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Two-minute assessment
Just like the Xiaomi Redmi Be aware 10 5G and the Realme 8 5G earlier than it, the Nokia G50 offers you a 5G-ready smartphone for a really low value. And like these two previous telephones, the Nokia G50 has to make a handful of compromises as a way to meet its exacting transient.
These compromises embrace an LCD show that, while large and vivid, can solely handle a 720p decision and a 60Hz refresh charge. It’s hardly one of the best showcase for all that media content material you’ll be streaming over 5G.
Nonetheless, these 5G capabilities imply increasingly as time goes on. With 5G connectivity more and more obtainable, particularly in and round city facilities, there’s beginning to be a real use case for reasonably priced telephones that may entry broadband-like speeds while out and about.
This nonetheless appears like a considerably area of interest situation, nonetheless. How many individuals with such a restricted smartphone price range can have the type of information allowance that allows them to benefit from 5G’s data-munching attributes?
Whereas a Snapdragon 480 5G chipset is ok for common duties, it would simply show the bottleneck right here if you’re accessing a top-notch 5G connection.
The Nokia G50’s major digital camera is competent, and able to taking respectable 48MP photographs, although its supplementary sensors aren’t as much as a lot. It’s the standard reasonably priced telephone story, to be honest.
One space wherein the Nokia G50 actually excels, nonetheless, is battery life. With a 5,000mAh cell and comparatively frugal parts (5G modem apart), you possibly can anticipate two days of utilization out of a single cost below regular or average situations.
It’s a disgrace the promise of 18W charging help isn’t matched by the charger bundled into the field, which one way or the other feels a bit of misleading. Nevertheless it’s robust to select a gap within the telephone’s stamina all the identical.
That is additionally a extremely well-built telephone, with a metallic body and an opulent smooth-touch plastic rear cowl. This comes on the expense of straightforward portability, nonetheless, with a thick and unusually heavy physique.
Nokia’s sometimes strong software program providing is all the time welcome, with a crisp inventory UI and a two-year Android replace promise. In a market filled with ugly customized UIs, the Nokia G50 stands out proper alongside the Moto G50.
Finally, the Nokia G50 is a strong selection for anybody in search of to prioritize 5G connectivity on a $300/£200/AU$450 price range. Nevertheless it’s removed from alone on this particular sub-category, and it doesn’t actually stand out from its equally spec’d rivals.
Nokia G50 launch date and value
- $299.99/£199/AU$449, with differing storage provisions
- Out now within the US, UK and Australia
The Nokia G50 is out now within the UK at a value of £199, which offers you 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Over within the US and Australia, there is a mannequin with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $299.99/AU$449.
Both approach, that is very low cost for a 5G smartphone. It’s not uniquely low cost, nonetheless.
The Realme 8 5G, the Redmi Be aware 10 5G, and Moto G50 have all pulled off the identical trick in 2021, amongst others. You might have quite a lot of selection when you’re trying to prioritize 5G however don’t have so much to spend.
Design
- Thick, heavy chassis
- Comparatively premium supplies
Because it took the reins of Nokia’s smartphone enterprise, HMD International has been eager to take care of the model’s fame for strong, reliable designs. The Nokia G50 definitely continues that pattern.
It’s a really well-built machine for the cash, with a metallic body and a pleasingly soft-touch and gently curved plastic rear cowl.
Nearly as good as that rear cowl seems to be and feels out of the field, its refined sheen and the glowing Ocean Blue shade of our mannequin (it’s also possible to purchase it in Midnight Solar) mix to make it extremely inclined to sweaty fingerprints.
One trait the Nokia G50 shares with different latest Nokia telephones is measurement. It’s an enormous boy alright, with a 173.8 x 77.7mm footprint and a substantial thickness of 8.9mm. In the meantime, the telephone weighs a fairly startling 220g.
Simply to check that with a few of its contemporaries, the Realme 8 5G weighs 185g, the Xiaomi Redmi Be aware 10 5G weighs 190g, and the Moto G50 weighs 192g. It’s fairly the distinction, and it’s one which doesn’t flatter the Nokia.
Not that the Nokia G50 is disagreeable to wield. Together with these premium-feeling supplies, the producer has been good about its button placement.
The ability button, which additionally occurs to accommodate a speedy and dependable fingerprint sensor, has been positioned midway up the best fringe of the machine, making it straightforward to achieve. It sits in a slight dip too, which makes it straightforward to tell apart from the amount rocker above it.
HMD International has as soon as once more given us a devoted Google Assistant button on the other edge, which feels as superfluous as ever. However the 3.5mm headphone jack is a welcome inclusion on the highest edge.
Show
- 6.82-inch LCD is giant and vivid
- 720p decision isn’t optimum
- Solely a 60Hz refresh charge
The Nokia G50’s show is completely big by nearly any normal. At 6.82-inches, it’s even bigger than super-flagship behemoths just like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely and the iPhone 13 Professional Max.
These are the primary and final instances we may actually examine such telephones to the Nokia G50 in all good conscience. Other than brightness, the place the Nokia G50 hits a decent 450 nits in typical utilization, it’s discovered relatively wanting in all of the ways in which matter.
That is an IPS LCD show, and never a very vibrant instance at that. There’s a barely washed out, light look to content material seen on the Nokia G50, with barely orangey reds and pale greens – not less than when in comparison with an OLED.
Extra problematic is the truth that it doesn’t get practically sharp sufficient, which that vast canvass solely accentuates. With a decision of 720 x 1560, aka HD+ or 720p, it produces a pitiful 252 pixels per inch.
One other retrograde step is the inclusion of a mere 60Hz refresh charge. Scrolling via content material feels sluggish and blurry right here.
This isn’t an elitist level both. The Realme 8 5G, the Redmi Be aware 10 5G, and the equally named Moto G50 all provide equally priced 5G packages, but nonetheless handle to incorporate an elevated 90Hz refresh charge with it.
Should you’re keen to drop the 5G, you possibly can even bump that determine as much as 120Hz with the Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, and even entry OLED panel know-how with the Realme 8.
Elsewhere with the Nokia G50 you get a reasonably common 19.5:9 ratio, so widescreen film content material suits fairly properly in panorama. You’ll must make do with a teardrop notch consuming into the highest of the display screen although, which appears relatively dated in these instances of punch-hole cut-outs.
Digicam
- 48MP major sensor does an satisfactory job
- 5MP ultra-wide is approach off on tone and element
As is the considerably irritating pattern for cheaper telephones as of late, the Nokia G50 packs in a triple digital camera system that isn’t actually a triple digital camera system. It’s a twin digital camera system, after which solely nearly.
The package deal is led by a decent 48MP large sensor with an f/1.8 aperture. That is backed by a a lot lesser 5MP ultra-wide and a 2MP depth assistant. The latter actually isn’t a digital camera in its personal proper.
Selfie obligation is dealt with by an 8MP front-facing digital camera, stashed in that aforementioned teardrop notch.
Picture high quality from the 48MP major sensor is strong, with pixel-binning strategies turning out crisp, vivid 12MP photographs. Snaps look comparatively pure, with strong auto-HDR implementation protecting extremes on an excellent keel.
Take the Nokia G50 into murkier situations, nonetheless, and it’ll begin to undergo. Even well-lit indoor photographs include a good quantity of grain, whereas Night time Mode photographs lack element at the same time as they get fairly vivid. There’s an important lack of optical picture stabilization (OIS) right here, in fact, which you don’t are likely to get in such reasonably priced telephones.
General, that 48MP sensor bears all the burden with the Nokia G50. Apart from common photographs it’s additionally pressed into motion when taking 2x zoom snaps. These easy crops carry evident quantities of grain, however not less than you get some type of tonal consistency.
The identical can’t be mentioned for ultra-wide photographs, which make the most of a way more modest 5MP devoted sensor. It’s instantly obvious that such snaps are utilizing inferior {hardware}, with a drop in vibrancy, element, and distinction.
Selfies don’t look too sharp in any respect, with smudged pores and skin tones and a common lack of pop. However selfie portrait mode is worse, smudging edge element in your topic (that’s you) while dropping the ball on HDR.
The Nokia G50’s digital camera is ok for the fundamentals, however once more, you will get a slight efficiency bump by procuring within the non–5G market.
Digicam samples
Specs and efficiency
- Snapdragon 480 5G chipset
- 4GB of RAM
- Clear Android One software program
The Nokia G50 runs on a reasonably humble Snapdragon 480 5G, which is identical fashionable entry-level chip that powers the Moto G50, the Nokia XR20, and the Oppo A54 5G.
It’s a strong low-end runner that nonetheless falls a bit of in need of its rivals.
Within the Geekbench 5 multi-core CPU check, the Nokia G50 scored a mean of 1,560. That compares to 1,677 for the Xiaomi Redmi Be aware 10 5G and 1,765 for the Realme 8 5G, each of which run on the MediaTek MT6833 Dimensity 700 5G.
Even the Oppo A54 5G, which runs on the identical Snapdragon 480, scores 1,664, although it scores about the identical because the equally geared up Moto G50.
You get 4GB with all the fashions we’ve seen, although apparently there’s a mannequin with 6GB on the market. It’s unlikely to make an enormous distinction to day-to-day efficiency, which is satisfactory.
With such a setup, gaming is feasible on the Nokia G50. However we wouldn’t select this telephone if this was a significant precedence. The Poco X3 NFC will do you significantly better for related cash, on the expense of 5G connectivity.
Name of Responsibility: Cellular defaults to Excessive graphical settings, which is roughly the center tier of what’s on provide. With these and the upper HD texture package deal put in, we achieved a strong body charge.
On the storage entrance, UK customers at the moment get 64GB, whereas US and Australian customers get 128GB. Whether or not there’ll be wider availability in every of the territories via Nokia or third-party retailers stays to be seen. Both approach, there’s a microSD card slot for enlargement functions.
One of many key benefits for any Nokia-branded telephone as of late is the model’s dedication to Android One, a particularly clear and unadorned model of Google’s cellular OS.
There’s no overbearing customized UI, as with the Oppo A15 or the Xiaomi Redmi Be aware 10 5G. It’s simply pure Android, with Google’s inventory apps and widgets serving your primary wants for e mail, pictures, file administration, music and the like.
There are a handful of further apps, however they’re largely apparent inclusions like Netflix and Spotify, and so they’re stashed away in their very own separate app folder.
The corporate additionally guarantees two years of Android upgrades with this telephone, which is one other interesting aspect of this model’s complete reliable angle.
Battery life
- 5,000mAh battery for real two-day stamina
- 18W help, however solely a 10W charger within the field
Battery life is the Nokia G50’s key weapon. It packs a big 5,000mAh cell, and places it to wonderful use.
Along with the telephone’s low-res show and low-power processor, we had been capable of get a full two days of average utilization out of the G50, simply as Nokia claims.
Extra particularly, a 16-hour day with three hours of screen-on time (what we’d name mild to average utilization) left us with a powerful 70% left within the tank. That’s genuinely wonderful.
Although it’s nice generally combined use, nonetheless, the Nokia G50 fails to flee its low-budget roots on the subject of sustained media consumption. The TechRadar battery check, which entails a 90-minute looping 720p video with the display screen brightness cranked as much as full, sapped 15% of a full cost right here.
The Xiaomi Redmi Be aware 10 5G, with the same {hardware} setup, misplaced 10% in the identical check.
In relation to recharging, the Nokia G50 helps 18W quick charging, similar to the Realme 8 5G and the Redmi Be aware 10 5G. Nonetheless, in contrast to these rivals, you solely get a 10W charger within the field.
That’s an enchancment on the likes of the Nokia X20, which doesn’t provide you with any brick in any respect, nevertheless it nonetheless feels ever so barely misleading.
Do you have to purchase the Nokia G50?
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
First reviewed: October 2021
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