Nokia is known for its well-built smartphones that come with stock Android. One of the latest devices from Nokia to launch in Kenya is the Nokia G20. This smartphone has been on shelves in the country for a few months and I have been using it for a few weeks to see if it is worth recommending.
The Nokia G20 is available in the country for around Ksh 15,000. This is quite a reasonable price but this is not the cheapest from the company, for that we have the Nokia C series with the Nokia C10 being one of the latest I reviewed last month.
Back to the Nokia G20, it does come with a massive battery which is one of its key selling points. I will be more interested in the performance of the phone as most of the recent Nokia smartphones have not delivered on this.
Before we get to the full review, let us highlight some of the key specifications of the Nokia G20.
- Display: 6.5-inch; 720 x 1600 pixels
- Chipset: MediaTek Helio G35
- RAM: 4GB RAM
- Storage: 64GB
- Rear cameras: 48MP + 5MP + 2MP + 2MP
- Front camera: 8MP
- Battery: 5,050mAh
Design and Build
The Nokia G20 has the same design we have come to expect from smartphones from HMD Global. It has a polycarbonate back with slightly curved edges for better grip. At the back we do have the circular camera module that houses the quad camera setup made up of a 48MP main sensor, 5MP and two 2MP sensors. The circular camera module looks unique and is not something we see often in this price segment.
The power button and volume buttons are on the right of the phone with the dedicated Google Assistant button on the left. The fingerprint button is embedded on the power button. The headphone jack is at the top with the USB C port and speaker grille at the bottom.
The Nokia G20 is available in two colour options of night and glacier.
Display
The Nokia G20 has a 6.8-inch display with a 720p resolution. This display is just good but does not get very bright to my liking. It is still sharp but when compared with other devices from other brands, you will clearly see it is not the best.
That aside, the viewing experience with the Nokia G20 is not that bad. Media consumption is quiet fulfilling as this display gets the job done even though it is not a Full HD one. The display is still usable outdoors.
The display is responsive but there are some cases where it becomes unresponsive and does not recognize touch. These were isolated cases but they happened so I have to mention that.
At the top of the display is the teardrop notch which house the selfie camera.
Performance and Software
For performance, the Nokia G20 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G35 processor that has been paired with 4GB of RAM and either 64 or 128GB of internal storage space. The Helio G35 processor is not the most powerful one HMD Global could have used and to be honest this impacts on the performance of the phone. This processor is perfect for entry level devices and not the G20.
Simple tasks like opening apps and playing light games can be underwhelming. For a phone worth Ksh 15,000, performance should have been much better. Multitasking is not so bad as I experienced. I was actually expecting a bad experience but was surprised.
Gaming is possible on this phone but if you are planning to play intensive games on this phone, it may not be the best experience. The phone will significantly slow down in such situations.
Like every other Nokia smartphone, the Nokia G20 comes with stock Android which ensures no bloatware or significant changes to the UI. The Nokia G20 is part of the Android One Program which guarantees two years of Android OS updates and three years of security updates.
Cameras
The Nokia G20 has a quad camera at the back as I have already mentioned. The camera setup is made up of a 48MP main sensor, 5MP ultra-wide sensor, 2MP macro lens and a 2MP portrait camera. For selfies, there is an 8MP front facing camera.
The shots you get with the 48MP back camera are actually good. I was really impressed with the results, they are well detailed and appear natural. Night mode also does a good job in improving the quality of shots you get when the lighting is not so good.
Selfies are also good with average dynamic range. In some cases the shots look soft and the colours appear washed out but if you have good lighting you will have nothing to worry about.
Battery
The Nokia G20 really shines when it comes to the battery life. The 5,000 mAh battery can last you for more than a couple of days depending on your usage. With this battery, you can easily use the phone for 2 to 3 days on a single charge. This is not a power-hungry smartphone so the battery will not drain that fast. This is what you expect from an entry level phone and it is exactly what you get.
The only issue I have with this battery is that it does not support fast charging. Given the size of the battery, it takes quite a while to fully charge it when it is running low.
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