Nokia has been trying to increase its market share in the very affordable 4G smartphone market in India. The company has come out with multiple smartphones at the Rs 10,000 price point, but nothing has ever really made a huge impact. A couple of weeks back, Nokia announced the Nokia C20 Plus. I have been using the device for more than a month now, and frankly, I couldn’t complain a lot except for what Nokia has done with the camera. Let me show you.
Nokia C20 Plus Review: Design, Body and Display
In terms of design, Nokia C20 Plus is one of the most attractive affordable smartphones in the market. It has a circular camera bump at the rear, and the front camera is housed in the tear-drop notch at the top center. The Nokia branding at the rear is just classy, and the Grey colour variant just looks awesome. The speaker is at the rear bottom while there is no Google Assistant button. The power button is at the right, and just above it are the volume rockers. The charging port is at the bottom, and the device doesn’t support fast charging, which is understandable.
The body is completely made of plastic, but it still feels good in the hands. It is quite bulky, so gaming on it for long hours will take its toll on your wrists. There’s nothing very special about the design, yet it looks good. Maybe the fact that it comes with a simple design is helping it win.
Moving on, the Nokia C20 Plus has a 6.5-inch display. I like how responsive it is. The colours and brightness aren’t the best, but what more can you expect out of a device at this price point. The animations are really quick, but to be frank, I wasn’t using a lot of applications, and one month is still short enough to say whether the processor and the UI will be as smooth as it is right now after a few more months.
The brightness of the device is as good as Nokia G20 (review), even though there’s a huge difference in the price at which both come. The bezels around the side don’t bother me much, but the Nokia branding at the bottom could have been left out, and Nokia could have focused on making the device even more beautiful.
One thing that I like about holding the Nokia C20 Plus is that I can use it in one hand. Usually, 6.5-inch devices can’t be used by one hand, and that can be a bummer.
Nokia C20 Plus Review: Performance, Battery
In terms of performance, the Nokia C20 Plus is decent for the specifications it has. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core processor clocked at 1.6 GHz coupled with up to 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The Nokia C20 Plus runs on Android 11 Go Edition out of the box and can support multiple LTE 4G bands. There is support for the Face Unlock feature, which is very convenient since there is no fingerprint sensor.
It is not built for heavy gaming. The RAM is even too little to load heavy applications and then run them smoothly. Even the processor won’t be able to manage the heavy load. However, you can run basic streaming applications and even low-key games which are not very graphic demanding comfortably. At this price range, heavy gaming shouldn’t even be expected from the company.
One of the most impressive things about the smartphone is its 5,000mAh battery. It can’t support fast charging, but the UI is well optimised so that there is no battery drainage. I could just use the Nokia C20 Plus for up to 2 days with basic usage. The presence of a 3.5mm audio jack is just sweet because I really love wired earphones when I want to hear something in the highest quality possible.
The Nokia C20 Plus is very good at handling basic tasks and commands. Even the applications didn’t take a lot of time to load.
Nokia C20 Plus Review: Camera
The camera is something Nokia can work at. The Nokia C20 Plus is an affordable device, but I have seen better cameras at this price range. It is not just about the camera lens but about the software. Even the slightly higher priced Nokia G20 didn’t possess a decent image processing capability.
The front camera comes with a 5MP lens, and the image from it just doesn’t have the most natural colours. However, for some reason, it took better selfies than the Nokia G20 I had used recently. But I applaud the front sensor for capturing the details right. If only colours could be more accurate, it would have been better.
There’s not much on offer with the rear camera. The portrait mode honestly doesn’t do a lot, and the primary rear sensor isn’t very good at capturing details or colours. The images look too artificial. The focus is quite better than what I saw in the Nokia G20. I don’t know why the Nokia G20 impressed me much lesser than the Nokia C20 Plus when the former is the more premium gadget. Regardless, there isn’t much to cover in the camera department. Just one more thing, the images take their while in getting processed, so don’t move the camera too fast.
Nokia C20 Plus Review: Price and Conclusion
The Nokia C20 Plus is available in India for Rs 8,999 for the 2GB+32GB variant and Rs 9,999 for the 3GB+32GB variant. The Nokia C20 Plus can be purchased for a 10% discount by Jio users (old and new). It is available in Grey and Blue colours. Users also get benefits worth Rs 4,000 from Jio. The company is promising a 1-year replacement guarantee on this smartphone which means you can use it without any worries.
Overall, the Nokia C20 Plus is an almost decent device for the price. Since the camera is such a major feature, I expected it to be a little more smooth experience. However, if you are budget bound, then this device can be a good buy. It can do almost everything an entry-level smartphone can do, and its battery is amazing.
It can be a good buy at a discounted rate with the Jio offer.
