Let’s face it; Nokia isn’t as popular as it used to be. Back in 2010, it had the sales charts ripped off but now it is barely making it into the top 20. It met with a saddening demise at the hands of Microsoft back in 2014 which was very unfortunate. As a brand some people swore by the prowess of Nokia’s reliability and dependability. But no thanks to Microsoft, Nokia is back among us and found its way back home in Finland in the arms of HMD Global.
Ever since the takeover, Nokia has been making a slew of Android devices for the mass market and recently it launched its flagship the Nokia 8 which was a full bells to the whistles loaded Nokia phone boasting of incredible build and design. However, Nokia’s also produced some very reliable budget phones back in the day and were well received by the mass public. So along with its most expensive post takeover Phone, it also announced its device for the budget market, aka Nokia 2. So let’s see what you’re getting.
Design and Display:
The Nokia 2 has a simple no-nonsense design at the front. It’s nothing flashy but won’t give you the impression that you’re using a budget device. It look pretty similar to the Nokia 3 which is another budget offering by them. It is made of good quality plastic that is reminiscent of Nokia’s of old. The rear too sports a simple design with the camera at the rear. However despite having a large 5 inch display, it doesn’t come across as bulky and is every ergonomic to hold.
Since it’s mainly aimed at the budget market, the most important thing to look forward to in a Nokia of this stature is the build and I can confidently say that it has one of the best build qualities in the budget segment. It feels sturdy to hold and seems like it could take a beating.
Display wise the Nokia 2 would come with a 5.0inch display which isn’t taking it to the phablet category but the caveat here is that it comes with a very low resolution of 540×960 pixels which is well below what the competition is offering at the price point. It also dictates that the Pixel per Inch count is going to be a low 220 which directly means pixilation of on screen content.
Performance:
The Nokia 2 sports of the fastest Snapdragon processor on the market!
Just kidding, it is a budget device. It sports a very budget friendly Snapdragon 210 which is a quad core 1.2 GHz CPU. It isn’t a performer to be honest and the only reason why Nokia didn’t use the faster Snapdragon 450, even the older Snapdragon 435 is because it would hole into Nokia 5’s sales. It amazes me that phone manufacturers still ask us to pay a premium for a brand name when similarly priced Chinese devices have much better specs. Coming back to the matter, you can forget about playing graphics heavy games on this because it won’t actually run them. And the included 2GB of RAM don’t help in heavy multi-tasking either. On the plus side, all this cost saving might potentially add up to a better battery life which could be more important to some people who use their devices for the occasional web browsing and mostly for calls.
Software:
At least Nokia did the sensible thing in the software department. It comes preloaded with stock Android 7.1 which is always a good thing. In my opinion, all manufacturers should ditch the custom skinning on the phones and go stock Android. It’s so much more fluid to use and doesn’t lag on low powered devices. And because of the stock Android, it has a very real chance of getting an Android 8 Oreo update officially or from 3rd party developers.
The phone comes with the entire Google app suite and is devoid of any bloatware which again is much appreciated. I wish Nokia did custom performance tweaks on their phones like Moto does because for some reason, Moto’s software feels more streamlined and polished but nevertheless I’m not complaining about the included software.
Camera and Storage:
Camera wise, the Nokia 2 comes with an 8MP rear camera at the back with LED flash. It won’t be a rival to the iPhone X anytime soon, rest assured but would basically get the job done for the most part. It comes with a bunch of shooting modes like HDR, ISO compensation and so on but as the camera is on the weaker side, they won’t help regarding image quality. It also comes with a 5MP front camera for video calls and the casual selfie. At least Nokia thought to keep it in the norm of 5MP at the front because anything else would’ve been hysterical.
Storage wise, the Nokia 2 comes with 16 GB of on-board storage which is common sight and it can be further expanded up to 64GB with the addition of SD cards which is pretty good.
Battery and Connectivity:
Due to the fact that this phone hasn’t been launched as of yet, accurate battery information is unavailable at the moment. But if I had to take a guess then Nokia will be pairing it with a generous battery since this is one area that Nokia has always shined.
Connectivity Wise, the device supports 4G with VOLTE, 3G and 2G connections and since it is a low-end device aimed at developing markets, it will likely support Indian network bands.
Conclusion:
There are a number of reasons why I can’t recommend the Nokia 2 as a daily driver even before its launch. The First is the price. Nokia 2 price in India is expected to be around Rs.8990 which is absurd for the specifications that it offers. You can easily purchase a similarly priced phone like the XiaomiRedmi 4, which has a far superior display and incredible specs for the same price. You have to be a special Nokia fan to even consider buying this device for the price.
