Nokia G22

Verdict

The Nokia G22 is a telephone you may restore your self, with out the necessity for any actual experience or costly tools. Nonetheless, the telephone itself is simply OK, and isn’t that a lot enjoyable to make use of because it feels fairly gradual.

Introduction

The Nokia G22 is a fundamental telephone with a neat twist. You may restore it your self. Nokia has partnered with self-repair grasp iFixit to offer kits to interchange the battery, the rear cowl, and even the show or USB socket. No specialist tools required, just a bit persistence, care and handbook dexterity. 

That’s nice. However how lengthy you’ll truly need to stay with the Nokia G22 is one other concern. Your requirements had higher not be too excessive, as this telephone has a poor processor. 

Not with the ability to play advanced 3D video games properly isn’t any large concern, however the laboured really feel of fundamental navigation is. The Nokia G22 is a good telephone for these with persistence. Be sure to have sufficient of it. 

The Nokia G22 was launched in early 2023 and prices £169. This makes it one thing of a competitor to a different “G22” telephone, the Motorola Moto G22. 

Design and display screen

• Person-replaceable battery and show
• Plastic casing, however not a bad-looking one
• Low-res 90Hz show

Nokia makes numerous fundamental plastic telephones that cater for individuals who don’t need to spend an excessive amount of on, or spend hours researching, their subsequent telephone purchase. The Nokia G22 is one among these. 

Nonetheless, it does look just a little slicker than some entry-level Androids. It has a gloss plastic again and a reasonably nicely-designed digital camera space. It appears and feels first rate, however shiny plastic by no means ages too properly, not in my palms anyway. Little nicks and scuffs will likely be proven off fairly clearly. 

The Nokia G22 will not be notably waterproof both, with a poor IP52 score. It has an excellent excuse, although. 

This telephone is designed to be pulled aside, utilizing instruments so fundamental you can improvise a few of them. The crux: a Nokia G22’s again will not be glued in place. That was the primary nightmare after I tried to interchange the display screen of a flagship Huawei telephone a number of years in the past. It didn’t finish that properly.

The method right here is comparatively straightforward, however will nonetheless be intimidating to some. You stick a plastic wedge software in just a little hole on the facet and run it across the telephone’s sides to loosen the clips. The remaining simply requires a small screwdriver and a few handbook dexterity. You do must cope with a fragile ribbon cable for the fingerprint scanner, and a few fiddly, tiny, shielding panels. However after I went by the method of switching the battery, it took round 5 minutes.

Why isn’t it just like the previous days when you can rip off a telephone’s again and simply slot a brand new battery brick in? The goal right here is to make the Nokia G22 look, really feel and function like a standard telephone. To make use of the previous fashion would require a a lot smaller battery or a a lot thicker telephone. Presumably each. 

Different notable components right here embody the Nokia G22’s headphone jack — it truly has one — and its single speaker driver on the underside, for onboard audio. It doesn’t sound good or embarrassing. Most quantity is strong sufficient, however like most cheaper Androids it lacks the lower-frequency punch of the very best telephones audio system.

The Nokia G22 has a big however considerably primitive display screen. It’s a 6.5-inch 720p LCD panel with a 90Hz refresh fee. You could discover the decrease decision when studying articles or when multi-tasking. At occasions the image appears virtually sharpened, with a slight white halo round textual content in sure locations, whereas the remainder of the time it lacks the pristine look of a 1080p telephone — out there for just a bit more cash as of late.

Nonetheless, for probably the most half it’s a wonderfully strong display screen for a lower-cost telephone. Sharpness is OK, color doesn’t seem super-undersaturated and contast is appropriate. Positive, when you whack up the brightness in a darkish room the blacks will begin to look gray, however telephones like this show you need to go fairly low-cost to discover a actually unhealthy show. 

Wish to know some deeper impressions? The Nokia G22 is a foul instance of a 90Hz display screen. You may set it to an Auto mode that makes use of 90Hz when it is sensible, or lock it to 60Hz. Nonetheless, you may’t respect the upper refresh fee an excessive amount of right here as quick movement causes a smearing impact within the panel and there are widespread stutters on scrolling.

Brightness will not be ultra-high both, however may very well be quite a bit worse contemplating the Nokia G22’s low value. At first I assumed the telephone had no “excessive brightness mode”, which telephones change to when out within the sunshine, to deal with excessive ambient mild ranges. The display screen doesn’t turn out to be unreadable, nevertheless it does battle.

Nonetheless, it seems there’s a slight increase in such situations, simply not a dramatic one. The Nokia G22 will attain a good 534 nits indoors, 648 nits in brilliant daylight. Not good, however not unhealthy in any respect for £170.

Efficiency

• Very clear tackle Android 12
• Poor normal efficiency
• A great quantity of storage

The Nokia G22 has a Unison T606 processor, utilized in few in style mobiles so far bar the previous-generation Nokia G21 and Samsung Galaxy A03. It’s a poor CPU, regardless of having eight cores like the large hitters. 

Its benchmark efficiency is poor, incomes 1231 factors in Geekbench 6 (1193 in Geekbench 5) and a dismal 421 factors in 3Dmark’s Time Spy check. These are unhealthy scores, and roughly 20% decrease than also-weak rivals just like the Xiaomi Poco M5s.

To an extent benchmarks are a bit pointless in an entry-level telephone like this. And I don’t suppose it issues if the Nokia G22 can’t deal with video games like Fornite properly. Nonetheless, it does have to ship at the very least strong baseline efficiency, and I don’t suppose it does. 

App hundreds are gradual. Leaping between apps is simply too. Lag is a constant satan in your shoulder, reminding you of your earlier buy selections. You had higher consider within the Nokia G22’s sustainability cred. There’s a way you need to watch for the G22 to meet up with your instructions at occasions. It will get previous fast, significantly if you can be switching from an previous telephone that also runs Android properly.

Need extra information on the gaming facet? The Nokia G22 can’t play Fortnite in any respect. The Epic app merely lists the telephone as “unsupported”. Ark: Survival Advanced is fairly slideshow-like when graphics are maxed-out however it’s comfortably playable when you drop a number of settings down a bit. Regardless of poor benchmark scores, it may possibly play some video games usually thought of demanding OK. 

The gradual normal really feel of the Nokia G22 doesn’t appear to be all the way down to the storage. The beneficiant 128GB inside reminiscence might need been thought of flagship-grade a number of years in the past. Its learn specs of 430MB/s and writes of 313MB/s should not far off these of a SATA SSD. 

You may blame the weak quad-core CPU and 4GB RAM for the G22’s efficiency issues. And there’s no additional software program to pull it down both. 

The Nokia G22 runs Android 12 and has a really clear strategy to software program with just about no bloat. There’s a reasonably garbage My Machine app made by HMD/Nokia, however a single easy app can solely trigger a lot offence. And I wouldn’t have even observed it was right here have been I not trying just a little deeper for this evaluation. 

Android 12 isn’t the most recent model of the system, although. Android 13 launched in August 2022, and different telephones just like the Nokia C32 have already got the software program. This disparity could also be all the way down to the telephone’s launch taking that bit longer owing to the necessity to get the iFixit partnership prepared for prime time. I’m guessing right here, although.   

That is additionally a 4G-only telephone. Whereas this may increasingly not trouble too lots of the of us who would have an interest on this mannequin, it does imply you’re locked out of one of many largest current cellular developments, 5G cellular web.

Digital camera

• Don’t anticipate greater than a single rear digital camera expertise 
• Poor, unstabilised video
• The first digital camera works OK, with a little bit of effort and know-how

The Nokia G22 has three rear cameras, however this feels very very similar to a single-camera telephone. Significant additions could be a large or zoom, however the G22 has a 2MP macro and a 2MP depth digital camera. These are low-cost filler cameras that don’t add to the expertise all that considerably. 

Nokia’s depth digital camera is the very best of the 2. It means you may take Portrait mode pics of any topic, not simply folks. Portrait is the place the background is blurred, emulating the look of a wide-aperture DSLR lens. 

Macro pictures are poor, and Nokia does its finest to cover the mode from you anyway. 

How are the “regular” pictures? They’re satisfactory. The Nokia G22 has an impressive-sounding 50MP sensor, however up shut photos have the just about painted look that always accompanies fundamental processing and/or a digital camera with very small sensor pixels. Positive sufficient, the Samsung JN1 sensor is small for a 50MP chip. 

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t anticipate something much less when purchasing with this price range, and the Nokia G22 is completely able to capturing first rate photographs. I additionally like that there’s a 2x zoom preset within the app, even whether it is only a crop of the principle digital camera. 

At occasions I’ve been pleasantly shocked by how shut daylight pictures get to these of a way more costly telephone. Dynamic vary is sound and the impression of element is sweet, even when pictures can look just a little sharpened and artificial proper down on the pixel stage. 

Nonetheless, at occasions the pictures’ color can look a bit sickly and unrealistic, as if the processing has taken a picture with a considerably restricted color depth and simply amped up the saturation.

I’ve additionally noticed some HDR ghosting on a few events — a uncommon sight as of late — possible brought on by both the Nokia G22’s incapability to seize the constituent frames quick sufficient, or not having the smarts to compensate for movement in the course of the compiling a part of the processing stage. 

The Nokia G22 additionally has a Evening mode, one which takes considerably longer to take photographs as a result of it’s a computational mode that merges frames. 

Neither mode — night time or auto — produces good photographs at night time. Whereas the Evening mode’s pictures are a bit brighter and extra vibrant, particulars have all of the solidity of vegetable puree. There may be a solution, although. The Nokia G22 switches to a tripod setting within the Evening mode when it detects the telephone is completely nonetheless. Pictures take an age to seize, however they’ll look first rate. 

This isn’t a very good digital camera, nevertheless it does provide a approach to take first rate photographs in most environments, when you attempt laborious sufficient. The expertise of capturing isn’t too unhealthy both, with solely minor shutter lag. 

Video is fairly terrible, although. The Nokia G22’s most seize mode is 1080p@30fps, and even when you drop all the way down to 720p you’re nonetheless caught with 30fps. There’s additionally no type of stabilisation in any respect, making handheld footage look garbage. 

The Nokia G22’s entrance digital camera has an 8MP sensor that produces not more than acceptable pictures. Whereas it may possibly carry out high quality element like facial hair OK in good lighting, it doesn’t take a lot for photos to turn out to be soft-looking or fuzzy.

Battery life

• Helps as much as 20W charging
• Good stamina, however not 3 days for most individuals as claimed
• No wi-fi charging

HMD didn’t ship us a charger with the Nokia G22, however with a strong plug you’ll discover it may possibly attain a reasonably unimpressive 42% cost in half-hour. It helps as much as 20W charging speeds in line with its spec sheet. 

The telephone can be rated to retain 80% of its battery after 800 charging cycles — that’s increased than the five hundred Apple claims, though I’d be shocked if HMD makes use of a higher-quality battery than Apple. It’s extra possible “500” is simply the default, conservative determine Apple has used for years on its help pages. 

There’s an even bigger declare too, that the Nokia G22 can final three days between fees. With pretty unusual 5050mAh battery capability, the one causes for it to have excellent battery life are its low decision and weak processor. 

I haven’t seen it final something shut to 3 days. Maybe my mother and father, who’re long-standing customers of Motorola Moto sequence telephones not dissimilar to the Nokia G22, may get it to final that lengthy. They don’t use their telephones all that intensively. However these of us who use our mobiles borderline an excessive amount of? No probability.

I discover the Nokia G22 sometimes lasts a day and a half, which is above common however no higher than some telephones I’ve used within the final 12 months that make no particular claims about “days” of battery stamina.  

An hour of video streaming takes 8% off the cost stage, suggesting it’s good for round 12.5 hours of video streaming.

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