
• Also checkout our roundup of the best business smartphones

In a press release announcing its new Nokia phones, HMD Global's CEO Florian Seiche explained why the company decided to design them around longevity, saying:

"We are tapping into consumer pain points around durability and longevity. We did a global trend report and found that 73% of consumers want to keep their phone for longer and would if their devices were maintained over time. At HMD, we are empowering people to avoid early device replacement and encouraging a more sustainable consumption through our longevity promises.”

Nokia C30 and Nokia 6310

The Nokia C30 is the new hero of HMD Global's C-Series and this business smartphone comes with the largest battery and biggest screen yet in a Nokia phone.

It features a 6.82-inch HD+ display along with a massive 6000 mAh battery that can last up to three days on a single charge. When it comes to durability, the Nokia C30 is wrapped in a sturdy polycarbonate shell to guarantee that it will last.

Finally, HMD Global has added another device to its Originals family which celebrates the iconic Nokia 6310. The new Nokia 6310 has been reimagined for today's users and comes equipped with advanced accessibility features, optimized ergonomics and a battery that will last for weeks.

The Nokia XR20 is available now starting at £399 in the UK while in the US there is only one model that costs $550. The Nokia C30 and Nokia 6310 are also available now though both devices will only launch in select markets.

• We've also highlighted the best smartphone

We can barely remember a time when we weren’t waiting for a successor to the Nokia 9 PureView, but that wait might finally almost be over, as a report suggests the company’s next flagship (possibly called the Nokia 10) will land before November 11.

That’s according to IT Home (a Chinese technology site), which claims to have heard this from an executive at HMD Global (the company that makes Nokia phones). So that’s pretty close to an official confirmation.

That November 11 date makes sense too, as it’s a huge shopping day in China, and the company would understandably want the phone on the shelves before then.

• Read our hands on Nokia X20 review
• Check out all the best Nokia phones
• Will this be one of the best smartphones?

What's it even called?

That said, this still leaves us with a lot of questions, not least what this flagship will actually be called. Nokia 9.2, Nokia 9.3 and Nokia 10 have all been put forward at various points, with the most recent leaks pointing to the Nokia X60 or perhaps the Nokia X60 Pro.

Saying that it will land before November 11 also gives around a four month window for the phone to launch in, so we’re still not very clear on the release date, and with that release seemingly being focused on a Chinese shopping day, it’s possible that the launch will initially just be for China.

Hopefully we’re not waiting too much longer to get the Nokia 10 – or whatever it’s called – in the rest of the world though, as rumors point to a penta-lens camera, a 108MP or possibly even 200MP primary sensor, a 6,000mAh battery and a 144Hz refresh rate. So if that all pans out then this could be one of the most exciting handsets of the year.

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Via Phone Arena

The Nokia 8.3 5G is a strong upper mid-range phone, but it looks like it could get a far more exciting successor this year – one with five rear cameras.

That’s according to NokiaPowerUser, which claims to have heard that the phone will have a penta-lens camera, headlined by a 108MP primary sensor. The other lenses may apparently fill ultra-wide, telephoto, depth-sensing and macro roles, and the phone will apparently sport Zeiss optics and OZO Audio, just like the Nokia 8.3 5G.

Due to the company’s new naming scheme the site’s source expects this phone to be called the Nokia X50 rather than the Nokia 8.4 5G, although the source doesn't seem to say that the X50 name is confirmed, so that aspect may still be up in the air.

• The Nokia X20 was recently launched
• Check out the best Nokia phones
• Could the new Nokia be one of the best camera phones?

A big battery and a 120Hz screen

The source also claims that the Nokia X50 – or whatever this phone launches as – will have a Snapdragon 775 chipset. This chipset hasn’t been announced yet, but based on that number we’d expect it to be upper mid-range.

The screen, meanwhile, is said to be a 6.5-inch QHD+ one with a 120Hz refresh rate, and the battery could be a massive 6,000mAh. Finally, the Nokia X50 is apparently set to launch during the third quarter of this year – so between July and September.

All in all then it sounds like an exciting handset, and one which would probably be classed as high-end if not for its chipset. And if it does turn out to have a penta-lens camera that’s sure to be the highlight.

This wouldn’t be a new thing for the company, as the Nokia 9 PureView also had a penta-lens camera. But no Nokia phone (or mainstream phone from any brand) has sported five cameras since then, and it sounds like the approach to the lenses might be different here, since on the Nokia 9 PureView all five were used in unison for one shot, rather than filling different roles.

Of course, we’d take this leak with a pinch of salt for now. The same site has previously shared some of this information in less detail, but we’re yet to hear these specs from other sources.

Still, if this is accurate then while we’re still hoping for a flagship Nokia 10 at some point, the Nokia X50 might be the closest we get for a while.

• 6 new cheap Nokia phones have landed - here’s what you need to know

The Nokia X20 belongs to one of the most fiercely contested market segments - that of the ‘premium-low-end’, comprising budget phones with competitive specs that are priced on the border of the low-end and mid-range tiers. Recent entries include the Moto G9 Plus, Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro and Realme 8 Pro, all with impressive specs and features.

The Nokia X20 fits right into this segment, as the top-end model of the six new handsets Nokia owners HMD Global unveiled in April 2021. The X line is to be Nokia’s new top-end one, sitting above its C- and G- ranges, and the X20 is, at the time of writing, the top model. It’s not clear what’s happening with the Nokia 8.3 5G in this new system, though.

It doesn’t look like HMD Global was aware of how competitive this market segment was though, and as our hands-on Nokia X20 review will explain, this phone flags in a few key areas compared to those aforementioned devices - its chipset is quite a bit weaker, its charging is slower, and the design feels a little more ‘budget’, compared to the aforementioned rivals.

Still, there are some things going for the phone - HMD Global promises the Nokia X20 will get three years of Android updates, which is much more than we can say for many other Android phones, and its screen is nice and big too.

We’ve briefly tested the Nokia X20, in time for its launch - we should point out we were provided an early unit with non-final software, so we’ll avoid touching on that subject as much as possible, and you should take this early review with a pinch of salt.

For now, we can't say whether this is one of the best Nokia phones or not, but read on for our first impressions.

Nokia X20 review: price and availability

• Out now
• Starts at £300 (around $410 / AU$540)

The Nokia X20 went on sale in May 2021, at least in the UK, though we know the phone will be available in the US at some point too.

In the UK, the phone costs £300 for 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which converts to about $410, AU$540. There’s also a £320 model which bumps that RAM up to 8GB, a price which converts to roughly $440, AU$580.

For some context, we’ll provide the prices of those other phones we mentioned as close competitors: the Realme 8 Pro costs £279 (roughly $390, AU$500) while the Moto G9 Plus costs £250 (around $325 or AU$460), and the Redmi Note 10 Pro is $279 (around £200 / AU$360). Those are the RRP prices, at least.

Nokia X20 review: design and display

• Feels big
• Plastic body
• Large screen but just a 60Hz refresh rate

The Nokia X20 feels pretty big, mainly because of its large screen. It has a plastic body, and we tried out a version with a bronze hue. The rear has a circular camera bump, which has become a staple for Nokia phones, with the Zeiss logo in the middle.

There’s a side-mounted fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button on the right edge, with the volume rocker just above it. The scanner is a little high, but depending on your hand size you might reach it fine. The phone also has a USB-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack, and on the left edge there’s a Google Assistant button.

We don’t know an IP rating just yet, but will update this article when we hear one.

If you’re looking for a big-screen phone this could be a good choice - it’s 6.67 inches across, broken up by a punch-hole cut-out for the front-facing camera, and surrounded by a relatively thick bezel.

The resolution is 1080 x 2400, with a 60Hz refresh rate - if you like high-refresh-rate devices, which you can easily find at this price, the X20 isn’t one for you. We found the LCD screen looked pretty good for its price, as images were relatively sharp, though the max brightness was a little low at 450 nits.

Nokia X20 review: cameras and battery life

• Quad-lens camera
• 64MP primary sensor

There are four rear cameras on the Nokia X20, which is a large number but not an unusual one. They are: a 64MP main, 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth-sensing and 2MP macro snapper. There’s also a 32MP front camera. If you know your phones, you’ll know this combo is pretty similar to the Moto G9 Plus, but with a lower-res ultra-wide and higher-res selfie camera.

Photos we took were… okay, but a few issues we’ve found with previous Nokia phones are back. Images look a little over-sharp, and the dynamic range leaves a lot to be desired too. This latter problem was doubly the case on the ultra-wide camera.

Selfies looked a bit better, but the same issues still linger. The Portrait mode was a bit prone to blurring our hair, as well as the background, but maybe that’s our fault for our particular ‘do’.

It's worth pointing out software can be quite influential on how phone photos look, and as we said we used an early unit of the phone, so perhaps some of our issues will be ironed out for the final model.

Video recording goes up to 1080p at 60fps. There’s a Cinema mode, meant to imitate the Pro videography modes some other smartphones have, but with a max resolution of 1080p we don’t envision many people using it professionally.

The battery here has a 4,470mAh capacity, which is a fair size for a phone at this price point, and from our initial testing, it feels big enough to easily see the phone through a day of use. 

Charging is far less impressive though, at a measly 18W, which guarantees a several-hour charge time. That’s slow even for a phone at this price, where at least 30W is the norm and some phones go up to 50W or even 65W.

Something different here, though, is that the Nokia X20 doesn't come with a charging cable or block in the box - you’ll have to provide your own. Clearly HMD Global is following in Apple and Samsung’s footsteps, in an act to cut down on e-waste, though the company’s quest for environmental conscientiousness would seem more genuine if the Nokia X20’s five contemporary siblings followed suit.

As such, you’ll have to use your own USB-C charger to power up the phone, and buy one if you don’t already own one, though given the vast majority of gadgets already use USB-C, we imagine few people don’t own such a cable.

Nokia X20 review: performance and software

• Uses a low-end Snapdragon 480 chipset
• Feels slow in use

Now for the big issue with the Nokia X20: it’s far weaker than its rivals. It uses the low-end Snapdragon 480 chipset, while the three phones we listed earlier all use Snapdragon 700-series processors (for context Qualcomm has five lines of Snapdragon chipset, from the super low-end and hardly used 200-series, up to the low-end 400-series, then the 600, the 700, then 800, with each line getting more powerful).

The phone feels fairly slow to use, and when put through the Geekbench 4 benchmark test, it returned a fairly low score of 1,529, where we’d expect a phone at this price to be closer to 1,700. 

So this isn’t quite a phone for mobile gamers, or people who’ll need lots of power for anything. But it’s not ideal for other users either, as scrolling through menus feels just a bit slower than on many other phones, thanks to irregular stutters and freezes.

As with the camera performance, though, the low score could be a result of our early production unit, and perhaps software optimizations could bump that 1,529 a little higher. Stay tuned for our full review to see.

One potential redeeming feature is that the phone supports 5G, so if you need next-gen connectivity it’s a low-cost option.

As we’ve said, we tested the phone on non-final software (which may also explain the stutters), but we can cover the basics: the phone runs on Android 11, and it’s ‘stock’ Android as Google designed it, without an interface laid over the top. Expect basically the same experience as on Pixel phones.

One real benefit to getting the Nokia X20, is that it’s guaranteed to receive three years of software updates, so you’ll definitely be able to run Android 14 on it - this comes from HMD Global itself, as a pledge to support its older devices for longer.

Nokia X20 review: early verdict

The Nokia X20 would be a fine phone for its price, if it wasn’t for how competitive the premium-mid-range market segment has become - as it stands, the phone doesn’t have the features or specs to really compete with its rivals.

If the phone was £100 (or equivalent) cheaper than it is, it’d be really easy to recommend. But it isn’t. Of course, our impressions are based on an early model of the phone which could have its rough edges sanded down for the final release, and our full review will clear this all up.

If you really care about getting the newest version of Android as soon as possible, you might be able to ignore that verdict - HMD Global’s three-year promise is really great, as you’ll be receiving software updates far longer than most other phones. 

If that’s you, it might be waiting for the Nokia X20 to hit the sales, though, so it hits that value-for-money proposition a little more.

Also consider

If our hands-on Nokia X20 review has you considering other options, here are three more smartphones to consider.

First reviewed: April 2021

• These are the best Nokia phones

There’s no Nokia 10 yet, but the company has just revealed six new affordable phones that are designed to offer top experiences at lower prices than their flagship competition.

Unlike previous Nokia smartphones, HMD Global - the company behind the brand - has repositioned its lineup to include three new series called the Nokia X, Nokia G and Nokia C series.

The six new phones are the Nokia X10, Nokia X20, Nokia G10, Nokia G20, Nokia C10 and Nokia C20. The highest spec comes on the Nokia X20, while the cheapest phone is the Nokia C10.

• Our hands on Nokia X20 review
• These are the best cheap phones right now
• The best Nokia phones right now

Nokia X20 and Nokia X10

The Nokia X20 or Nokia X10 aren’t flagship phones for the brand - that is still the Nokia 9 PureView - but this is the most high-end duo of these new handsets from the company.

The Nokia X20 and Nokia X10 both feature a 6.67-inch Full HD+ display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 chipset, 5G connectivity and a 4,470mAh battery.

The Nokia X20 then features a 64MP main camera with a 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro camera as well. Selfie shots will be taken with a 32MP front-facing camera, and you have the choice of a variant with 6GB or 8GB of RAM with both offering 128GB of storage.

If you opt for the Nokia X10, you’ll get a 48MP main camera with a 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro. Selfies are then on an 8MP front-facing shooter. 

You’ve got the choice of three variants here, 6GB of RAM with either 64GB or 128GB of storage or one with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The Nokia X20 comes in a color called Nordic Blue, or Midnight Sun (which is a golden shade) while the Nokia X10 comes in Forest (that’s green) or a white variant called Snow.

The Nokia X20 will launch in May in the UK, but we don’t yet have a specific date for when it’ll be available with the Nokia X10 following in June this year. The Nokia X20 will start at £299.99 (about $400, AU$550) and the Nokia X10 costs £249.99 (about $350, AU$450).

HMD Global has yet to confirm whether any of these new handsets will be coming to the US, and we'll update this article when we hear more on that.

Nokia G20 and Nokia G10 

If you opt for the Nokia G20 or Nokia G10, you shouldn’t expect high-end specs but these look to be well-built smartphones for how much they're set to cost.

Both these phones feature a 6.5-inch display with a HD resolution and a 5,500mAh battery, but that is where the similarities stop.

The Nokia G20 features a Mediatek G35 2.3GHz chip with 4GB of RAM, with the Nokia G10 switching it for a Mediatek G20 2.0GHz chipset with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM.

Your storage choices on the G20 include 64GB or 128GB, while the G10 is lower at either 32GB or 64GB of space.

The camera on the Nokia G20 is a 48MP main shooter with a 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro shooter and 2MP depth shooter (which sounds remarkably similar to the Nokia X10) with an 8MP camera for selfies.

You’re able to buy the phone in a dark blue color called Night, or a light blue color called Glacier.

The Nokia G10 switches that for a 13MP main shooter, 2MP macro and 2MP depth sensor alongside an 8MP front-facing selfie camera. Your color options are the same Night dark blue as the G20 or a Dusk color that looks to be purple.

The Nokia G10 is set to land by the end of April in the UK, and it'll cost £109.99 (about $150, AU$200). with the Nokia G20 following in May for £129.99 (about $180, AU$230).

Nokia C20 and Nokia C10

 The Nokia C20 comes with a 6.5-inch display with a HD resolution, a 1.6GHz chipset, the choice of either 1GB or 2GB of RAM and a main 5MP camera. It's set to cost £79 (about $110, AU$140) in the UK, and it'll be landing in June.

The Nokia C10 has a similar sized display with a HD resolution, a 1.3GHz chipset and the choice of 1GB or 2GB of RAM. HMD Global doesn't plan to bring this phone to the UK, and we've yet to hear where it'll be launched.

All six of these smartphones have some similarities too, so every handset we’ve mentioned here will come running Android 11 right out of the box. It’ll also have the company’s promise of three years of software updates.

Each handset also supports microSD cards up to 512GB if you’re in search of more storage, and each has a 3.5mm headphone jack too.

• The very best Android phones you can buy right now

Two-minute review

In years past, the name ‘Nokia’ had significant heft in the mobile phone market. Even in its Windows Phone-hued twilight years, it was a brand name that had cachet, one which was a byword for robustness and quality. That period, however sweet, has long since passed, and in the present its new owner has everything to prove.

HMD Global has been, for some time, trying to breathe new life into the legendary Finnish name, and has achieved some notable successes. The 5.4 is its latest ploy to reclaim a little of the luster that Nokia possessed, in the budget arena that it once owned wholesale.

Upon picking up the Nokia 5.4, the plastic frame and rear do not inspire confidence, however with use it becomes apparent that this is a tough little customer. It is very difficult to twist or flex, a testament to the thought which has gone into its design.

Aside from this, on the front you'll find an 19.5:9 aspect ratio screen, a punch-hole selfie camera, and a ‘Nokia’ logo, making this very much a generic 2021 phone through and through.

The rear is a little more daring, with a pleasing blue gradient (in our 'Polar Night' review unit) which catches the light at odd angles. The four cameras are housed in a circular arrangement which is clearly intended to invoke the legendary Lumia 1020, with a fingerprint sensor underneath.

This isn’t a phone which will stand out on the street, but it's one which very much feels as though it will stand up to the pressures of everyday life.

The screen, at 6.39 inches and 720p, is not a resolution champion. At this price point, and below, good 1080p panels have been utilized by the competition, notably Xiaomi, for some time. That the Nokia 5.4 misses out is a shame, as text and games can appear noticeably jagged.

On other points, for saturation and brightness, we were pleased, however. The panel isn’t washed out and it's viewable outdoors, but the overall impression isn’t great.

This impression continues when it comes to the chipset and performance. The Snapdragon 662 is not a new chip, and paired with 4GB of RAM it is enough to see Android perform reasonably but never excel. Opening heavy apps and complex games will see frame rates plunge, and in general navigation a number of noticeable ‘hiccups’ will occur with inconvenient regularity. Multi-tasking is generally a chore.

Cameras are not a strong suit either. Having ‘quad’ before the word ‘cameras’ is sometimes a sign of valuing quantity over quality of output, and here that rule applies. The 48MP main shooter turns out hugely over-sharpened 12MP stills in good daylight, and things go south from there - the 2MP macro shooter is a particular disappointment.

The 5MP ultra-wide sensor captures little detail too, and possesses only a very narrow dynamic range. Camera performance at this price point is only improving with time, here Nokia appears to have missed the memo.

Battery life is a generally positive area, however. We found that it was never possible to defeat the Nokia 5.4 across a single day of usage, and that it was equally impossible to make it reliably into a second day. Fast charging is available, although there is no fast charger available in the box. Standby times were a particular high point, emphasizing the efficiency of the software as well as the size of the battery.

Software is an interesting mishmash, with Nokia - through HMD Global - taking a distinctly different approach to the competition. Where others are going their own way with Android, Google included, Nokia is steadfastly sticking to an almost ascetic, ‘pure’ version featuring only Google apps.

On the one hand, this means that the interface is generally uncluttered and simple, and on the other it means the device is almost completely devoid of personality. Though certainly usable and simple, many of the ‘value-adds’ offered by the likes of Samsung are nowhere to be seen.

Other positives include the presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack, a loud and clear speaker arrangement, and surprisingly solid Bluetooth audio chops, offering a solid connection that other phones often lack.

The budget phone market is one of the most competitive around, as everyone wants a slice. Nokia has the brand name awareness, but with the 5.4 it doesn’t necessarily have a phone which is going to leave a mark.

With a plastic design, bland software, poor cameras and a cut-price screen, it has many of the perceived negatives of going ‘budget’ without corresponding returns. With a killer feature, or stellar performance in a specific area, the sacrifices may have seemed worthwhile, but currently this is a likeable phone which is nonetheless completely outclassed by its competition.

Nokia 5.4 release date and price

• Out now in the US, UK and Australia
• Costs $249.99 / £159.99 / AU$329

The Nokia 5.4 is available now in the US, the UK and Australia, with prices starting at $249.99 / £159.99 / AU$329. It's available in a choice of Polar Night or Dusk, also known as blue or purple.

Design

• Robust plastic build
• Unreliable fingerprint scanner
• Feels lacking for the money

If classic Nokia was known for one thing, it was design. Though it didn’t always produce the most chic or stylish handsets, the brand had a reputation for producing phones which could take every knock, crash or bang in their stride without flinching.

This was understandably easier in the days when phones were smaller, lighter and made primarily of plastic. Nonetheless, the Nokia 5.4 has clearly been produced with robustness, if not outright ruggedness, as a goal.

The handset weighs a not inconsiderable 181g, it definitely has a presence in the hand but its overall heft inspires confidence. It is well-balanced too, which makes one-handed use easier in general.

On the front can be found the 6.39-inch screen and a punch-hole camera, and below these there's a muted Nokia logo. The right side of the device houses the volume rocker and power button, complemented by a Google Assistant button on the left, a headphone jack up top, and a USB-C port on the bottom. The Google Assistant button cannot be remapped to another useful function, which is unfortunate.

Housed on the rear of the device in a circular ‘Oreo’ can be found the four cameras, with a fingerprint sensor underneath. We found this to be generally unreliable and a bit of a liability in day-to-day use, so hopefully the performance is something which can be tweaked with a software update.

Despite the plastic frame and rear, the Nokia 5.4 feels well-constructed, though decidedly not premium. At this price point we would have liked to have seen something as a value-add, at the moment the device feels no different than something priced even lower.

Whether extra glass in the construction, a little aluminum or an extra flourish, a little extra je ne sais quoi is needed to justify the entry price.

The available color options, blue and purple (Polar Night and Dusk) are both pleasant enough if understated - either will fit into everyday life easily.

Display

• 6.39-inch 720 x 1560 screen
• Reasonable quality but can't match the competition

We know in 2021 that resolution, though important, is not everything. The iPhone 11 is a device costing upwards of $599 / £599 / AU$999, which also comes with a ‘HD+’ panel in tow, so such a panel on a handset with a lower asking price should therefore be excusable.

The 6.39-inch LCD display on the Nokia 5.4 is certainly competent. It can get decently bright and so competes well with strong sunlight, and it represents color well, if a little cool for our liking. All well and good then, except when the question of the competition is raised.

Most, if not all, of the competitors to the Nokia 5.4, especially from Xiaomi, offer 1080p panels at the same price point (and sometimes lower). This is a good panel, but at 720 x 1560 (and around 269 pixels per inch) it doesn’t have the numbers to compete in the marketing game with a suite of players that is only growing bigger and stronger with every passing quarter.

The 19.5:9 aspect ratio keeps the device relatively svelte in the hand, if a little tall generally. This extra height of course provides extra reading space, though the relatively low resolution means that text is often noticeably jagged.

In all, while this display will certainly be good enough for most people, most of the time, there is a lack of ambition present, which is to the detriment of the overall feel of the device. A phone should ideally not feel exactly what it costs, the Nokia 5.4 unfortunately does.

Camera

• Quad-lens camera but the lenses aren't great
• Intuitive camera app
• Washed out colors in photos

Camera quality is, of course, almost the primary metric by which phone performance is measured. Where performance, battery life, display quality and more have all plateaued in terms of their potential for the moment, and at the price point, there is still ground to cover for cameras.

Google took a huge leap in 2020 with the Pixel 4A, offering highly competent camera performance for $349 / £349 / AU$599, and the moment is ripe for a similar leap at an even lower price point. Despite Nokia’s historic camera chops, the Nokia 5.4 is not a performer in this area.

It does come with four snappers on the rear and one on the front. These are the standard 48MP f/1.8, 2MP macro (fixed-focus), 5MP ultra-wide and 2MP depth sensor pairing, with a 16MP selfie camera up front.

The camera app takes clear inspiration from the Google Camera app available for Pixel devices. Options are clearly laid out and simple, it will never be a barrier to quick photo taking. An oddity is the inclusion of a ‘cinema’ mode, which intends to allow more control over video capture. Reminiscent of ‘pro’ modes in other smartphones for still shooting, the extra options are welcome, if not well-explained.

General performance is a mixed bag. Photos are usually quick to take, but suffer from a number of issues. Chief among these is over sharpening. Every edge comes highlighted with a tell-tale halo, with foliage in particular suffering. Although photos will look okay zoomed out at a fit-to-screen size, going any closer will reveal oil painting-like textures.

Dynamic range is generally lacking, color tends to be washed out and cold, and the app will generally take a while to get a focus lock, which can be an irritation. The macro camera is, as with almost every other 2MP sensor at the price point, completely useless, while the 5MP ultra-wide captures with neither detail nor dynamic range and so also struggles to justify its existence.

The included Night Mode does the usual software tricks to improve low-light performance, being several long exposures merged. In general it produces better low-light pictures than the ‘standard’ shooting mode, with more detail and color brought out, but it doesn’t challenge the best.

Video performance is especially lacking, capped by the low bit-rates available, while selfies are at best competent. Footage captured with the cinema mode engaged can look a little like ‘bigfoot discovery’ b-roll submitted to mystery shows - which is not a flattering comparison.

At the budget level, there are always compromises to be expected - and the camera on the Nokia 5.4 feels like a big compromise. Although there are moments of promise, and generally competent performance, this is an area where the competition is doing more, and better, leaving the Nokia outgunned and outclassed. One good sensor rather than four middling options would have been a very satisfactory alternative.

Camera samples

Specs and performance

• Snapdragon 662 chipset and 4GB of RAM
• Generally acceptable performance
• Struggles under pressure

Long gone are the days when buying a budget phone meant a significant sacrifice in terms of speed and experience compared to more expensive models. More often than not, and especially at the $200/£150+ range, modern handsets come running decent chipsets paired with enough RAM to keep things trundling along well.

The Nokia 5.4 falls nicely into this bracket. It uses a Snapdragon 662 chipset paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which should be enough storage for most across the duration of a standard two-year phone contract.

Built on a 11nm fabrication process, the Snapdragon 662 promises a marriage of performance and efficiency, and we found it made its way through Android without too much of a hitch. It does not take much to cause the Nokia 5.4 to build up a sweat, however. Any heavy app or form of multitasking will cause noticeable lag.

In Geekbench 5, the phone achieved a single-core score of 307 and a multi-core score of 1,387. While artificial performance metrics do not translate into real life experience, this is nonetheless a reasonable result for the price bracket.

The generally acceptable performance is aided at least a little by Nokia’s pared back approach to software. This is a conscious decision on the part of the firm, offering close to what used to be called a ‘stock’ version of Android.

The effect is somewhat diluted now by the presence of so many ‘Google’ branded apps which are now a core part of the Android experience. The lack of any Nokia software on hand means that this feels more like a ‘Google’ phone than a ‘Nokia’ phone.

It then also means that the phone is almost completely generic to use. It works well, the launcher is cleanly laid out, and it is simple to navigate, but there is no sense of a designed experience being approached. Nokia’s approach to software is defined almost more by its absence than any particular idea.

More philosophical points aside however, this is a phone which will function perfectly well for most. An added bonus is Nokia’s stated commitment and decent track record for offering long-term support for updates, meaning that this device has a degree of future proofing to pad out its useful lifespan.

Battery life

• 4,000mAh battery
• Easily lasts a day

A strange trend which has developed over previous years has been the emergence of stellar battery life as a hallmark particularly of budget phones, especially when compared to their more expensive high-end counterparts.

This is due often to a pairing of a large capacity battery with a low-power chipset, which describes well the situation with the Nokia 5.4. Although its pack will not trouble the likes of the Moto G9 Power, at 4,000mAh it is nonetheless sizeable.

In general use, bearing in mind that this is during lockdown - with a lot less travel than might be possible in ‘normal’ times - we were never able to kill the battery before the end of any particular day.

On our heaviest day, using the device as a sat nav for around an hour, listening to an hour of music over Bluetooth, and generally responding to messages and watching videos, we were able to eke out over four hours of screen-on time.

This will not be representative for many, as performance in this area will hinge on particular use cases, but it is encouraging. For most kinds of users, this will be a phone which will meet their needs and then some, though power users may wish to look elsewhere.

A pleasant inclusion is reasonably fast charging. Although it will not trouble the likes of the Realme 7, we were able to top up by around 40% in 30 minutes.

Should I buy the Nokia 5.4?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: March 2021

There are both official and unofficial Nokia updates to share this weekend. First the official news: Nokia brand owner HMD Global has announced a launch event for April 8, when we're presumably going to be given a look at its next premium-level smartphone.

The event invite uses the hashtag #LoveTrustKeep and has an image of a man staring up at a canopy of trees. We're not sure we can glean anything from those clues about what might be in store, but feel free to use your own imagination.

We haven't heard too much in the way of Nokia rumors recently, but one possibility for what's getting launched at this event is the Nokia 10 – the long-awaited sequel to the highest-specced phones currently in the Nokia range, Nokia 8.3 5G and the Nokia 9 Pureview.

• OnePlus 9 Pro camera analysis
• Nokia 10 name leaks out
• Making games more accessible

NokiaPowerUser has some interesting inside information that could be relevant here: its sources are reporting that a new Nokia phone is on the way with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 775 processor on board and a 108MP primary camera as one of five cameras fitted around the back.

What's in a name?

NokiaPowerUser goes on to point out that the Nokia G10 name has been spotted in regulatory filings, and Nokia's rather stretched naming strategy for its smartphones could certainly use a nice clean reboot.

More details revealed in the leak suggest 4K/60 fps  video recording support, on-board 5G, and compatibility with the latest Wi-Fi 6E networks and devices. It would seem that we're looking at a mid-to-premium-range phone here.

None of this is guaranteed yet, and we had heard previously that Nokia was readying a handset powered by the Snapdragon 875 processor, now announced and available as the Snapdragon 888. It's possible that several different models are in the pipeline.

Something is coming on April 8 though, whether it's the Nokia G10, a flagship phone with a different name, or neither of those two options. No doubt we'll hear a few more rumors and predictions about what's in store between now and then.

• Best Nokia phones 2021: find the right Nokia smartphone for you

The next James Bond movie - No Time To Die - has been delayed so much that it's currently scheduled to come out almost two years after its original release date, and a new rumor suggests it may need reshoots to include new product placement such as its Nokia phones.

The film franchise previously teased a partnership with HMD Global, the company that makes modern Nokia devices, but by the time the film is released it'll be using older devices, such as the Nokia 8.3 5G.

TechRadar spoke to one of the film's stars Lashana Lynch in 2020 who confirmed the film featured the Nokia 8.3 5G, Nokia 7.2 and a classic Nokia 3310. That may no longer be the case when the film is released, though, as industry insiders report there may be reshoots to replace product placement.

• Upcoming phones: what we're excited for next
• The very best Nokia phones you can buy right now
• How to watch the James Bond movies in order

According to industry sources speaking to The Sun - a British newspaper that has a good track record of leaks relating to the James Bond film franchise - some of the product placement is outdated in the film itself.

The source said, "By the time the movie comes out now it will look like Daniel Craig and all of the other cast members are carrying something that has been out for ages. 

"That isn’t really the point of these deals. The big tech firms want the stars to have all the new up-and-coming products to help promote them and sell them to fans. It means some of the scenes are going to have to be very carefully edited and looked at to bring things up to date.”

A PureView to a Kill

That doesn't specifically cite HMD Global as one of the brands, but it's well known that the company has a product placement deal attached to No Time To Die so it may be that Nokia devices are set for this treatment.

Other brands featured in the film include Omega watches and Adidas trainers. 

An interesting element to this story is that Nokia hasn't released another flagship phone to takeover from the Nokia 8.3 5G, so it may be the company uses an upcoming handset in the film itself.

It may be that the producers of Bond are looking at other product placement in the movie for the reshoots, or it could just be that the film comes out with James Bond using a slightly older smartphone that many fans aren't likely to pick up on. We probably won't know for sure until October 2021 when the film is now scheduled to be released.

• Everything we know so far about the Nokia 10

Via GSMArena

Xiaomi currently holds the top two spots of our best cheap phones list, with the Poco X3 NFC and Redmi Note 9S, but in a competitive market it can't hold that throne without a fight, and it looks like Nokia is making a play for the crown.

HMD Global, which makes Nokia phones, has just unveiled the Nokia 5.4, a new budget phone that'll be rolling out to various regions from late-2020.

• These are the best Nokia phones
• Check out our Nokia 8.3 5G review
• When is the mythical Nokia 10 coming out?

This new handset costs €189, which converts roughly to $230, £170, AU$300. HMD Global stated it'll be available in some regions before December 25, but will only come to Europe in the new year. Apparently, no definitive US release has been pencilled in yet, but it could come to that region as well before too long.

We haven't tested the phone yet, so can't really compare it to Xiaomi's two heavyweights just yet, but if you read the specs below you'll see it's definitely a contender.

Nokia 5.4 specs

The Nokia 5.4 has a 6.39-inch LCD display with a HD+ resolution. Like many of HMD Global's newer handsets, it's broken up by a punch-hole cut-out for the selfie camera in the top left of the display.

The phone's design is fairly standard for a Nokia phone - there's a circular camera bump with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor below it, and a plastic build.

There are five cameras here, with a 16MP snapper on the front and four rear cameras led by a 48MP shooter and joined by a 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth and 2MP macro camera. One intriguing new feature of the phone is the ability to add custom watermarks to photos, not just the typical 'Taken on ____' you'll see on most phones. This could be a cool way to add your own flair to snaps.

The battery here is 4,000mAh, and HMD Global says the phone will last two days on a charge. We'll have to test out that claim when we write our full review, because 4,000mAh doesn't seem enough to provide that much use.

Inside the Nokia 5.4 you'll find a Snapdragon 662 chipset, which we've seen in the Moto G9 Play as well as other devices. We haven't heard about RAM or storage yet. The phone runs Android 10, though Nokia phones often get Android updates quite quickly, so an Android 11 upgrade might be pending.

Expect a full Nokia 5.4 review when we get the device into our labs.

• The Nokia 3310 is 20 years old – here's what made it special

Looking for a phone that can help you capture it all? The Nokia 8.3 5G is the creativity powerhouse you need in your pocket with a powerful quad PureView camera that uses Zeiss optics, and everything else you'd need from a smartphone.

What makes things even better is the Nokia 8.3 5G is discounted this holiday season and you're able to get £150 off the handset from now until January 11.

With a 64MP main camera that uses Quad Pixel technology, the Nokia 8.3 5G is designed for those who want to be able to snap away at everything in their life. There are a variety of modes included to help you express your creativity.

5G connectivity allows the phone to connect to the fastest mobile internet networks on the planet, and means you’re able to upload your photos and video to social media platforms, cloud storage or just send them directly to your friends in an instant.

Mastering night shots

A smartphone camera made in partnership with the household name in optics Zeiss may already sound good enough, but there's a lot more to explore about the camera on the Nokia 8.3 5G.

The Night mode on the 8.3 5G allows for more details and less noise in poor lighting thanks to large super pixels that draw in more light than you'd expect from the average smartphone. That allows you to film or take photos that impress in lower light settings, and means your smartphone camera works equally well at all times of day.

A technology called pixel binning allows the 64MP camera to work phenomenally well in a variety of scenarios. It's not just low-light where this camera exceeds expectations, and the detail of all shots is impressive.

Phenomenal Portraits

A 2MP depth sensor may not sound much to start with, but this element is used to create great portrait shots using a bokeh effect - that's where the image is blurred around a subject - giving you another way to get creative with your photography.

This will work on a variety of objects too, so it's not just something you'll be using for portrait shots of people. You can use it on pets or objects to highlight areas of your shooting and make some different artistic choices.

Want to put your own stamp on the image? The Nokia 8.3 5G allows you to watermark your photos directly in the camera app as well so you won't need to process them to be sure they'll always be recognised as yours.

Creative closeups and great selfies

Not every phone is able to offer great close up photography, but the Nokia 8.3 5G can guarantee great shots with its 2MP macro camera that allows you to get even closer to your subject without losing quality.

Looking for a front camera that can truly perform in 2020 during the age of video calls? Your smartphone may be able to compete with your home webcam now as the Nokia 8.3 5G comes with a 24MP front-facing shooter that is designed with video calling in mind.

It's also a powerful tool for taking selfies, or shooting personal video, directly on your front camera as well so your sparks of creativity don't have to be limited to just the rear camera.

And it's even cheaper right now

The camera is the main highlight of the Nokia 8.3 5G, but this smartphone isn't just about its photography prowess. It's powerful with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G.

The 6.81-inch Full HD+ screen with a 20:9 aspect ratio is going to be perfect for showing off your video and photos you've taken with the phone's many cameras too. It has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 and uses the company's patented PureDisplay technology to make everything you watch shine as best as possible.

Plus, the Polar Night colour will be the envy of all your friends and family as it takes inspiration from arctic skies - Nokia phones come from Finland after all - that distills a unique look onto the rear of your phone.

With the holiday season upon us, the Nokia 8.3 5G is now cheaper than ever with the price dropped by £150 on Nokia.com. You'll be able to buy the phone until January 11, but act quick to ensure you’re not disappointed. 

• Be sure to follow @NokiaMobileUK on both Facebook and Instagram

Two-minute review

The Nokia 3.4 is a low-cost phone sure to appeal to those looking for something they can buy outright without spending a fortune.

First impressions are good. Sure, it feels a bit cheap, but the screen is perfectly solid and the Android One interface has a clean look similar to what you’d see with the Google Pixel 4a.

You’ll realize the Nokia 3.4 is more of a mixed bag within a day or two. Some of you will eat up the 32GB of storage almost instantly, particularly if you want to install a couple of big games and have a large WhatsApp image library to import.

The phone becomes unreliable when storage gets low too. Free up some more space and things improve, but the Nokia 3.4 is still slow. There’s regular lag before the keyboard pops up, as app interfaces load, and as you move between apps.

It’s not smash-your-head-through-a-window slow, but Motorola, Realme, Oppo and Xiaomi phones for similar money run much better. Don’t even think about trying Fortnite. It runs, but spends a significant amount of time at 0fps.

The cameras are fairly poor too.

We shouldn’t expect too much from the Nokia 3.4, and its long battery life might make up for these performance problems if you only want to ‘do the basics’. But these are affected by the phone’s slow feel too. We recommend a Moto G8, Realme 6 or Oppo A5 2020 instead.

Nokia 3.4 price and release date

• Out now
• Costs $179 / £130 / AU$249

The Nokia 3.4 is out now in the US, the UK, and Australia with a price of $179 / £130 / AU$249.

That puts it at the low end of smartphone pricing, in line with the likes of the Alcatel 3L (2020).

Design

• Punch-hole screen looks good
• Back feels as plastic as it is
• Weak speaker

If your budget only stretches to something like the Nokia 3.4, you have to accept a few things. You’re not going to get a phone made of glass and metal, or one with a fancy in-screen fingerprint scanner.

But that does not mean it needs to seem cheap all-round.

The Nokia 3.4 still has some nice touches. Its punch-hole screen was considered a sign of a higher-end phone just a year or so ago. The screen borders are similar to those of a much pricier mid-range phone. And the display is large enough for comfy video watching. It even has a reasonably attractive circular camera housing on the back.

Still, “this feels kind of cheap” was the first thought we had on picking the Nokia 3.4 up. Most manufacturers use smooth curved plastic on the backs of their budget phones. It’s meant to look and feel like glass, even though it isn’t.

Nokia uses embossed plastic on the 3.4. Much as we want to applaud Nokia for not faking it by mocking up aluminum or glass, some smooth-backed rivals feel better.

This isn’t something most will dwell over for too long, though, and the Nokia 3.4’s back doesn’t flex as it sits right on the subframe and components inside.

The phone has a rear fingerprint scanner rather than a more on-trend side or in-screen one. It’s slower than some, taking around a second to unlock the Nokia 3.4. But in use it is perfectly fine, with no reliability issues. A slightly relaxed unlock is better than one that refuses to recognize your finger half the time.

There’s a Google Assistant button on the side, but you are far more likely to press it accidentally than deliberately. We can’t count the number of times the guy has piped up in our pocket.

You get a 3.5mm headphone jack, common in cheap phones like the Nokia 3.4 but not in higher-end ones. However, the speaker is weak. It’s thin, not very loud and uses just the one mono driver. Motorola’s G-series phones sound significantly better.

Display

• 6.39-inch LCD screen
• 720 x 1560 resolution
• Basic but fine for the money

The Nokia 3.4 has a 6.39-inch LCD screen, and it is one of the phone’s highlights.

Color is perfectly fine, contrast is good and maximum brightness is powerful enough to make the screen fairly clear outdoors. That is all we really ask for at this level.

It's also large enough to watch Netflix or YouTube videos on, without it seeming a desperate compromise.

You can get better if you spend a little more, of course. This is a 720 x 1560 display, a big step below the Full HD screen of a phone like the Realme 6. However, it is honestly not that glaring. Use the ‘Desktop’ mode in Chrome and small fonts will appear a little pixelated, but the rest of the interface looks reasonably sharp.

There is one more obvious sign this is not a top-quality screen. The very bottom of the Nokia 3.4's display is brighter than the rest, because it’s where the backlight LEDs sit. You can’t tell where these are in a truly great LCD phone screen.

A few of the Nokia 3.4’s elements bothered us, but display is not one of them. As you might guess, the phone does not support HDR, but again this is not a big issue at the price.

Camera

• 13MP main, 5MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth
• Mediocre results

The Nokia 3.4 has three rear cameras. There’s a 13MP primary, a 5MP ultra-wide and a 2MP depth aid. This is used in the Portrait mode, which blurs out the background.

Our favorite sub-$200/£200 phones can get surprisingly close to a high-end one when shooting an easy well-lit scene. The Nokia 3.4 is a league or two below these.

Even in perfect lighting, shots look a little fizzy and vague up close. Dynamic range is only okay even with the help of good baked-in HDR processing, and shots that use dynamic range optimization often have ‘ghosting’. This is where you see dual exposure of moving objects, caused by the delay between the multiple shots used to compose the image.

The Nokia 3.4’s low light images are poor, and while there is a Night mode, which attempts to brighten up the scene, we actually tend to prefer the photos taken using the standard Auto mode. Night tries to lift the shadows a little, but they end up so noisy the images look better without.

You can’t fix every face with better lighting.

Shooting images feels slow, particularly if you, for example, take an image from within WhatsApp rather than the camera app. Focusing is iffy as well. On reviewing the stack of images we took with the Nokia 3.4, a handful were not properly focused.

The Nokia 3.4’s camera performs at about the base level we’d expect at the price. Just. You can do better. Still, this does not mean the phone can’t take images worthy of Instagram. Shoot against a nice clean, blue sky and photos can look colorful and punchy.

A second field of view, the ultra-wide, is welcome too, even if its 5MP images are mediocre.

The Nokia 3.4’s video is extremely basic. It can shoot at up to 1080p, 30 frames per second. There’s no 60fps, no 4K. And, far more important, there is no stabilization. This means your handheld footage will look amateurish and shaky.

We get an 8MP selfie camera, and it’s perfectly respectable. Images get soft in lower light - no surprise there - but this is not an afterthought selfie shooter.

Camera samples

Specs and performance

• Snapdragon 460 chipset and 3GB of RAM
• Slow performance
• Runs Android One and comes with the promise of updates

The Nokia 3.4 has a Snapdragon 460 chipset and 3GB of RAM. This is an entry-level CPU with only just enough RAM to scrape by in Android 10, and you can feel it.

The Nokia 3.4 is quite slow. We can write off poor performance in 3D games or very demanding apps in cheap phones, but here it affects every interaction. The virtual keyboard often takes a beat to appear, and elements of apps pop up more slowly than other phones.

Things get worse if you multitask by, for example, streaming a podcast or radio station while using the Nokia 3.4.

There’s a low-level lethargy to everything here once you go beyond the basics of swiping between the home screens and app drawer. Apps may also crash if you let the Nokia 3.4 run low on space, suggesting the limited amount of RAM here forces Android to use the 32GB of storage for jobs that might otherwise be done using system memory.

Let’s put this in some context. Truly bad performance in an Android phone can make using a device a nightmare. The Nokia 3.4 isn’t that bad most of the time, but it is notably slower than the Oppo A5 2020, Moto G8 and Moto G8 Power.

Gaming is restricted too. By the time we had installed Fortnite and ARK: Survival Evolved, the Nokia 3.4 was already out of space - although this was exacerbated by WhatsApp’s image library taking up a few gigabytes.

Even after freeing up some room, Fortnite was completely unplayable. After a few seconds at reasonable (but low) frame rates, it effectively brought the phone to a halt, reading ‘0fps’. Our assumption is the Nokia 3.4’s 3GB of RAM just isn’t enough to run the game, because the Snapdragon 460 isn’t that weak.

This theory is confirmed by ARK: Survival Evolved. You can only run the game at ‘low’ graphics, but it runs perfectly well. And even looks good, despite the low-end graphics setting.

The Nokia 3.4 scores 1,188 (255 per core) in Geekbench 5, which is around 250 points less than a Snapdragon 665 phone like the Moto G8.

Reasonably good scores like this suggest, again, that the Nokia 3.4’s lethargy is caused by limited RAM. There is, after all, no extra layer of software to blame. The phone is part of the Android One program, which rules out the use of a third-party interface.

It also means the Nokia 3.4 is guaranteed an update to Android 11, and security updates for at least three years. This is a real selling point, particularly up against relatively little-known manufacturers that sometimes release phones and then leave them to wilt, update-free.

Note: we don’t mean Oppo, Realme or Xiaomi, but the more obscure names like Elephone.

Battery life

• 4,000mAh battery lasts a day or more
• 5W charging is very slow

The Nokia 3.4 has a few issues, but battery life is not one of them. This phone has a fairly ordinary-sounding 4,000mAh battery, but we found it outlasts most phones with this capacity.

It’s likely helped here by the lower-resolution screen and lower-power chipset. Even on heavy days that included several hours of audio streaming, far too much browsing of eBay for bargain buys, and many WhatsApp checks, the Nokia 3.4 ended up with at least 30% charge left.

Light users should find it lasts the two days Nokia claims. Battery life is the Nokia 3.4’s strongest aspect, alongside the decent screen. This phone is far from alone as a long-lasting cheap mobile, though, as the budget sector is where you find some of the largest batteries.

Battery charging is not so hot. The Nokia 3.4 has a puny 5W charger. It gets you from flat to 16% in 30 minutes. Rubbish.

Should I buy the Nokia 3.4?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

First reviewed: December 2020

The Nokia 10 (or the Nokia 9.3 as some sources are calling it) is a phone we have many questions about, with the two big ones being what it will be called and when it will launch. But we have some new information to help with that second question, and depending on how up to date with rumors you are it could either be good or bad news.

You see, according to Twitter leaker @nokia_anew, the Nokia 10 has been delayed until the first half of 2021. They’re positioning this as bad news, and indeed a delay is bad, but recently we’d heard that the phone might be delayed until the second half of 2021, so compared to that this is actually good.

It’s only really a delay if you were expecting the Nokia 10 to land in 2020, and while some reports had said that would happen, with us now just one month from the end of the year and no immediate sign of the phone, it wasn’t looking likely.

• These are the best Nokia phones
• Read our full Nokia 8.3 5G review
• Check out our Nokia 9 PureView review

The first half of 2021 could also mean a launch quite soon anyway. The source says they don’t know what month, but many major handsets tend to land in the first few months of a year, so the Nokia 10 might be among them in 2021. So we see this as good news.

Of course, this is just a rumor for now – it’s still possible that the Nokia 10 will land this year, or that it won’t land until the second half of 2021. It’s also worth noting that this wouldn’t be the first time the phone has been delayed, so we can’t rule further delays out either.

But if you’re hoping for a new Nokia flagship then based on this you might not have too much longer to wait – though you should probably scratch it off your Christmas list.

• Will the Nokia 10 be one of the best smartphones?

Via PocketNow

The Nokia 10 PureView has been in the news for over a year now without any official confirmation about its existence. A big new leak suggests that it might be delayed, but it might make a big jump to much better specifications compared 2019's Nokia 9 PureView.

New information about the upcoming flagship has now surfaced thanks to NokiaPowerUser which gives us a better idea about what to expect, and when. Based on the report, the Nokia 10 PureView will be unveiled some time in the second half of 2021, suggesting another big delay. 

The report says it'll be powered by the yet-unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 chipset, which will be Qualcomm’s next high-end chip that we expect to see in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S21 and OnePlus 9.

That's remarkable as the company didn't include the latest chipset available in its last flagship phone, and instead opted for an older technology.

• Nokia 10 release date, news, leaks and rumors
• Check out our Nokia 9 PureView review
• These are the best Nokia phones

The Nokia 10 PureView might also bring a new design, moving to a stainless steel chassis and a sapphire glass display.

The Nokia 9 PureView from early 2019 was not only the brand’s first flagship in a while, but it also brought some unique camera implementations that we’d never seen before. 

While it wasn’t as great as promised, a penta-camera arrangement with five identical sensors was an approach worth exploring. We'd expect the Nokia 10 PureView to do similar, but information on the rear camera is currently scarce. 

We'd expect an ambitious camera array this time, hopefully with more meaningful sensors such as an ultra-wide or a telephoto lens along with similar technology from Zeiss.

Previously, this device has been rumored to be called the Nokia 9.2 or the Nokia 9.3, following HMD Global’s simplified naming scheme. However, a leaked internal document suggested that it will be called the Nokia 10 instead.

• What you need to know about the iPhone 12 Pro Max

What's in a name? A lot, by the sounds of it, because it sounds like Nokia is struggling to name its next flagship. We've heard it could be the 9.2, 9.3, or even the Nokia 10, but a new leak has come down decisively on one of those three.

A leaked document, acquired by Nokia fan site Nokiamob, lays out loads of details about the company - so much so that the site opted not to publish the entire document, though that does mean it's way harder to validate this leak.

• These are the best Nokia phones
• Check out our Nokia 8.3 5G review
• What we know about the Nokia 10

One of the key takeaways is that there's only one phone named in the document - the Nokia 10. This was one of the names we'd heard for the new flagship Nokia phone, as in general terms 'higher numbers = better' for the brand's devices.

This is very compelling evidence that the new premium phone will be called that, and not the Nokia 9.2 or 9.3, though those certainly could be other devices we see at some point. Still, as we said it's hard to verify this leak.

The rest of the document is more business-oriented, naming key markets, sales figure plans and details about Nokia's relationship to Google - none of the information tells us anything else about the phone.

When could it come out?

It's hard to tell when the Nokia 10 will be announced, and even harder to guess when it will be released - the Nokia 8.3 5G was revealed at the beginning of 2020 but was only put on sale six months later, so it's anybody's guess.

That's likely an effect of Covid-19, but we'd heard about delays before that - after the Nokia 9 PureView launch, we heard a follow-up was planned for late 2019 or early 2020, but it was pushed back so the phone could use a newer chipset. Well, that 'new' chipset was the Snapdragon 865, but the phone still hasn't arrived, and we're expecting the 875 very soon, so it could soon become outdated.

There's no use guessing since Nokia doesn't abide by yearly release patterns like many other phone manufacturers, so we'll just have to wait and see.

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Via Pocketlint

Two-minute review 

Looking for a 5G phone with a respectable price tag? We’re starting to see them emerge, and the Nokia 8.3 5G is one of the latest handsets to offer the super-fast connectivity tech, alongside some pretty impressive mid-range specs.

Released by HMD Global – the company that owns the Nokia brand – the Nokia 8.3 5G is a mid-range phone offering strong power and performance, although it isn’t going to compete with the very best 5G phones on the market.

Instead, this is designed to be an affordable option that gives you 5G connectivity and a solid feature-set, all for a price that won’t make you wonder if you couldn’t just live with 4G for a little longer.

It boasts a large 6.81-inch Full HD+ display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G mobile chipset, and a strong rear camera array – as with other features and specs, the cameras aren’t going to compete with the very smartphone snappers, but in our testing we were able to capture some impressive-looking shots.

There’s a 4,500mAh battery inside, which we found saw us through a whole day on a single charge without any issues, and it arrives packing the latest Android 10 software out of the box.

All of this said, it’s difficult to get too excited about the Nokia 8.3 5G. There are other options for your next phone that offer similar features for less money, such as the OnePlus Nord or the Google Pixel 4a.

But the Nokia 8.3 5G is a strong handset overall, and it’s certainly worth considering if you’re looking for a phone that offers strong battery life, a large display and 5G connectivity.

Nokia 8.3 5G release date and price 

The Nokia 8.3 5G was unveiled at the beginning of 2020, but the phone was delayed, and didn’t come out until much later in the year. It's out now in the UK, so you're able to buy it right away.

Pre-orders are open in the US and Australia, but the release date differs in those two markets. It'll be released in the US on October 26, while in Australia it's out on October 15.

In the UK the Nokia 8.3 5G costs £499.99 for a model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, while in the US and Australia respectively you’ll be paying $699 or AU$899 for a version with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. 

It’s currently unclear whether any or all of those regions will get the other variant, but HMD Global hasn’t ruled out the possibility.

Design 

The design of the Nokia 8.3 5G is similar to what we’ve seen from HMD Global’s Nokia handsets in previous years, with a metal central band and Gorilla Glass on the rear of the phone. It comes with a ‘refracted light’ design that gives it a unique look rather than just a solid color. 

It’s only available in one color – a blue shade which HMD Global calls Polar Night. It's a unique finish that we found gave the phone an eye-catching look.

The phone itself is big, thanks to its large 6.81-inch display, which we’ll talk about in more detail shortly. We didn’t find it to be too large in the hand, but if you’re used to a phone with a smaller display you may struggle to use it comfortably.

The exact dimensions are 171.90 x 78.56 x 8.99mm, with the handset weighing in at 227 grams. It's not a light device, but the heft feels about right given its size.

The fingerprint sensor is housed in the power button on the right side of the handset, allowing you to wake the phone and unlock it with one press. We found the sensor to work well, enabling us to unlock the phone with minimal effort.

Above the power button is the volume rocker, which we found easy to reach, and on the left edge of the phone is a dedicated Google Assistant button. This is directly opposite the power button, and its sole purpose is to initiate Google Assistant so you can issue commands to launch apps and perform various tasks.

We found this button to be an annoyance, and we lost track of the amount of times we accidentally pressed it when we were holding the phone in our natural way. The button often got pressed when the phone was in our pocket too, meaning the handset would stop playing music to launch Google Assistant when we didn’t want it to.

You can turn off this feature in the settings, but you can’t reprogram it to do anything else,  meaning you’re left with a completely superfluous button. It seems like an odd choice by HMD Global to introduce this on the Nokia 8.3 5G, and we can’t see many people finding it useful.

On the bottom edge of the handset is a 3.5mm headphone jack, which you’ll appreciate if you’re someone who likes to use wired headsets with your phone. There’s a small lip at the bottom of the screen too, but otherwise most of the front of the device is taken up by the display.

Display 

The Nokia 8.3 5G features a 6.81-inch Full HD+ screen with an aspect ratio of 20:9. That means the screen is taller than those on most handsets, which means you get a larger screen without the phone feeling too large in the hand.

The screen’s FHD+ resolution is 1080 x 2400, which equates to a pixel density of 386 pixels per inch. That means the picture won’t look as sharp or detailed as you’d see on a QHD device, but we found it was fine for day-to-day tasks and viewing.

If you put this phone alongside a top-end device from the likes of Samsung or Apple you’d likely notice the difference, but we found this to be a nice-looking screen, with vibrant colors and good contrast.

It’s a bit of a shame that HMD Global has stuck with a 60Hz display refresh rate for the Nokia 8.3 5G, when even some mid-range phones are getting smoother-looking displays of 90Hz or above, but if this isn’t a feature you’ve experienced before you likely won’t miss it here. 

There’s a punch-hole for the selfie camera in the top-left corner of the display, but it’s fairly unobtrusive, and we didn’t get distracted by it too often.

Camera 

The rear camera array on the Nokia 8.3 5G comprises a 64MP f/1.89 main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide camera with an aperture of f/2.2, a 2MP macro snapper and a 2MP depth sensor.

This setup doesn't quite match the penta-lens array on the Nokia 9 PureView, but all the cameras will let you take shots that look good enough for sharing on social media. We found the main camera to take sharp and colorful images, but it never truly blew us away. 

It’s a stretch to call this a truly quad-camera setup, as the 2MP macro sensor proved to be mediocre throughout our usage and we also found the depth sensor didn’t make a huge difference to shots.

You’ll be shooting 16MP shots with the main camera by default, and to make the most of the 64MP capabilities you need to switch to the Pro mode. That’s easy enough to find, but it’s not entirely clear that you’re only shooting in 16MP if you don’t select Pro mode.

We found the auto mode was capable of capturing nice-looking daytime shots in good lighting – you can see a variety of images in the camera samples section below. It’s easy to switch to the ultra-wide mode when you want to cram more into the frame, and image quality is similar to the main camera.

There’s also a night mode at your disposal, but it’s not as impressive as similar modes on many other phones like the Google Pixel 4a. It allows you to capture shots that look a little brighter than would otherwise be the case, but it never truly impressed us.

For selfies, you’ll be using the 24MP shooter on the front of the Nokia 8.3 5G. We were able to get some impressive-looking snaps with this camera, and it performed well for video calls too.

The company has clearly put a focus on video here, with a few extra features such as 4K 24fps and a 21:1 cinematic mode, while there’s also a new Action Cam mode that’s specifically designed to capture smooth video, which uses a higher frame rate of 60fps to improve footage of fast-moving subjects. 

As with stills shooting, we found video recording on the Nokia 8.3 5G to be good, but nothing that’s going to trouble top-end handsets.

Camera samples 

Specs and performance 

The Nokia 8.3 5G is the first phone from HMD Global to support 5G, and the company is making a big deal of this fact, referring to this as the world’s first “global 5G smartphone”.

What does that mean? At launch, HMD Global believed the Nokia 8.3 5G supported more 5G bands than any other handset, although while that may have been true at launch, it’s unclear it it’s still the case 

That said, the phone is able to use a wide range of high-, mid- and low-frequency 5G bands.

Some rival 5G phones don't feature compatibility for bands such as n71 or n5, for example, which are used in more remote areas, but the Nokia 8.3 5G does. That should mean you get the best possible 5G signal from this phone, wherever you are.

We’ve used 5G on the device in a couple of scenarios, and we found it to work well. We haven’t been able to properly put the 5G connectivity through its paces, but if you’re excited about the next-gen connectivity standard you should be well catered for by this phone.

You’re not getting a top-end chipset inside this phone, with HMD Global employing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 chipset. That allows for 5G connectivity, but you won’t see the same performance levels as in handsets that use the flagship Snapdragon 865 Plus.

We found the phone had enough power for everything we wanted to do , though, with apps loading relatively quickly. Again, the Nokia 8.3 5G won’t compete with top-end flagships when it comes to performance, but neither should it feel sluggish in day-to-day use.

This phone is running Android 10 out of the box, and it’s the stock version, so it looks and feels as Google intended it to, without any bloatware.

The Nokia 8.3 comes in either a 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage variant or 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage. We’ve tested the 6GB of RAM version, and found it to work well but we’d recommend trying to go for the 128GB for that extra space if you can find it.

That said, some regions are only getting specific devices. For example, those in the UK will only have access to 64GB while those in the US will have 128GB as an option.

64GB of space isn’t much once you load up your apps, download some media and start taking photos and videos. There is at least microSD support for cards up to 400GB, but we’d recommend getting the higher-storage variant if it’s an option and your budget can stretch to it.

Battery life

With a large display and 5G capabilities to power, battery life is a potential issue for the Nokia 8.3 5G, but the good news is that we experienced impressive battery performance during our testing, with the phone never failing to make it through a full day on a full charge.

The battery is 4,500mAh, which is on the large size as power packs go. It’s quick to recharge, but you don’t get any extra features such as wireless or reverse charging – and while you can’t expect to get all the  bells and whistles of top-end handsets, some mid-range phones do offer the former.

The battery is certainly dependable though, and we found that we’d often get to the end of the day with 10-30% left in the tank, depending on how hard we’d pushed the phone – and after one day of particularly light usage we were at 40%.

Should you buy the Nokia 8.3 5G?

Buy it if...

Don’t buy it if 

First reviewed: September 2020 

The new Nokia 3.4 and Nokia 2.4 are official, and the new cheap phones are designed to offer some solid specs and functionality for a very affordable price.

As with previous generations of these phones, you'll be getting some low-end specs but the price is low as well. HMD Global is the company behind the new phones, as that's the company that owns the Nokia smartphone brand now. 

Nokia-branded phones are now confirmed to be included in new James Bond film No Time To Die, but these two new arrivals aren't the sort of devices you'd expect a special agent to use since - as noted - as they're cheaper models.

• The best Nokia phones right now
• Our Nokia 8.3 review is here too
• What we know about the iPhone 12

The new Nokia 3.4 is the higher spec device of the two, but it's still not going to compete with the likes of the new Nokia 8.3 5G. It costs £119 / $179 (around AU$210) and we've yet to get an exact price for those in Australia.

This phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 chipset, has a 6.39-inch HD+ display, and sports a 4,000mAh battery.

The camera includes a 13MP shooter, with a 5MP ultra-wide and 2MP depth sensor as well. There are three variants too: one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, another with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, while the top model has 4GB of RAM with 64GB of space.

Your color options are Fjord (blue), Dusk (purple) or Charcoal (black).

Both of these phones come with Android 10 software as standard, and HMD Global hasn't confirmed to TechRadar when you can expect to see Android 11 software land on them, but it will happen.

What about the Nokia 2.4?

The Nokia 2.4 is even cheaper at £99 / $139 (around AU$175), with the phone coming out in the UK in October. It'll be coming to the US soon too, but you won't be able to buy it in Australia.

The Nokia 2.4 features a 6.5-inch HD+ display, a MediaTek Helio P22 chipset, and a 13MP main camera that's paired with a 2MP depth sensing shooter.

There's a 4,500mAh battery inside to keep it powered, but you'll have the option of either 2GB of RAM with 32GB of storage or 3GB of RAM with 64GB of storage. The color options are the same as the Nokia 3.4 above.

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We haven't heard of any new Nokia phones for five months, since the Nokia 8.3 5G was announced (though it still hasn't seen a release). Well, there's a new Nokia event coming up very soon, though we don't know what for.

This new event was confirmed via an invite sent to press outlets, and it's set to happen on September 22 at 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm BST (1am AEST on September 23 in Australia).

That's just a day before the next Samsung Unpacked launch event on September 23, so it's going to be a busy week for phones fans.

• These are the best Nokia phones
• Check out our Nokia 5.3 review
• Here's what we know about the Nokia 10

What are we going to see at the event then? There's no clue from the invitation, but we can take a guess.

No-kia No-clue

There's a new top-end Nokia phone we've been expecting to hear about all year, which some are calling the Nokia 10 and others the Nokia 9.3 (as it's expected to be a newer version of the Nokia 9 PureView).

Maybe, though, we're about to finally hear release information about the Nokia 8.3 5G – it would be about time, as its specs will be considered outdated if HMD Global (which puts out phones under the Nokia name) waits much longer.

Many Nokia phones are affordable handsets or mid-range devices though, and this could be a launch event for that kind of device. We usually hear fewer leaks on this kind of device from the company though, so we're in the dark on what could be launched if this is the case.

Finally, let's throw out a wild-card suggestion: a Nokia foldable phone. A leaker suggested a foldable Nokia phone will be out by the end of 2020, and while that news came in January, before Covid-19 thoroughly messed up phone launch schedules (as well as many other, more important things), there's still a possibility we could see this foldable.

Whatever it is Nokia is launching, if we think you'll be interested we'll let you know, Stay tuned to TechRadar to find out what this new Nokia phone is.

• Nokia may launch its first foldable phone by the end of the year

With the flagship Nokia 9 PureView having launched back in February 2019 we’re overdue a successor, but it sounds like one is almost here, as a retailer has apparently begun listing an official clear case for the Nokia 9.3 PureView – which is expected to be the Nokia 10 in all but name.

We say apparently, because this information comes from a source speaking to NokiaPowerUser, and at the source’s request the site isn’t posting links or screenshots. However, the site claims to have confirmed that the listings are authentic.

Case listings usually suggest that a phone is launching imminently, especially when they’re official cases, since the maker of a handset will know exactly when the launch is happening and isn’t likely to share case details with retailers much in advance of that. So while we’d take this with a pinch of salt, it’s certainly a sign that the Nokia 9.3 PureView could land soon.

• These are the best Nokia phones
• Read our full Nokia 7.2 review
• The Google Pixel 5 is also expected soon

It’s still not clear exactly when, but this suggests a launch before the end of the year, which is in line with other recent rumors.

As for what the Nokia 9.3 PureView will offer when it does launch, we’ve heard rumors that it will have a high-end Snapdragon 865 chipset, 5G, and a very different camera configuration to the Nokia 9 PureView, though none of that is confirmed just yet.

But if a retailer really does have the official cases for the phone then all the details probably will be confirmed soon. TechRadar will bring you all the official information as soon as the phone is unveiled, so stay tuned for updates.

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Via GSMArena

After being bought and then ransacked for its mobile phone know-how by Microsoft, Nokia as we know it is gone. But there was a shining time in the final moments of the 20th century where we saw Nokia launch a string of successful handsets that, for a while, would lead it to dominate the mobile market as a whole.

Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, Nokia's line-up of straightforward mobile phones were loved by millions and made the Finnish telecoms company synonymous with class-leading mobile technology.

The Nokia 3310 was unveiled on September 1, 2000, making the phone now 20 years old. Below we're going to take you through the Nokia 3310, and what made it so special that it's still so fondly remembered today and was even revamped in 2017 as a new handset.

Its origin story

1996 saw the first of Nokia's 'smart' phones in the form of the 9000 communicator series that featured a data modem, internet access, email and more thanks to the built-in QWERTY keyboard and large 640 x 200 resolution screen.

It was in 1999 however, when the 3210 was born, that Nokia got the combination of price, size and features right for the mass market. The predecessor to the 3310, it featured usable SMS messaging, the beloved game Snake, and was the first affordable mobile phone to come to market with a fully internal antenna.

The success of the 3210 led Nokia to create the device that gets phone lovers the world over misty eyed: the 3310. This sleek, compact phone had all the features of the 3210, but in a smaller and lighter frame (133g vs 153g), many customisation options thanks to swappable front and rear panels, along with many other improvements to the internals and software.

It was the out-right resilience of this iconic handset that today puts it in the mobile phone hall of fame, that and the fact that it sold over 126 million units since its launch.

The specifications

Measuring 113 × 48 × 22 mm and weighing in at 133g, the Nokia 3310 wasn't the lightest phone around, but became well-known for feeling distinctly solid, while its smooth lines were afforded by using internal aerials rather than pointy external alternatives.

Though the display might not look much next to pixel-popping QHD screens on today's phones, the green-lit 84 x 48 pixel monochrome display was easily readable in bright light and had just enough detail to allow Nokia to add some character to the phone's UI and host playable games.

The top edge of the phone packed a wide power button, while the menu navigation is done through the up/down arrow keys, and menu selections chosen with the blue menu button.

The 'c' button acted as a 'back', 'undo' and 'delete' key, and the keypad always felt responsive - and could be easily cleaned if it didn't thanks to the removable facia.

Dual band 900/1800MHz support meant it would work on any European network, and though the 900mAh NiMH battery had an official standby time of 260 hours, most users of the 3310 will attest that it seemed to last almost infinitely between charges.

Alongside these ample specifications, a SIM-limited phonebook of 250 contacts, T9 predictive text input, 35 pre-loaded ringtones (and 7 slots for your own compositions) as well as a clock, stopwatch, timer, calculator and currency converter were all the 'smart' features you could ever want, or need, at that time.

The price

Though it may not sound so incredibly cheap next to today's bumper selection of budget smartphones, the 3310 launched at £129.99 (around $160, AU$210) on a pay-as-you-go contract through the likes of Orange in the UK (now part of EE), Cellnet (BT's O2 predecessor) and One2One (which later became T-Mobile).

Alternatively Vodafone would let you pick one up for just £29.99 with a 12 month contract (honestly, they used to exist).

By the end of the 3310's popularity in late 2003, it was retailing for less than £45 in the new Tesco Mobile supermarket displays, and later went on to become a refurbished phone of choice to be distributed to the third world very cheaply.

The Competitors

Motorola V8088: For those looking for a compact alternative to the 3310, Motorola's V8088 was the one. It featured voice dialling, WAP web browsing and came in 4 awesome colours. On top of that, you could even set a screensaver to preserve the pixels on the 96 x 64 resolution screen. Futuristic.

Ericsson T29: The T29 came along as an update to the popular T28 flip-phone, with an improved greyscale screen and an early version of WAP internet access. You could also answer the phone by flipping open the keyboard cover, which was incredibly cool.

Sagem MC920: Those on the Vodafone network in 2000 were heavily pushed toward the MC920, by French mobile phone company Sagem. They touted loud speaker phone and vibrating ringer as its major features, but the external aerial made it look considerably 'past it' compared to the 3310.

Nokia 8850: If you were a business bod with plenty of money, you would have probably chosen the 8890 over the 3310. Its chrome accents and sliding keyboard cover were very stylish for their time, and it was also smaller and much lighter than the 3310 'brick'.

Sharp J-SH04: Meanwhile in Japan, Sharp released the 'J-Phone', the first ever camera-phone with a color screen and a 0.1MP sensor. The Sha-Mail infrastructure allowed for the first ever type of picture messaging. It was way ahead of anything Europe or America had seen.

The successors & Nokia's demise

After the obvious success of the 3310 across Europe, it went on to spawn many other siblings. These included the improved 3315 which had a blue LCD and keypad backlight, became popular throughout Asia. The 3390 and 3395 were launched as alternatives for Northern America, whilst Australia got the 3315.

In 2001, the 3330 and 3350 models brought with them WAP internet access, allowing you to download Java applets (mostly games) along with memory for a further 100 phonebook entries on the phone itself.

By 2005, Nokia had launched true 3G smartphones such as the Nokia N80 which ran on the Symbian-based S60 software, and for the time featured a really usable 3MP camera and a full color screen.

In December of 2008, Symbian had already started to reach its peak and with the launch of the full keyboard-toting touchscreen N97 and candybar-style Nokia 5235 a year later, next to the iPhone and early Android handsets, the operating system was really starting to show its age.

The final swansong of Symbian came in early 2012 with a 41MP camera onboard in the form of the 808 PureView, which was widely regarded to be one of the best smartphone cameras of the time.

2011 saw Microsoft launch its first modern smartphone OS in the form of Windows Phone 7, which Nokia was keen to jump aboard, launching the Lumia 710 and 800 models at the Nokia World Conference in late October that year.

Many more Lumia models launched over the following two years, but with Windows Phone never quite gaining traction alongside meteoric Android and iPhone sales, on September 3 2013 it was announced that Microsoft intended to acquire Nokia's mobile business for a deal totaling over US$7bn.

After rumors of co-branded phones fizzled out, Microsoft announced in October 2014 that they had decided to phase out the Nokia branding entirely, with future Lumia models to exclusively bear the Microsoft name and Windows Phone logos.

The Nokia brand has since returned to the smartphone space through a licensing arrangement with HMD Global that began in 2017. Top-end handsets and budget phones alike now feature the Nokia branding, but these come courtesy of HMD Global rather than the original company.

• Everything we know so far about the Nokia 8.3 5G

Longing for the good ol' days

The Nokia 3310 was truly a giant of its time. If you didn't know someone who owned one, frankly we'd wager you were either living on the moon, or in the deepest darkest depths of Antarctica.

It was the 3310, and its predecessor that brought a truly user-friendly, notoriously robust and affordable mobile phone to users the world over, and arguably was solely responsible for the massive popularization in SMS messaging among teenagers and young adults in the early 2000s.

Without the 3310 where would we be today? Would our iPhones have pointy external antennas? Would the mobile accessory market be where it is today without Xpress-on covers? Would we be crushing candy on a daily basis without the genius of Snake?

If you've still got one of these glorious handsets tucked away in a drawer somewhere (or you gave it to your mum who is still using it), don't throw it away. You never know when you might need a phone that will survive the apocalypse. If that doesn't happen, it makes a great hammer, projectile or even body armor.

• This article was first published in March 2015

Two-minute review

The budget-to-mid-range smartphone market is getting awfully crowded these days – even Apple is having a go with the iPhone SE, which makes it harder for handsets like the Nokia 5.3 to carve our their own niche, especially with the Pixel 4a expected to be announced any day now at the time of writing.

The key selling point here is the price: at £149 / AU$349 (roughly $190, though there's no word yet on US availability), this is one of those phones that's going to make your shortlist if you're looking to spend as little as possible on a new handset. It's less than half the price of the aforementioned iPhone SE.

That's a low, low price – you'll struggle to get a functioning smartphone for less, so you would expect there to be a few compromises along the way as we look at what the Nokia 5.3 has got to offer. In fact, we were pleasantly surprised at what you get for your money, even though features like waterproofing, wireless charging and HDR support on the display are (understandably) cut to keep costs down.

While the specs, screen, and camera are hardly shifting the needle as far as the smartphone industry is concerned, they're all better than you might expect for a phone that's so affordable. The 6.55-inch display gives you plenty of room for watching movies and browsing the web, while the quad-lens camera actually surprised us with the quality of its snaps (though if you want seriously good photos, you'll need to look elsewhere).

Along with its price tag, the other key point in the Nokia 5.3's favor is that it's part of the Android One program, like several Nokias before it. This means you get a bloat-free, stock version of Android 10, plus regular updates for the next two years, so you don't need to worry about falling behind as far as software goes. It also helps the phone to eke out the maximum performance from the Snapdragon 665 processor and 4GB of RAM on board.

• These are the best smartphones you can buy

Nokia 5.3 price and availability

Nokia has been one of our favorite mid-range phone makers since it was rebooted under the stewardship of HMD Global, and – up until now at least – it also employed  numbering systems that were more logical and easier to follow than those of a lot of brands – so as the successor to the Nokia 5.1, we're a bit confused as to why this phone is called the Nokia 5.3 rather than the Nokia 5.2.

That said, it's easy to understand that this phone sits below the Nokia 6 range and above the Nokia 4 range in terms of that all-important balance between price and performance. You can pick up the Nokia 5.3 now for a very reasonable £149 / AU$349, with no word yet on a US release (a quick currency conversion from GBP comes out at around $190).

Design

• Sensible, solid design
• Good range of color options
• Rather large rear camera array

Modern Nokia phones aren't flashy – they're stylish, but in a sensible, tasteful-but-discreet sort of way. They're certainly not ugly, but they're not all that innovative either. You get a fairly typical smartphone design when you buy a Nokia handset, and that's true of the Nokia 5.3, which sports a few nice curves, but nothing that's going to turn heads when you take it out of your pocket.

We're not all that keen on the big, circular rear camera array, which looks to have borrowed some of the zaniness of the Nokia 9 PureView. We'd much rather see a horizontal or vertical strip of lenses on the back of our phones, but of course your aesthetic mileage may vary. The power button doubles up as an LED notification light, which is a touch we like.

The display bezels are nice and thin, with just a hint of chunkiness at the top and bottom, and the screen is interrupted by a small teardrop notch. On the whole we prefer no notch and a larger top bezel, but again that's down to personal taste, so we're not going to knock down the Nokia 5.3 too much here. The fingerprint sensor is in the center of the back of the phone – you won't get an in-display sensor on a budget, but face unlock is available too, and it's reasonably fast.

The phone feels reassuringly solid and well-built in the hand, with a matte plastic back that's a pleasure to handle. Despite the low price, the phone itself doesn't feel cheap – lightweight perhaps, but not cheap. Cyan (more of a turquoise), Sand (a beige/gold) and Charcoal (dark gray) are your three color options, and it's the cyan model we're testing out here.

Display

• Spacious 6.55-inch display
• Not as bright as OLED
• Tall 20:9 aspect ratio

The Nokia 5.3's 6.55-inch, 720 x 1600 pixel, IPS LCD display isn't going to make any eyes pop, but it's a decent enough spec at this price point, and it actually looks better than you might expect up close. While the deep blacks and vibrant colors of OLED are missing, the screen does a good job of showing off photos, web pages, movies and more.

That extra tall, 20:9 aspect ratio does make less-than-widescreen video watching a little awkward, and the teardrop camera notch is a distraction when watching something full-screen, but it's not a huge issue for us; overall, this is a display that's bright and sharp enough to satisfy most people. There's a white balance control slider included in the settings for Android 10, if you need it, but it's not something we used.

Getting a phone down to this price point means some compromises need to be made, and the screen is one of them – this is a long way from the high-resolution, HDR-enabled, super-fast-refresh-rate screens on the flagship phones of the moment. It's not as vibrant in bright daylight, for example, and it's not quite as responsive to the touch as top-tier phones from the likes of Samsung and Apple.

That said, we spent a good deal of time flicking through photos, social media and films and had absolutely no complaints with the look of the Nokia 5.3 screen, given what you're paying here. Even in the fastest-moving games and movie action scenes there was minimal ghosting and lag.

Cameras

• Decent results in good lighting
• HDR and scene recognition
• No optical zoom

Every phone camera has to be judged taking into account the phone's price, and the Nokia 5.3's quad-lens camera offers plenty of value for money. Don't get too excited though – those four cameras are 13MP standard, 5MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro, plus a 2MP depth camera, so this is hardly cutting-edge.

That comes through in the photos too, which are typical for a phone at this end of the market: respectable in good light, but less impressive when there's not much light available or when subjects are moving quickly.

The cameras focus and capture snaps briskly, depth effects are nicely rendered, and the on-board AI seems to do a passable job of recognizing what's in front of the camera, even though the subject categories are pretty broad (Outdoors, Flowers, and so on). We also appreciated the HDR processing, which can preserve detail in highlight and shadow areas.

So far so standard, but you wouldn't necessarily expect all of this scene recognition and HDR processing on a phone this cheap. We spent a good few hours wandering around snapping shots of the local landscape – with the world the way it is at the moment we were a bit limited in where we could go to take pictures – and most of the time our pictures came out rather well.

In other words, you're getting results you'd expect from a mid-range snapper in something that's right down at the budget end of the market. It's not a phone that's going to work magic in the photography department, but if you're just posting to social media, and you're not taking photos in the pitch black, then the Nokia 5.3 can do the business.

As always, it's in low-light conditions that issues arise, in the shape of excess noise, a loss of detail, and blurring. The Nokia 5.3 does have a night mode, and while it doesn't seem to do a great deal (and it significantly extends the exposure time), it does give you another option for trying to get the best result possible. We also found the macro mode to be a bit hit and miss.

The ultra-wide lens is great for fitting more people or a wider landscape into a scene, but it does seem to affect the overall quality of the photos somewhat – they're not quite as vibrant or as sharp as those taken with the main camera. Still, unless you're trying to set up a photography business with the Nokia 5.3, you're not going to be too disappointed.

Around the front you've got a basic 8MP selfie snapper, which does the basics and not much more – it'll do for your video calling and your social media selfies, but to get a decent photo you'll need to use the rear camera.

Camera samples

Specs and performance

• Respectable performance for the price
• Some extended load times on games
• Android One guarantees updates

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 processor inside the Nokia 5.3 isn't going to set any benchmarking records, but it's no slouch either – it'll do very nicely indeed at this price point, and we didn't notice any lag or significant slowdowns during our time with the phone as far as everyday use goes. Even face unlock works speedily, although perhaps just a few milliseconds behind the tech on the latest Pixel 4 phones, for example.

As for gaming, we didn't find any titles that refused to run on the Nokia 5.3, but you'll encounter slow loading times and the occasional stutter in terms of frame rates with more demanding games. This isn't the sort of device you really want to be pushing hard, and serious gamers are unlikely to seek out the Nokia 5.3 out anyway, but if this is a phone that appeals to you then you'll find the gaming experience is fine for whiling away a few minutes in the day.

A multi-core score of 1381 on the latest Geekbench for Android benchmarks puts the Nokia 5.3 squarely in budget-to-mid-range phone territory, and about where we'd expect. The 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage you get aren't fantastic, but they're a step up from the ultra-budget phones that are even more affordable than this one – it's enough to run Android 10 comfortably, and you can add extra storage via the microSDXC card slot if needed.

We've tested a lot of affordable budget phones down the years, and we're please to report that we were impressed with how speedy the Nokia 5.3 is. You're certainly not going to mistake this for flagship-level performance, but it might just make you question why anyone would spend many times more on a top-tier handset – and if a budget-to-mid-range phone can make you do that, then it's done its job.

The software is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the Nokia 5.3 – not only do you get the latest and greatest version of Android 10 on board, but the phone (like many Nokias before it) is part of the Android One program. That means you get guaranteed updates for two years, and updates that should come through in a timely fashion, which isn't always something you can say about Android devices.

Android One also ensures that you get as close to a stock Android experience as possible, so you've got all the Google apps here ready and waiting as soon as you switch the phone on, and there's very little in the way of bloat – our handset came with an FM Radio app which we didn't really care for, but that's about it as far as extraneous software goes.

Battery life

• Hefty 4,000mAh battery
• Plenty of video streaming time
• Tops out at 10W charging

Phone makers seem to be stuck in a rut when it comes to balancing power and battery life, with most handsets now seeming to deliver similar battery life no matter what their size or configuration. Phones are generally making it through one day of use comfortably, while never really getting close to two days, but the good news is that the Nokia 5.3 seems to sit towards the upper end of that performance bracket.

The 4,000mAh battery is actually pretty generous in terms of its capacity, but this doesn't translate into battery life that's much more than average. While we had a good 30-40% of juice left at the end of some days, we wouldn't expect the phone to make it through a second day – especially if you need to hammer the battery with something like GPS on maps or a few gaming sessions.

An hour of streaming video at maximum brightness and medium volume knocked the battery down from 100% to 87% during our highly unscientific test; again, that's about average, and suggests that you'll get around seven or eight hours of video streaming from this phone before you have to reach for the charger – it's enough to keep you entertained a long plane journey, which is a good bar to reach.

There's nothing fancy in terms of charging here, which frankly we can live with given the Nokia 5.3's low price. There's no wireless charging, and no fast charging either, with wired charging capped at 10W, but when a phone can hold its charge as well the Nokia 5.3 can, then being able to quickly charge it before you head out of the door is less important.

Should I buy it?

Buy the Nokia 5.3 if:

Don't buy the Nokia 5.3 if:

First reviewed: June 2020

Nokia has a family of devices that offer smartphones at each price segment, and a new development suggests that it will also be one of the first to bring 5G to affordable smartphones.

HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer, Juho Sarvikas, took to Twitter to congratulate Qualcomm on the launch on the Snapdragon 690 chipset that is designed to power mid-range devices.

He also talked about how it will help Nokia bring 5G to a more affordable price point. This isn’t the first time Nokia is doing this to talk about its upcoming products.

• These are the very best Nokia phones
• What is 5G?
• Everything known about the Nokia 10

Towards the end of the Snapdragon 690 unveiling, Qualcomm also confirmed that Nokia will be one of the first partners to bring the new 5G chipset to the market. 

It is the first Snapdragon 600 series processor with 5G capabilities, thanks to a new X51 RF modem. It supports global bands, NSA and SA on the sub-6 spectrum so it won't be suitable for carriers with mmWave technology.

The Snapdragon 690 implements an 8nm octa-core design, with two big Kryo 560 cores clocked at up to 2GHz (for performance) and six little ARM Cortex-A55 cores (for efficiency). The CPU performance is said to be 20% better than the Snapdragon 675. 

Other hardware specifications of the chipset include support for cameras with a resolution of 192MP or 32MP with multi-frame noise reduction and zero shutter lag. 

On the video side, we’re looking at Full HD recording at 120fz and QHD at 60fps, with support for HDR10+. Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ is also supported. Mind you, these are the best-case scenario capabilities, and may not necessarily make it onto all smartphones. 

Considering that the Nokia 8.3 5G was just recently unveiled, which opted for a Snapdragon 700 series chipset, we expect this teased device to be part of the Nokia 7 line.

The Nokia 7.2 is due for a refresh, adding more substance to this speculation. Qualcomm also suggested that the Snapdragon 690-powered devices are expected to be priced in the $300-$500 range, which is precisely Nokia 7 series territory.

In the comments of the tweet, Sarvikas also hinted that the device will bring a high refresh rate display, which no Nokia phone currently offers. No other details about the device were shared, but it is expected to launch later this year.

• Nokia 8.3, the first 5G Nokia phone, might be available to buy soon

While the Nokia 8.3 5G was announced in March, a firm release date wasn't provided, and the phone has begun to fade from memory the more time passes. However it seems the Nokia 8.3 5G release date might actually be coming up pretty soon.

This comes from Nokia fan site LoveNokia, which noticed the Nokia 8.3 5G listed on Amazon in Germany, and you can see the store page yourself here, although curiously the actual product listed above all the Nokia 8.3 information is the Nokia 8.1.

• These are the best 5G phones
• The Nokia 10 is coming soon too
• Check out our Nokia 9 PureView review

So despite the lack of a way to pre-order or buy the Nokia 8.3 5G on the Amazon store page, due to the fact someone went to the trouble of uploading lots of artwork and promotional material, it looks like Nokia is gearing up to release the phone soon.

The fact it was only the German Amazon page that listed the phone could mean the handset will be available in that country first, or perhaps a slip-up meant that was the only region to accidentally publish the information. Either way, we could see a Nokia 8.3 5G release date in the coming weeks.

A new affordable 5G phone

The Nokia 8.3 5G is the first Nokia phone to be 5G-compatible, as the brand usually focuses on affordable phones, and 5G modems still tend to inflate the price of a phone, so most budget devices are still 4G-only.

We're expecting the Nokia 8.3 5G to have a roughly mid-range price, so while it likely won't end up being the most affordable 5G phone in any region it's released in, it's still a more tempting alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S20 or OnePlus 8 for people who don't want to break the bank.

Though of course how appealing the Nokia 8.3 5G is will depend on how good it is, and given that it hasn't been released yet, that's something we don't know for sure. Stay tuned to TechRadar to find out when the phone eventually launches and, once it does, how good we found it.

• New Nokia phones are here, and one could be the best cheap phone of 2020

5G phones are yet to properly hit an affordable price point, and one of the primary reasons behind this is the fact that the technology itself is in its early stages.

However, that hasn't stop manufacturers working towards democratizing the new connectivity, and HMD Global-led Nokia is apparently developing a truly affordable 5G smartphone - at least, according to a report from Nokia Power User.

The new 5G Nokia phone is said to come equipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 800 series SoC (System On Chip) and may be different from the rumored, mid-range Nokia 7.3 5G that is reportedly going to pack a Snapdragon chipset. 

That's means this new handset may come in at an even cheaper price point, opening up 5G connectivity to a user base who have, to date, been priced out of the 5G market.

• Best 5G phones 2020: the top handsets with next-gen connectivity
• Redmi K30 Racing Edition is another budget 5G powerhouse from Xiaomi
• An affordable 5G Redmi smartphone is in the works

Cheap 5G phones are on the way

5G smartphones will gain momentum in 2021, there's likely to be a demand for budget smartphones offering the cutting-edge connectivity and rumors suggest a slew of 5G devices bearing the Nokia brand will launch over the next 12-18 months.

While HMD Global is said to be gearing up for a big 5G launch in the second half next year, this budget 5G smartphone may be unveiled in the early part of 2021. 

With almost half of the year already over, smartphone makers are already reeling under the effects of a global pandemic. These companies are now betting big on 5G and are keen on making a strong comeback. 

It's worth taking this cheap Nokia 5G phone leak with a pinch of salt, as it's not clear where the source got their information, but it does fall in line with what we've heard about 5G's general device timeline and the introduction of cheaper phones throughout 2021.

• Move over 5G: Xiaomi says it's already looking at developing 6G technology

Nokia’s Tamil Nadu based telecom gear manufacturing plant has had to close down abruptly after a few employees tested positive for Covid-19.

The decision for closure came last week after 42 employees of the Finnish brand’s Sriperumbudur plant located in near Chennai tested positive for the coronavirus.

While Nokia remained silent about the actual number of workers testing positive at its Sriperumbudur plant, an official privy to the situation revealed that at least 42 had been infected by the virus.

It appears that social distancing and making alterations to canteen facilities as a precautionary measure against the pandemic were not enough.

• Best Nokia phones of 2020: find the right Nokia device for you
• Best iPhone 2020: which Apple phone is the best?

Hoping for resuming operations soon

In a statement issued by Nokia, the company maintained that the factory resumed operations in a ‘restricted manner’ over the past few weeks when the federal government lifted lockdown restrictions imposed nationwide from March 25. 

The ease in lockdown was supposed to boost the ailing economy by allowing manufacturing firms to resume operations, albeit with strict precautionary measures in place to ensure employees’ safety. 

The company was hopeful of resuming manufacturing at the earliest at a restricted level with skeletal strength of workers.

Nokia is not the first manufacturer to resume operations and shut it in a short span of time due to Covid-19 cases. Recently, Oppo, the Chinese smartphone company, had to shut down its Greater Noida factory after six factory workers tested positive for Covid-19.

The company had a post-lockdown employee strength of 3000 in its manufacturing plant and working were in rotational shifts and taking precautions against Covid-19. Despite precautions, the company which has a 10,000-strong workforce in India had shut down no sooner than it had reopened its manufacturing.

It might offer some relief to citizens that although the coronavirus infections tally for India as on Tuesday was at 1,45,380, the total number of deaths was 4,167, a small number considering the country’s population.

Via Economic Times

• Oppo’s manufacturing plant grinds to halt due to Covid-19 positive workers

We're still waiting to see the arrival of the next flagship smartphone to bear the famous Nokia brand, and rumors continue to spill out on what we could expect, and what the handset may be called.

The latest leak comes via a tweet which says "also note that the flagship will include a 120Hz display" accompanied by the hashtag "#nokia9" - a nod to the potential name of the upcoming handset.

High refresh rate displays are all the rage at the moment, most recently featuring on the OnePlus 8 Pro, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and Oppo Find X2 Pro.

• The OnePlus 8 Pro has a 120Hz display
• Everything we know so far about the Nokia 10
• These are the very best Nokia phones

A high refresh rate makes for smoother scrolling and fluid transitions on screen, which should make the interface feel much more polished. It can also aid gameplay and video content by smoothing graphics for a slick experience.

However, a high refresh rate display can also be power hungry, so if this Nokia 9.2 leak is accurate, HMD Global - the Finnish firm behind Nokia phones these days - will need to ensure it's worked hard on optimizing the handset to make it as efficient as possible.

Nokia 9.2, Nokia 9.3 or Nokia 10?

There remains confusion over the name of the next Nokia flagship though. HMD launched the Nokia 9 PureView in 2019, so a natural progression from this name would be to call the next iteration the Nokia 9.2 - as per the firm's current naming format.

However, we've seen rumors suggesting the next flagship may be called the Nokia 10, while the same Twitter leaker has used the Nokia 9.2 and Nokia 9.3 PureView names in previous tweets, including a recent one claiming the handset will feature OIS (optical image stabilization) on one of its rear cameras.

OIS reduces camera shake, for clearer photos and videos, while also providing assistance for low-light photography - so it would be a useful inclusion on the new Nokia flagship.

It's worth taking this information with a pinch of salt, as it's unclear where the leaker acquired the information. They have previously had mixed success with Nokia phone leaks. 

At the end of 2019 the account revealed HMD was working on a 5G phone which was set to be called the Nokia 8 or Nokia 8.2 5G - it ended up being the Nokia 8.3 5G.

• Huawei P40 Pro doesn't have a 120Hz refresh rate for these dubious reasons

Via Android Authority

There's a new rebooted, 'classic' Nokia phone. Following on from the rebooted 3310 and 8110, the Nokia 5310 is the third handset in a slowly growing series of feature phones from Finnish smartphone manufacturer HMD Global.

It's a low-cost 2G device (meaning no mobile internet) and comes with a 2.4-inch display, 8MB of RAM, 16MB of storage, SD card slot (up to 32GB in size), dual stereo front facing speakers, FM radio, a 1,200mAh battery which can last a month and dedicated music buttons on the side.

At €39 (around $40, £35, AU$70) the Nokia 5310 is certainly inexpensive, and is aimed mainly at developing markets when it goes on sale in March. Although HMD is hoping that this 'classic' device will also appeal to those with found memories of the Nokia brand and its former devices - however, with this latter point, it may have missed the boat.

When we think back to the 'classic' Nokia handsets of the 90s and 00s, the 5310 doesn't make the cut. It doesn't have the same nostalgic charm as the 3310, or the famous movie tie-in as the 8110. It's just another old Nokia phone.

• Read our Nokia 3310 (2017) review
• Check out our hands on: Nokia 8110 4G review
• Best Nokia phones: find the right Nokia device for you

The true Nokia Originals

The rebooted Nokia 3310 grabbed headlines and tugged nostalgic heartstrings when it was revealed during the relaunch of the Nokia name on phones announcement at MWC 2017. 

HMD Global’s gamble of rebooting an icon became a powerful marketing tool for getting the Nokia name back in the minds of consumers, even if those consumers were more likely to buy one of its new smartphones, rather than a 2.5G feature phone. 

However, the die had been cast and the “Nokia Originals” feature phone range was born.

A year later at MWC 2018, HMD was at it again with the introduction of its second reboot, the Nokia 8110 4G. Also known as the banana phone thanks to its unique curvature, and the inspiration behind Neo’s slider handset in the Matrix movie, the 8110 had the pulling power to capture the imagination of consumers once again.

It didn’t make as big a splash as the 3310 did the year before, but it was still interesting enough to turn heads, plus the addition of 4G allowed for a better onscreen experience with the likes of Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp all available (albeit as much simpler apps).

These phones weren’t exactly cutting edge, nor were they offering the best bang-for-your-buck, there were (and are) better specced Nokia features phones for the same, or lower price - but the iconic names allowed the brand to stand out from the pack. 

We were finally seeing, after many years of stuck in black rectangle doldrums, a mobile brand doing something different and creating devices which got people excited again.

With the third addition to the Nokia Originals range we were hoping for another major handset to go through the reboot treatment. There are so many better options than the Nokia 5310 to choose from.

Seven superior options

How about the 8210 from 1999? A tiny and iconic handset which would have shown off how much modern tech it’s possible to cram into a compact form factor. Perhaps HMD didn’t want something quite this old, the original Nokia 5310 did launch in 2007 after all (the same year the iPhone did by the way, talking of icons). 

The Nokia N95 arrived the same year as the 5310. At the time of its launch, it was a gargantuan handset with a two-way slider, stereo speakers, impressive 5MP camera and sizable 2.6-inch display. Plenty of scope then, to produce an exciting rebooted handset.

It could even consider the QWERTY keyboard-toting Nokia E71 from 2008 or the mini PDA Nokia Communicator series - especially as there’s a hole in the QWERTY-keyboard phone market now after TCL shut down its BlackBerry Mobile operation.

And if HMD really wanted to gamble, how about the 'teardrop' Nokia 7600, 'lipstick' Nokia 7280 or the gaming-focused Nokia N-Gage for a walk on the wild side?

Of course, price is always going to play a huge part in the product of low-cost feature phones, and HMD can’t spend huge amounts on R&D for handsets which will sell below the $50 mark. 

The N95 and N-Gage will likely require more time and money to produce 2020 versions, but there are a raft of classic Nokia handsets which still hold strong nostalgic value. So thanks, HMD Global, for rebooting another Nokia Original, but for the fourth entry to the series please do consider these options.

• This is Nokia's - if not the - greatest phone of all time

Alongside the brand new Nokia 8.3 5G, HMD Global has unveiled two new affordable phones as part of its Nokia range of handsets.

The Nokia 5.3 and Nokia 1.3 debuted alongside the aforementioned 5G phone and offer a far cheaper alternative to HMD Global's top new handset.

• Everything about the Nokia 8.3 5G
• The very best Nokia phones
• Our Nokia 9 PureView review

The Nokia 5.3 is the higher spec device of the two, with a 6.55-inch HD+ display and a resolution of 1600 x 720. 

There's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset inside, and you'll have the choice of 3GB, 4GB or 6GB of RAM. It comes with 64GB or 128GB of storage too, plus the battery is a 4,000mAh cell.

That's some impressive spec considering the more expensive Nokia 7.2 from 2019 was quite a bit more expensive than this handset.

On the rear of the Nokia 5.3 is a 13MP ultra wide camera that works with a 2MP macro shooter and a 2MP depth sensing sensor. There's also an 8MP selfie shooter on the front of the phone.

We don't know exactly where you'll be able to buy the Nokia 5.3 yet, but it's definitely coming to the UK and in Europe it'll cost €189 (about $200, £170, AU$350) with the release date set for some stage in April 2020.

All of this looks quite impressive considering the potential low price in markets like the UK and US. This may even be a contender for our best cheap phone list later in the year.

Looking for less?

The Nokia 1.3 is one of the most affordable handsets from HMD Global, and it runs Android Go software. That's a pared down version of Android 10 that is designed specifically for smartphones with lower specs.

HMD Global has included a 5.71-inch HD+ display with a resolution of 1520 x 720 resolution. It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 chipset, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

On the rear is a 8MP shooter, and on the front you'll find a 5MP camera. The battery is a 3000mAh cell, and HMD Global assures us the phone will last for a whole day from a single charge.

It's set to cost €95 (about $100, £85, AU$170) and we'll also see it land in April this year. HMD Global has confirmed it's coming to the UK, but we don't know whether it'll be available in the US or Australia.

• Nokia reboots the 5310, but this isn't the 'Original' we were hoping for

HMD Global (the firm behind Nokia phones) has confirmed that it will launch its first 5G phone on March 19, ahead of its appearance in the upcoming James Bond film, No Time To Die.

You can catch a glimpse of the new 5G handset (which could be the rumored Nokia 10/Nokia 9.2) in the 90 second video teaser (which TechRadar was given an early preview of), where Agent Nomi - played by Lashana Lynch - uses Google Assistant to bring up photos, navigation directions and send text messages using her voice. You might say, she has no time to dial. (ahem)

We already knew that there was a Nokia phone launch coming up, after HMD Global posted a Bond-themed teaser, and it's likely we'll see more than just a new 5G phone announced at the event with previous launches from the firm bringing multiple new devices.

• The 5G phone could be the Nokia 10
• There are plenty of 5G phones already available
• The Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 3310 will also feature in the movie

What do we know about the Nokia 5G phone?

While the only official detail on the upcoming handset is the fact it will have 5G support, we can glean additional information from the teaser video.

Agent Nomi says "36 hours in pursuit, and we're still going strong" as the camera flicks to the corner of the phone screen where the battery level reads 20%. That's a clear nod towards a potential two-day battery life, which hopefully means the new Nokia 5G phone packs in a big battery.

It also shows us the new 5G phone is set to have a centralized screen notch for the seflie camera. The handset appears to have a large display which takes up the majority of the front, but there's a small chin housing the Nokia logo.

We get a look at the rear of the handset too, with a large, circular camera bump seemingly housing four cameras clustered round a central flash. 

Below the camera protrusion, a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner can be seen, while there looks to be a headphone jack on the top edge of the handset, and a power button and volume rocker on the right, plus a quick-launch key on the left.

A shot of the camera app reveals a macro lens, along with icons for a standard shooting lens and a wide-angle option. Below the icons, a number of modes are clear, including Photo, Portrait, Video and Night.

Unsurprisingly, the Nokia 5G phone appears to be running a relatively stock version of Android - as is HMD Global's way - and from a couple of shots of the handset being held, it could have a tall, 21:9 aspect ratio display.

All The Time To Wait

The new 5G phone won't be the only handset bearing the iconic phone maker's name in the film, with the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 3310 also confirmed to make an appearance.

You won't be able to see the trio in action on the big screen for while though. 

Originally slated for an April 2 release in the UK and April 10 in the US, the No Time To Die release date has been pushed back to November 12 for the UK, and November 25 for the US, amid coronavirus fears.

However, we won't have to wait anywhere near as long to learn all about the handset 007 will be wielding later this year with Nokia's launch event on March 19 still scheduled to go ahead.

• How to watch the James Bond movies in order

Because MWC 2020 was cancelled, loads of phone companies have been hosting replacement events to launch their new smartphones, and now we know when Nokia is set to show off its new phones.

According to the 'save the date' sent around by the company, which you can see above, the product launch will happen on March 19 at 4pm GMT (11am ET, 8am PT). TechRadar has been invited to an event in London, and it seems other press outlets have too, but we're not sure if this is the global launch or just a European event, so there could be others around the world at the same time.

• Check out our Nokia 9 PureView review
• These are the best Nokia phones
• This is how to watch the Bond movies in order

We were expecting to see the Nokia 10 launch at MWC as well as a few mid-range and/or budget devices, and there could be a clue confirming such phones in the invite: a recent leaked render for the former (although that refers to the Nokia 9.2, which could be the Nokia 10 – we're not sure as to the nomenclature just yet) showed a circular camera bump, which looks a lot like the white circle at the top of the invite.

However, that white circle, the only distinguishing feature in an otherwise-minimalist flyer, could point to something else entirely...

Is it the new Bond phone?

Bond fans will be familiar with the 'gun barrel' opening sequence, which features a series of animated white circles, one of which becomes the barrel of a gun trained on Bond – Bond then spins round and dispatches the would-be assassin.

Those white circles look just like the ones on the flyer. Does that sound pretty tentative? It would be if Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer for HMD Global (Nokia's parent company) hadn't explicitly stated they were linked, in a tweet that also features animated circles.

In a tweet, Sarvikas both linked the Nokia phone save-the-date with the iconic Bond intro, and also (almost) named the upcoming 007 movie No Time To Die, tweeting 'No time to wait'. So it's certain that the Nokia event will feature something related to James Bond, or the upcoming film.

So what could this mystery Bond tie-in be? Could it be a phone with 007 branding, along the lines of other movie tie-in devices (like the OPPO F11 Pro Marvels Avengers Limited Edition), or a device full of Bond-like gadgets? Or perhaps a new rugged device, hardy for a spy in the field, or an appropriately elegant flip-phone? Right now, we don't know.

We'll find out come March 19, when the Nokia event takes place. TechRadar will be on the ground reporting on all the announcements, so stay tuned to find out all about the new Nokia phones.

A note of caution though: on the same day Nokia sent around its invite, both Redmi and Realme cancelled phone launches due to coronavirus concerns, so it remains to be seen if Nokia's event will actually go ahead.

• Android may soon come to a feature phone thanks to Nokia

Annual smartphone conference MWC 2020 has been shedding companies for the last few days, with the likes of Sony, LG, Vivo and Royole all pulling out due to coronavirus fears. It seems the latest company is HMD Global, which owns the Nokia brand, so we might have to wait to see the Nokia 10.

HMD Global broke the news of its cancelation on February 12, just 11 days before it was set to host its MWC 2020 conference, citing "recommendations from the relevant health authorities".

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It's worth pointing out that as well as canceling its conference, HMD Global also stated that it won't be exhibiting at MWC 2020 either, so it won't have a stall where you can see and test out its new phones.

We were expecting the Nokia 10 to launch at MWC 2020, along with a few budget devices, but we'll likely have to wait longer for their arrival now. HMD Global said "We still plan to showcase what we had lined up for our presence at MWC Barcelona and will share details on how we'll do that soon."

At the time of writing, we don't know if that means HMD Global will host a press conference at the same time as its MWC keynote speech was set to take place, or push it back – the latter is more plausible though, as it's likely each phone company will wait to see what the others do before hosting their MWC-replacement events.

Is MWC 2020 canceled?

While a number of the biggest MWC 2020 players have dropped out, some still remain, as Xiaomi and Huawei have confirmed their press conferences and exhibits will still go ahead, and the likes of Oppo, Samsung and Honor haven't dropped out yet either.

However, with several media websites confirming they're not going to attend the event, and MWC itself still waiting to make a decision on the likelihood of the event going ahead, we're really not sure what will happen come the end of February.

TechRadar will continue to bring you all the latest MWC 2020 news – and by that we mean, we'll continue to report as each new company pulls out of the event.

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Annual smartphone event Mobile World Congress 2020 (or MWC, as it's more commonly known) is nearly here, and we're expecting a big collection of phones to be announced at it – one of these could be a new Nokia phone, as a leak suggests.

This information comes from popular tech leaker Evan Blass (whose Twitter is locked, but we'll share a screenshot below). Apparently Blass got the phone details from a tip, and there are some hands-on pictures shared too.

The first intriguing piece of information here is that the phone has the code-name 'Captain America', likely named after the Marvel character of the same name. We're not too sure what this actually means for the phone – perhaps it has a special tough design, or a blue, white and red color scheme, or maybe this is just a fairly meaningless code-name.

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In brackets, Blass adds that this could be the Nokia 5.2, the successor to the Nokia 5.1 from early 2019. That would make it a low to mid-range device, perhaps with bigger and more interesting smartphones set to debut alongside it.

The phone is said to have 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and that would largely line up with most budget Nokia phones. The 6GB of RAM might make for a fairly fast experience, but 64GB of storage is what you'd find in most affordable smartphones.

According to Blass' leak, the phone will cost $180 (roughly £135, AU$270) upon release, which is why we say it's a budget phone. That's a low price, and in fitting with the suggestion of the phone being a Nokia 5.2.

Finally, it's said the release date for the phone is March 4. Since we know Nokia is hosting an MWC 2020 event on February 23, the timings line up perfectly to suggest the Nokia 5.2, or Captain America phone if you prefer, could be launched at the event, and then put on sale a week and a half later.

Pictures of the Captain America phone

Along with the above information we've got two pictures of the Nokia phone that show us a little about it.

One picture, showing the rear of the phone, lets us know there's a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor as well as a camera bump that houses a whopping four snappers, along with a flash module. 

That's a lot of rear cameras for the successor to a phone that only had one, but because the lenses look pretty small, and typically high-res sensors are paired with larger lenses, we wouldn't expect any of the Nokia phones' cameras to be particularly powerful. It seems Nokia is going with quantity over quality here.

On the front of the phone we see a teardrop notch, a stock Android operating system running on the phone, and a fairly wide chin at the bottom with the Nokia logo, which is another sign of the budget status of the phone. It also doesn't look like a huge phone compared to the hand holding it.

Generally, in terms of design, the Nokia 5.2 'Captain America' looks quite a lot like any other Nokia phone, but the company's devices rarely win any design awards anyway.

We don't know the rest of the specs just yet, but we'd expect it to have a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon or Mediatek Helio chipset, fairly solid battery life, and okay cameras, all of which is based on our previous experience with mid-range Nokia phones.

We'll find out more (hopefully) at the Nokia conference at MWC. TechRadar will be on the ground for the whole of the event, reporting on every phone conference and launch, so stay tuned over the second half of February for all of our analysis, news and reviews.

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Last month, we reported on a rumor that Nokia's next flagship would be delayed until the latter half of 2020 in an effort to avoid obsoletion at launch. 

Now, a new rumor from the same source suggests Nokia may have finally found the killer feature that will allow its upcoming device, presumed to be the Nokia 9.2 PureView, to stand out from the pack.

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According to Twitter user @nokia_anew, Finnish mobile phone company HMD Global is currently testing under-display selfie camera technology in regards to the Nokia 9.2 PureView, which would eliminate the need for a notch or pin-hole cutout in the handset's display.

If the rumor is to be believed, it would presumably make Nokia's 9.2 PureView one of the first phones to bring the stealthy selfie functionality to market. 

Avoiding past mistakes

Along with the need for a standout new feature, it's believed that the decision to delay Nokia's next flagship was made to ensure the device packs the latest Snapdragon 865 processor at launch.

At the time of its release in February 2019, the Nokia 9 PureView carried an outdated Snapdragon 845 chipset that resulted in the device feeling a generation behind the competition, so it wouldn't surprise us to see the company trying to avoid making the same mistake again.

Of course, all of the information above should be taken with a pinch of salt at this time – we'll likely have to wait until after MWC 2020 to hear something a little more concrete.

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Android is the most prolific operating system for mobile phones around the world and it may soon be making its way to a whole new area - feature phones.

According to an updated listing from the Wi-Fi Alliance - the company that certifies wireless internet products - an upcoming device is set to be called the Nokia 400 4G and it will include an operating system referred to as GAFP.

XDA Developers spotted the updated listing and pointed out how GAFP was previously mentioned in a leak about an Android-toting feature phone provided last year by 9To5Google.

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Exactly how Android could work on a feature phone is currently unclear. A lot of developers have specifically made their apps for a touchscreen device whether that's an Android phone or tablet, so given that feature phones typically don't have a touchscreen it may only be specific applications that will be compatible with the device.

We may be set to hear about the Nokia 400 4G at Mobile World Congress this year. According to a leak we saw yesterday, HMD Global - the company that makes phones under the Nokia brand - will be introducing four new devices in the coming months.

That will likely include a new flagship as well as the Nokia 5.2 and Nokia 1.3, and what one website referred to as a device in the "Nokia Original Series". 

It's not currently clear what the "Original Series" is, but it may mean a feature phone in a similar way to how HMD Global reintroduced the Nokia 3310 a few years ago. If that's the case, there's a very strong chance we could hear about it by the end of February, when MWC is set to take place.

• What we know we'll be seeing at Mobile World Congress