HMD Global, the Finnish company that holds branding rights of Nokia finally announced the offline availability of their latest smartphone - the Nokia 2 in the Indian market. Priced at Rs 6999, the Nokia 2 targeted at an entry-level segment of the market. Buyers still have options like Xiaomi Redmi 4 and Motorola Moto C Plus to choose from when looking for a budget smartphone. Here's a comparison between the three budget smartphones, and a look at which offers the best features.
Nokia 2 vs Redmi 4 vs Moto C Plus: Design & Display
The Nokia 2 comes with a premium design that HMD is touting as the highlight of the smartphone. Sporting a polycarbonate back, the Nokia 2 is mated to a frame made of 6000 Series Aluminum. The device flaunts a 5-inch LTPS HD display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
In comparison, the Redmi 4 features a metal unibody design with 2.5D curved glass on the front while the Moto C Plus features a plastic body. Both the devices feature a 5-inch HD display with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels sans any protection. The Nokia 2 clearly seems to have an advantage in the design department, and Xiaomi’s Redmi 4 is also a great choice if you want a metal-bodied smartphone in a tight budget, but just ignore the Moto C Plus.
Nokia 2 vs Redmi 4 vs Moto C Plus: Hardware
The new Nokia 2 is powered by Qualcomm’s modest 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 212 chipset backed by 1GB of RAM. Onboard storage is meagre 8GB that can be expanded with microSD card.
The Redmi 4 packs 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor clocked at 1.4GHz. It is accompanied by 2GB RAM along with 16GB internal storage, which can further be expanded to 32GB via card slot. The Redmi 4 comes in three variants with 3GB of RAM and 4GB of RAM, but we're just comparing the 2GB model over here.
The Moto C Plus is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MTK6737 SoC and 2GB RAM. The handset has 16GB internal storage and comes with a dedicated microSD card slot. Clearly, the Nokia 2 is not a powerhouse, as Redmi 4 trumps Nokia offering by a huge margin. The Moto C Plus has double the RAM than Nokia and a sluggish MediaTek MTK6737 processor.
The Nokia 2 runs Android Nougat 7.1.1 with a promise to upgrade it to Android Oreo. The Redmi 4 runs Android Marshmallow with a customized MIUI 8 skin on the top, and the MIUI 9 update based on Android Nougat is currently rolling out to the smartphone. The Moto C Plus comes with stock Android 7.0 Nougat with minimum bloatware.
Nokia 2 vs Redmi 4 vs Moto C Plus: Camera & Battery
In terms of camera, the Nokia 2 is equipped with 8MP camera module with autofocus and LED flash on the rear and a 5MP camera selfie camera. The Redmi 4 packs a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. The Moto C Plus, on the other hand, comes with an 8MP primary camera and a 2MP selfie clicker with dual LED flash.
Moving to the battery, the Nokia 2 comes with 4100mAh battery that can provide juice to last two days. However, it comes without fast charging feature. The Redmi 4 also packs the same 4100mAh battery and even lacks fast charging support. Lastly, the Moto C Plus has a 4000mAh battery, which incidentally doesn't have any fast charge support too.
Nokia 2 vs Xiaomi Redmi 4 vs Moto C Plus: Price in India
The Nokia 2 is priced at Rs 6999 and is now available across all the major offline stores in India. The Xiaomi Redmi 4 is the most affordable option for the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage model available for Rs 6999. A larger RAM and memory variant - 3 GB + 32 GB model goes for Rs 8,999 and the 4GB RAM+64GB model is priced at Rs 10,999. The Moto C Plus, on the other hand, comes at the same price as Nokia 2 and Redmi 4, at Rs 6999.
On the paper, the Nokia 2 comes with a modest hardware that clearly doesn’t match up with that of Redmi 4 and Moto C Plus. Nonetheless, the device comes with a premium design and a battery backup of 2 days along with the Nokia brand to back it up. Of course, how can we forget the Android Oreo upgrade from the company? With Xiaomi planning to launch their next-gen Redmi 5, it remains to be seen how Nokia will fare up in the market.
