Nokia C21 Smartphone Review

Nokia C21 Smartphone Review – The Nokia C21 smartphone was unveiled on February 28th, 2022, and then subsequently went on sale on May 3, 2022. The phone will be launched globally, but as of now, the Philippines will be the first country to receive the smartphone. Unfortunately, the chipset of the smartphone doesn’t support 5G and so those looking for 5G smartphones may get disappointed.

The phone also looks similar to its predecessor Nokia C20, except for the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor which was absent in the C20. But does this new phone bring any other changes to make it a worthy successor? Let’s begin with the review of the Nokia C21 smartphone to find out.

Nokia C21 Smartphone Review

Highlights

1. The Nokia C21 has a 6.52 inches IPS LCD display panel with HD+ resolution.
2. The chipset powering the smartphone is the Unisoc SC9863A chipset that can reach up to a 1.6GHz clocking speed.
3. It has android 11 Go Edition for a clean and smooth user interface.
4. The rear camera sensor is 8MP, and it also comes with a 5MP selfie sensor.
5. The phone has a Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery without fast-charging support.

Design and Display

The design of the Nokia C21 remains completely unchanged from its predecessor C20, except for the rear-mounted fingerprint sensor which was absent in the C20. It has the same matte plastic finish on the back and has a specific texture which makes it impossible for it to be slipped from your hands easily. The sides are also plastic, however. The use of full plastic may not sit well with everyone, but considering it’s an affordable phone, the use of plastic makes sense. Besides this, the phone is slim and feels lightweight at 195 grams.

As for the front of the phone, the phone features a 6.52 inches IPS LCD display panel with only 720p resolution support whereas gorilla glass protection is also missing on the phone. Also, there’s no high refresh rate and the lack of Full HD+ resolution will not sit well but this is what you get in the budget segment. The phone features two colors, Dark Blue and Warm Grey.

Memory and Internal

As for the internals, the phone is powered by the 28nm Unisoc SC9863A chipset that can reach up to a max of 1.6GHz clocking speed. With this chipset, you can’t have heavy expectations as it will help you in completing daily tasks only. This low-powered processor is meant to work with Go-edition smartphones.

For gaming, you get the IMG8322 GPU, which is fine for casual games such as candy crush but don’t expect anything higher than and definitely no PUBG on this phone, even at lower graphics. The experience will be bad and you will not be very satisfied. The phone comes in 3 variants, and it starts from 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage and goes all the way to 3GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Also, if you want to expand storage, there is support for a dedicated SD card slot.

Camera

There’s not much to be excited about in the camera department. There are just two sensors in the phone, an 8MP rear sensor, and a 5MP selfie sensor. The 8MP sensor takes decent pictures with a good amount of detail, but don’t expect too much considering the price. The 5MP selfie camera is also equally impressive considering the price. It can take decent selfies with decent color balance and doesn’t overexpose the background. Both the cameras are decent, so long as there’s a good amount of light.

In an overcast setting, artificial indoor settings, or at night, the sensors will fail to get a decent shot. This is simply because of the fact that these camera sensors aren’t designed to work in such low-light situations. The shots won’t be good enough to post on social media. For video recording, the phone manages to shoot up to 720P at 30fps from both the rear camera and the selfie camera.

Battery and Others

The Li-Po battery inside the phone has a capacity of just 3000mAh, which is very low compared to today’s standard and there’s no fast-charging support as well. But since the capacity of the battery is so low, it doesn’t take a lot of time to charge the smartphone. The phone hardly lasts a day due to the poor battery capacity. Apart from that, the phone also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication. The Nokia C21 was launched at the price of $110 (Rs 8,390 in India) approx for the base variant.

Nokia C21 Pros and Cons

Nokia C21 Specifications Detail

Down below you can see the full specifications of the Nokia C21 smartphone.

Conclusion

This phone comes at a time when phone manufacturers are being accused of providing botched updates that slow down their phones or bring other issues. But Nokia has built a reputation for providing quality updates on time. The brand name matters to a lot of people. But, considering the price tag, we can’t recommend this phone. The internal specifications of the phone are just too low for a lot of people and there are various other phones that will provide a whole lot of features for the same price.

If you are just happy with calling, texting, and a bit of WhatsApp, then this Nokia phone is fine for you. But, just remember, there are better options available at the same price such as the Realme Narzo 50i Prime, which offers far better internals for a slightly higher price. The experience of the Realme C1 will simply blow away the Nokia C21 out of the competition.