nokia 2
Nokia 2 | Photo Credit: HMDGlobal

Nokia 2: The Battle of Best Budget Smartphone Beside On-Paper Specs

HMD-owned Nokia has unveiled a couple of smartphones a few months back. Nokia 3 & Nokia 5 seems to be a piece of crap only. However, the Nokia 6 stood out from the competition and had millions of registrations within seconds. Yesterday, Nokia rolled out another budget-conscious device, the Nokia 2. Considering the specs, this device looks a year or two back, but its performance matters. This Smartphone pricing will be a vast topic for the whole scenario. Would it manage to outrank the competition? The global pricing of this smartphone is EUR99, but for India, it still has not been confirmed. But it is expected to be launched around 7-8k. Nokia 2 has a premium-looking build with a removable rear panel.

Nokia 2 is the new addition to the Nokia Android line-up. It packs a Snapdragon 212 SoC with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. Along with it, Nokia 2 has a 4100mAh battery with two days of battery life. This device doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner. It runs on Android Nougat with the promised upgrade to Oreo 8.0 with monthly security patches. Nokia 2 has an 8-megapixel camera at the back with a single LED flashlight and a 5-megapixel selfie camera. Nokia 2 comes with Google Assistant, which you can activate by triggering the home key.

Display

Nokia 2 has a better display, considering other smartphones within the same price bracket. Colors are punchier in this device, with good brightness levels. It has a 5.5-inch LTPS IPS LCD with 720×1,280 pixels resolution. And 294 PPI(Pixels Per Inch). The phone dimensions 143.5×71.3×9.3. With a 5.5-inch display, this device has mammoth bezels at the top with necessary sensors and front camera placement, followed by the screen and then huge bezels again. Remember that Xiaomi Mix inspired the Doogee Mix design; considering the price, it was new.

nokia 2 display 1024x612

Battery

Nokia 2 is a battery-centric device with the tagline “Two days battery life.” It packs a massive 4100mAh battery. As claimed, this device can last up to 2 days with moderate use. However, the 4100mAh battery is not somewhat new in smartphones. We already have a 5000mAh battery phone as well. But most of them come without proper management of the hardware. Take the example of Redmi 4 (having a similar price tag); of course, a 4100mAh battery should last at least two days, but Redmi 4 has a single-day battery backup, and you need to plug it back in every night. But the Snapdragon 212 SoC with a lesser clock speed would manage to perform longer. However, this phone needs to be reviewed more to know how it will perform in more prolonged use.

Nokia 2 battery 1024x564

Camera

However, this is not the right time to expect a dual-camera setup at this price. But this phone is definitely above the competition as far as colors and details of a photo are concerned. Nokia 2 has 8MP rear + 5MP front-facing cameras. The rear camera can capture excellent pictures with many accurate colors and better details—a dynamic I haven’t expected at this price range. Photos shot with Nokia 2 are sharp enough. But still, the so-called Bokeh effect is missing. However, we can’t expect good low-light photography with a 100$ device. It captures lots of noise as usual, and the colors look dull. The front-facing camera can take decent pictures & has average performance in dim lighting. Nokia 2 can capture videos at 720p at 30 fps(frames per second). At least 1080p was expected.

nokia 2 cam

RAM + Storage

Nokia 2 has just a gigabyte of RAM. It seems disappointing because other manufacturers provide 3GB and 4GB of RAM at the same price. However, the RAM Management of this device looks pretty promising; there are no lags in daily use. Further tests are needed for the intensive workload and heavy gaming. It has an expandable 8GB physical storage via a dedicated SD card sport.

Snapdragon 212 SoC

This is disappointing; Nokia used a 2-year-old processor in this device. Snapdragon 212 was unveiled two years back in 2015. SD212 benchmarks confirm it is not far behind the Snapdragon 425 SoC. Both the processor has almost equal top clock speed. This is why the Nokia 2 manages to be impressive in daily usage. As I told you, Nokia 2 must be reviewed entirely to reach the result. So, I’ll update the performance with heavy gaming so that you will get a better idea of this smartphone.

Stock + Updates

Nokia 2 runs on Android Nougat 7.1.1, based on pure stock Android. And HMD has confirmed the upgrade to Android Oreo as well. You will not find any bloats pre-installed on this phone except for all necessary system apps. Nokia 2 will also get monthly security updates and patches. So you would not need to worry about it anymore. Maybe the stock Android is why the Nokia 2 runs smoothly, even with a Snapdragon 212 processor and a gigabyte of RAM.

Price

It is the most conscious part that the market of this smartphone relies on. Suppose Nokia can make it a bit more affordable. This smartphone will do better, at least in the offline market. It has been rumored to have a price of around 7,000 INR. If this is the final price, I recommend going for Xiaomi Redmi 4A, priced at 5,999 INR only, or the similarly priced Moto C Plus.

The Conclusion

In my opinion, Nokia 2 is a decent smartphone if you’re not a hardcore gamer. The backend running quad cores of Snapdragon 212 SoC can easily get off your daily workload without any issues. However, we can’t call it “A PERFECT” whenever SD212 and SD425 are head to head. SD425 would be a winner, but SD212 would definitely give head-to-head.

There are certain parts Nokia 2 could be improved. Nokia should give at least 2GB of RAM. A moderate fingerprint addition at the back could be great as well. Except for all these, the Nokia 2 still competes with other smartphones within its range. Of course, adding a big battery doesn’t mean the phone is overall good. Moto E4 Plus has a 5000mAh battery if the consumer is concerned about battery life. They will go for the bigger battery. Nokia 2 is priced at EUR99 globally and expected to come in India in 7,000 to 8000 thousand price bracket. If it can be reduced to Rs 5,000 or 6,000, the Nokia 2 will be one of the best choices.

About Amal Talukdar

Amal is a tech worm who always keeps an eye on the latest tech news. Writing for tech related stuff is his passion. At DealNTech, he is responsible to update the readers with the latest phone news. Email: [email protected]

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