Nokia came back into the smartphone market with quite a bang. Unfortunately, they are not as popular as they were before. Still, Nokia is a popular smartphone maker with Android within their devices. They are popular in the scene of affordable Android devices – the entry-level to mid-range smartphone segment.
They kick off 2022 with a more modest note though. They have just released their Nokia G21, the replacement to their entry-level champion, the G20. This time, they have focused on all the important stuff that is aimed to make the device more reliable than ever.
Nokia retained a few things from the G20 though. The Nokia G21 still comes with a large 5,050mAh battery that has a quoted battery life of three days while being a little thinner at 8.5mm thick. While that is also the same promise before, Nokia is ensuring that the G21 can last for three days by improving its power saving modes, or rather to implement them in stages. The first power saving mode triggers at 20% and still allows you to run most of your apps as normally as possible. The second, more aggressive power saving mode kicks in at 10% to extend the battery life even more.
Nokia also increased the charging speed on the Nokia G21 to now be delivered at 18W via a USB Type-C. Interestingly Nokia is reportedly shipping the device with a 10W charging brick. To fully take advantage of 18W charging speed, you need to buy a new charging brick.
The new Nokia G21 also comes with a large 6.5-inch LCD display with 90Hz refresh rate. Running the display at 90hz always can drain its battery though. There is an adaptive feature to reduce the display’s refresh rate to 60Hz (when needed) to get more battery life out of the device. It is also now a HD+ 720p display. Which means you can watch Netflix, Prime Video, and even YouTube at HD resolutions.
You get a new 50-Megapixel shooter out the back of the device. The new improved camera also features a night mode, and Super Resolution function to capture highly detailed images. Sadly, there is no more ultra-wide-angle lens on the device though. Alongside the 50-Megapixel sensor are two 2-Megapixel sensors, one is a macro lens, the other a depth sensor.
Inside the device is also a more powerful System on a Chip (SoC). It comes with a Unisoc T606 12nm chip with eight cores. Two of the performance cores are ARM Cortex A75 cores while the other six efficiency cores are Cortex A55 cores that is still more powerful than the eight Cortex A53 cores from the previous Helio G35. The Unisoc T606 is also paired with a 4GB RAM and up to 128GB of storage and microSD expansion.
Oddly enough, Nokia has not bothered with 5G with this device, it is 4G capable still. On that note as well, the Nokia G21 ships with Android 11 at the time being. Nokia claims that the G21 is Android 12 ready though, which means that the Nokia G21 can be updated to Android 12 as and when it is available. HMD also promised two OS upgrades on their devices, which also means that it will be upgradable to Android 13 when it is available.
Security wise, nothing much has changed too. You still get a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that also doubles as a power button. Of course, there is the regular face unlock function that you might be used to on modern Android devices today. The facial recognition now allows you to wear your face mask and unlock the device though.
The Nokia G21 is supposed to be available soon. The suggested retail price for this device is from €170 (MYR 806*) onward in Nordic Blue and Dusk colour options. Oddly enough, different regions get different packages for the device. For Malaysia, there are no confirmations on its availability and official pricing at this point. But we are looking forward to seeing the Nokia G21 making its way here.
*Approximately based on the exchange rate of €1 = MYR 4.74 on xe.com as of 14/02/2022
Source: GSM Arena