Despite its plummet in popularity over the years, Australians still have a lot of love for the Nokia brand. It’s mostly a yearning for simpler times, when mobile phones were built to last. After vanishing from the premium smartphone market some years back (when Windows phones were still a semi-viable third option), Nokia began focusing its efforts in the budget Android market back in 2016, slowly rebuilding a reputation for affordable and durable mobile phones. Now in 2021, Nokia is wading into the crowded waters of the mid-range smartphone market with its $599 5G X20 smartphone, buoyed by its commitment to long-lasting hardware.
The Nokia X20 is a 5G-ready 128GB smartphone available in two colours, Nordic Blue and Midnight Sun (a kind of light brass colour). It boasts a 6.7-inch FHD+ display, 64MP quad-camera array (with a ZEISS Optics macro lens), expandable microSD storage, a 4,470mAh battery (which Nokia claims lasts two days on average) and a Snapdragon 480 5G chipset (as seen in Oppo A54/74 and Motorola G50 handsets). It’s also got a headphone jack for anyone who hasn’t made the jump to wireless earbuds yet.
Perhaps the most interesting features of the new Nokia X20 aren’t so much what’s inside the handset but the support and warranty Nokia is offering with purchase. In addition to a three-year warranty, Nokia is offering to replace the Gorilla Glass 5 display if you break it within the first three months of purchase which is a generous offer for anyone who’s a little heavy-handed with their smartphones.
That support might be the only thing that makes mid-range shoppers think twice before purchasing a Samsung Galaxy A52 4G at the same price (or spending an extra $50 on the A52 5G). Because for all its talk about durability, the X20 doesn’t offer any level of water resistance and opting for the Galaxy A52 will not only get you IP67-rated water resistance but also a more powerful Snapdragon 720 (4G) or 750 (5G) chipset.
Nokia X20 price and availability
The Nokia X20 is available for pre-order from today, the 20th of May, through JB HI-FI and Nokia’s online store but will be available for purchase from the 3rd of June via those same channels in addition to Officeworks, Harvey Norman and Big W.
Nokia has confirmed that there are no telco partnerships planned for the Nokia X20, so you’ll need a BYO SIM plan if you plan on purchasing it outright. Here are some of the most popular SIM plans available in Australia this week.
Nokia X20 review: Safety above all else
The Nokia X20 is the first smartphone to which HMD Global connects the new 3-3-3 promise, but is it enough to compete?
In 2021 we can again expect a lot of Android smartphones from Nokia, the famous brand name that is still managed by HMD Global. The Nokia G and X series do not take a completely new path, but do come with some adjustments. We started working with the Nokia X20, the most premium variant of the quartet.
Beautiful but huge
The Nokia X20 is minimalist and looks sleek. We are a little less pleased with the ever-expanding formats into which Nokia is pouring its devices. With dimensions of 168.9 x 79.7 x 9.1 mm, we are dealing with a real phablet. It is really a smartphone that you operate with two hands, because with one you usually do not reach more than half of the display. Due to the width of the device, it can be somewhat difficult, especially for people with small hands, to hold and use the device with one hand for a longer period of time.
A strong aluminum frame keeps the front and rear together. The back is made of glass and feels quite solid. Our Nordic Blue model (there is also a Midnight Sun version) has a matte sheen, and the advantage of the coating is that you don’t see fingerprints quickly.The right edge has a volume control and on / off button. The latter also includes a fingerprint scanner. This is occasionally a bit fickle, and it sometimes happens that we only want to view notifications and fully unlock the device through the scanner.
‘Just’ a 60Hz display
The device uses a 6.67 inch FHD + LCD display. The resolution is 1080 x 2400 pixels with a refresh rate of 60Hz. If you like to work with higher refresh rates, you can certainly find that in this price range, but the X20 is not the right smartphone for you.
The further quality of the LCD display is reasonable. Colors look a bit pale. While you can adjust the white balance, we haven’t found an option to really impress the screen. It’s easy to do, but don’t expect miracles.
We find the maximum brightness of 450 nits a bit on the low side. In the bright summer sun, expect to squint a bit to read the screen. It’s fine with the minimal screen brightness; in the evenings we could read the screen without hurting our eyes, especially with the blue light filter.
Camera’s
The Nokia X20 has a 64MP main camera, 5MP wide angle, 5MP depth sensor and 2MP macro camera. There is also a 32MP front camera. During the day, the Nokia X20 manages to take quite reasonable pictures with the main camera. Don’t expect saturated photos with splashing colors from your image; the X20 keeps things realistic. HDR is present, but the dynamic range is not very good. Sharpness is okay, provided you shoot photos in well-lit environments.
The 5MP wide-angle camera is useful for taking landscape photos, but otherwise it is a fairly limited sensor. The 2MP macro camera also lacks some sharpness, but it can continue. Video recording is up to 1080p at 60fps. The front camera can compete a bit better with the competition, although we find the selfies taken a bit on the gray side.
Nokia X20: Snapdragon en Android 11
The Nokia X20 is equipped with the relatively new Snapdragon 480, a chip that supports 5G, among other things. In practice, you notice that the device can easily handle almost all tasks, but that there is an occasional stutter or hiccup. Especially with multitasking it does not go as smoothly as with the competition.
You only get the Nokia X20 with 128GB of storage, which is also expandable. 128GB, however, is usually more than sufficient for the average user. There is also 8GB of RAM, so multitasking now and in the future will not cause memory problems.
The device runs on a stock version of Android 11. That is the operating system as Google ‘intended’, without extra layers or bloatware. Nokia’s new midranger belongs to the first group to be covered by the 3-3-3 promise: three years of security updates, three years of warranty, and three years of software updates. The latter is particularly interesting. In theory, the Nokia X20 should therefore still have Android 14, something that is quite unprecedented in the Android landscape, let alone in the middle segment.
Battery life and final verdict
The battery has a capacity of 4,470mAh. In practice, the Nokia X20 can easily last one and a half to two days on one cycle. We are talking about average use with 3 to 4 hours of screen time per day. It is certainly one of the better features of this phone.
The charging speed is slightly less impressive with a meager 18W. It takes about 2 hours for the battery to be fully charged with battery juice again. To prevent e-waste, Nokia does not supply an adapter.
At the bottom of the line, the Nokia X20 is an environmentally conscious no-nonsense smartphone, which mainly relies on its unique 3-3-3 promise: a three-year warranty, and three years of security and software updates. Furthermore, this large smartphone is a gray mouse, with specifications that are not exactly great in this price range.
Nokia’s new top-of-the-line model delivers the goods
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a review in progress. Since the Nokia X20 we have for review is a pre-release unit, we will be skipping the hardware and camera performance and update it once we get our hands on the retail unit.]
The Lowdown:
The Nokia X20 shines with its decent feature set headlined by superfast 5G support and great battery life.
The Review:
I managed to get my hands on an early Nokia X20 unit that was just announced and after spending a few days with it, I can definitely say that it is one of the best smartphones you can purchase for its price. The Nokia X20 is part of HMD Global’s new lineup of smartphones grouped into the X-series, G-series, and C-series.
The announcement of the new series of Nokia smartphones also includes HMD Global’s new message ‘Love it, Trust it, Keep it’. These three messages highlight the key points of these smartphones: long battery life, extended support for security patches as well as future operating system upgrades.
The Nokia X20 comes in a familiar design reminiscent of previous devices. The matte exterior is great, and I personally prefer this since fingerprints are almost non-existent. At 220 grams, the Nokia X20 is definitely big and bulky, something that may not sit for everyone. After using big screen devices over the years I’ve come to love oversized smartphones and the Nokia X20 is no exception.
You’ll find most of the physical buttons on the side of the device: the volume rockers and the power button with the embedded fingerprint sensor are on the right side, while a dedicated Google Assistant button is on the left just beside the dual SIM/microSD card tray. A 3.5mm is still present on the bottom, next to the USB-C port used for charging and data transfers.
The front houses the large 6.67-inch Full HD+ display which was actually very bright and sharp. The 2400-by-1080 pixel resolution was very capable of showcasing images and video with detailed clarity. The display also has a punch hole that houses the front-facing 32-megapixel camera.
Inside, the Nokia X20 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G chipset with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (an 8GB/128GB version is also available). Performance is good, but we will update this review with a proper evaluation of its performance once we get the release unit.
It runs Android 11 out of the box, and since it’s an Android One-branded device, you’re getting a near-stock Android experience that doesn’t include the annoying bloatware that other devices have. It also comes with the promise of three years of OS upgrades as well as security patches, making sure your device is always updated. This promise also means you have a reason to keep the smartphone for a longer time, eliminating the pressure of buying another device once the software support has ended. There’s also a 4,470 mAh battery.
The Nokia X20’s quad-camera setup consists of the primary 64-megapixel sensor, 5-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, 2-megapixel depth sensor, and the 2-megapixel macro sensor. What’s more, the cameras support Dual Sight mode that allows you to shoot from the front camera and any of the rear cameras at the same time. A detailed camera performance rating will be provided soon as well once we have our hands on a retail unit.
The Nokia X20 will be available in the UAE from May in Midnight Sun and Nordic Blue (tested here) at a retail price of AED 1,349.
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