Nokia owner HMD Global has lifted the lid on not one, not two, but three new smartphones ahead of MWC Barcelona 2023 – and one of them is so easy to repair that you may never have to step foot inside an electronics store again.
Manufactured in collaboration with global repair community iFixit, the Nokia G22 is designed to be easily repairable by anyone, anywhere, with just a handful of cheap tools.
The phone’s battery, screen, charging port and back cover can all be popped off and replaced in a matter of minutes, which HMD Global says should allow owners to keep using the G22 for years after its three-year warranty has expired.
We tried our own at-home repairs on the rear panel of a Nokia G22 sample sent to us in advance of the phone’s announcement, and it really was a pretty simple process. All you need is a parts-specific G22 Fix Kit – those are available to purchase from iFixit.com for as little as £27.99 (around $33 / AU$49) – as well as whatever replacement parts your phone requires (also stocked by iFixit.com).
The G22 itself will retail for £149.99 / AU$349 (around $180) – which could make it one of the best cheap phones to launch in 2023 – and begin shipping in the UK from March 8 and from early April in Australia. In addition to its repairability credentials, the phone will arrive packing a 6.5-inch, 90Hz HD+ display, a Unisoc T606a processor, a 50 MP main rear camera, a 5,050mAh battery and IP52 water and dust resistance.
It’ll be available in two storage configurations – 64GB and 128GB, both with 4GB RAM – and the G22 will also run Android 12 to begin with, HMD Global says.
Clearly, those specs suggest the Nokia G22 isn’t going to challenge the best iPhones and best Samsung phones to the title of best smartphone in 2023, but HMD Global is here targeting consumers who aren’t interested in spending four figures on their mobile devices (hence the company’s focus on repairability and longevity).
“People value long-lasting, quality devices and they shouldn’t have to compromise on price to get it. The new Nokia G22 is purposefully built with a repairable design so you can keep it even longer,” HMD Global’s Head of Product Marketing, Adam Ferguson, said in a presentation given to TechRadar.
Good things come in threes
Nokia has also unveiled two new entries in its popular C-Series line, the Nokia C22 and Nokia C32, ahead of MWC 2023.
Boasting all the durability bells and whistles of the brand’s existing C-Series smartphones, the C22 will be available in two storage configurations – 64GB with either 2GB RAM or 3GB RAM – and offer a whopping three-day battery life.
The phone will retail for £109.99 (around $130 / AU$195) and begin shipping in spring in the northern hemisphere (which is between March and June, for our Australian readers with local pricing TBC).
The C32, on the other hand, will arrive sporting Android 13 and a 50MP main rear camera (where the C22 has to make do with a 13MP main lens), and retail for the slightly more expensive price of £129.99 / AU$249 (around $155). Both phones will share the 6.5-inch, HD+ display of the aforementioned Nokia G22.
We’ll be sharing our thoughts on all three phones once we’ve spent some more time with each of them in the near future. In the meantime, stay tuned to TechRadar for all the latest news and announcements to emerge from this year's MWC trade show.
