Nokia G20 launched a while back, and I have used the smartphone for over a month now. There are many things interesting about this smartphone. Nokia has tried to do something good, but I don’t believe it worked the way the company intended to do it. Regardless, the experience of using the smartphone was decent. I wouldn’t say too good, but only decent. This is because while there are things that are good about this device, there are things where Nokia can improve aggressively. Let’s start with the design and the body of the smartphone.
Nokia G20 Review: Design and Body
The Nokia G20 that I got was the blue colour variant. The body is completely plastic covered, and so you won’t get that premium experience you might be used to with the flagship or the mid-range smartphones. There’s a round-camera setup at the rear, which is perfectly placed and just below the camera bump is the LED flash. The Nokia branding is right at the center, engraved in a silver finish. There is a USB Type-C port at the bottom, along with the speakers. The 3.5mm headphone jack is present at the top. At the front, the Nokia branding is at the bottom of the screen, and there’s a teardrop notch housing the selfie sensor at the top. On the left side of the body, you get a dedicated Google Assistant button just below the SIM tray. Honestly, the Nokia G20 does feel a little bulky in my hands. Its width is comfortable, but the device is not very light. On the right side, there’s a power button which is also the fingerprint sensor of the device, and right above it, there are volume rockers.
Nokia G20 Review: Display
The Nokia G20 comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD display with maximum resolution support of 1600 x 720 pixels. The aspect ratio of the screen is 20:9, and there’s a 2.5D cover glass at the top. The touch is very responsive, but I don’t feel satisfied with what Nokia has done with the brightness of the device. The Nokia G20’s maximum brightness just doesn’t feel enough. Other smartphones in the same price range can deliver more brightness. This makes the device a little hard to use under direct sunlight. While playing a game, since its touch-sampling rate is decent, I didn’t face any lags in commands or movement of the players. The display can be surely worked on by Nokia.
Nokia G20 Review: Performance and Battery
The Nokia G20 comes powered by the MediaTek Helio G35 SoC. I expected the chipset to power the smartphone just enough so that I wouldn’t face any lags. But that wasn’t the case. While operating the phone, there were random stutters from time to time which made the overall experience a little downgraded. Upon switching to different camera modes, there’s a little lag as the system tries to adjust to the new setting. You can use the smartphone for normal and lightweight games, but it isn’t made for heavy games. The device tends to get warm quite fast, and it doesn’t deliver the kind of experience you would expect from a decent smartphone. Applications such as Instagram and WhatsApp will run quite smoothly, though. Video streaming experience should also be good given that you are inside your home and there’s enough darkness in the room for your screen to ensure that everything is visible comfortably. In terms of battery, the device is quite impressive. Upon a single complete charge and with basic use, I could use the smartphone for at least 1.5 days before I needed to charge it again. However, I am not too disappointed with the G20. These are the kind of things and issues that you can expect will emerge with an entry-level smartphone.
Nokia G20 Review: Camera
The Nokia G20 comes with a quad-camera setup at the rear, where the primary sensor is a 48MP lens paired with a 5MP ultra-wide-angle sensor, 2MP macro sensor, and 2MP depth sensor. For clicking selfies, users get an 8MP sensor at the front. The app interface of the camera app is typical Nokia style, and thus you will find it very familiar if you are used to a Nokia smartphone. The device allows you to click pictures and record videos in both the normal camera mode and the ultra-wide-angle mode. There are multiple modes that users can shoot pictures in. In the ‘more’ category, there is panorama mode, macro mode, and more present for the users so that they can take their photography to the next level. Talking about the camera performance, the normal camera picture is quite good in terms of capturing colours, but it drops focus now and then from the subject. At the same time, the wide-angle-sensor images are well focused on the subject but lack colour accuracy. The macro camera of the device is impressive as it captures details vividly, and the images look very beautiful. As for the selfie camera, the images come out decent. But there’s a white sort of glow that’s around the face that can be noticed if looked very carefully. The colours are a little on the dark side. That’s all about the camera.
Nokia G20 Review: Price and Conclusion
The Nokia G20 comes with a set of specifications that is kind of ‘okayish’ for being an entry-level smartphone. Honestly, you can’t expect anything more from it. The device has some upsides but some downsides as well. If you are looking for a smartphone in the Rs 13,000 range, there are alternatives present to the Nokia G20 that you can surely look at. The Nokia G20 is selling in a single memory variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage for Rs 12,999. It is available in ‘Night’ and ‘Glacier’ colour variants.
