HMD Global is an everlasting stalwart of the funds telephone market, however the Nokia G50 is its first telephone in fairly some time that you must actually take note of.
This is a telephone for individuals who like streaming media on their telephone on the go: it has an enormous show, 5G connectivity, a long-lasting battery, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, all for an impressively low worth. Moreover, it cuts corners in different areas to maintain the value low: the gradual processor and unimpressive cameras gained’t have an effect on the way you stream content material.
Clearly, then, HMD Global has recognized a selected area of interest of purchaser and launched a telephone to enchantment to these individuals. And we’d say it really works: in case you can relate to the above description, the Nokia G50 is a good telephone for you that gained’t break the financial institution.
It’s not a tool for everybody, for positive, nevertheless it ticks all of the containers it must. We spent a while with the Nokia G50, and forward of a full review, listed below are our preliminary impressions.
Nokia G50 launch date and worth
We’ve obtained the UK worth of the Nokia G50, and that’s £199, which converts to roughly $275 or AU$375. That’s a supremely low worth for a 5G telephone, solely matched by the likes of the Realme 8 5G, and also you usually gained’t discover a related machine for cheaper than that.
Well, that’s for the 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage model of the telephone, and we haven’t heard how a lot the higher-RAM or higher-storage configurations value simply but.
HMD Global has executed nicely to hit this aggressive worth level, as a few of its different gadgets have failed on this entrance prior to now: that’s why, within the introduction, we known as the G50 probably the most fascinating Nokia telephone shortly.
We don’t have a launch date for this telephone simply but, or the supply in different markets; we’ll replace you after we discover these out.
Design and show
The Nokia G50 packs a large 6.82-inch show - that’s a tiny bit greater than the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, displaying how a lot of a mammoth this machine is. The display screen is interrupted by a teardrop notch on the prime, which homes the front-facing digicam.
With a HD+ decision, this huge display screen doesn’t have as many pixels because the Galaxy telephone, and even most mid-range gadgets, which are inclined to hit FHD+ or extra. But some individuals don’t want high-res shows, or high-refresh-rate ones both (this display screen has a 60Hz refresh charge).
We have been happy to see the Nokia G50 avoids among the fundamental issues we've got with huge telephones. The fingerprint scanner, embedded within the energy button on the best fringe of the telephone, is low sufficient that we discovered it simple to achieve with out stretching. But the quantity rocker above it, and the Google Assistant button on the left edge, have been a bit of more durable to hit with out re-adjusting our fingers.
The telephone has a USB-C port in addition to a 3.5mm headphone jack, one thing followers of wired audio will doubtless be glad to see.
The rear digicam bump is round, a design we’ve seen fairly a number of HMD Global telephones use at this level, and it doesn’t stick too removed from the physique. The shell itself is product of plastic; we examined a blue model of the machine, however there’s additionally a pale pink different.
Cameras and battery life
The fundamental digicam on the Nokia G50 is a 48MP snapper, and it’s joined by 5MP ultra-wide and 2MP depth-sensing buddies. On the entrance there's an 8MP digicam for selfies.
We haven’t discovered ourselves massively impressed with images efficiency from our testing. Snaps seemed desaturated and boring, whereas questionable autofocus sometimes resulted in barely out-of-focus pictures for close-up topics. Other digicam modes like selfies or Portrait pictures have been affected by the identical shade situation, although we discovered Portrait good for isolating topics and blurring the background.
The telephone captures video at 1080p and 30fps or 60fps. Other modes embody Night, Panorama and Dual Sight (the place you file video on the back and front cameras concurrently) however we didn’t get an opportunity to check these out.
Keeping the Nokia G50’s juices flowing is its 5,000mAh battery, which is pretty huge as smartphone energy packs go, although because of the huge display screen it’s vital right here.
We didn’t use the Nokia G50 lengthy sufficient to correctly take a look at its battery life, however from our preliminary testing, it looks as if the machine will breeze via a day with ease, and can in all probability provide you with a strong second day of use too. That’s for regular use - in case you’re a prolific video streamer it gained’t final fairly that lengthy, however we’d estimate it should undoubtedly see you thru a day even in case you stream for a number of hours.
Powering isn’t precisely earth-shattering, as we’d estimate the 18W charger will see the telephone powered from empty to full in about two hours. Still, so long as you’re high-quality with powering the machine in a single day as an alternative of throughout your pre-work bathe, you’ll be high-quality with this velocity.
Performance and specs
The Nokia G50 runs on the Snapdragon 480 chipset, which is a low-end processor that doesn’t precisely impress. The telephone is somewhat gradual to make use of for gaming or just swiping between menus, so it’s not advisable for avid cellular players or individuals who like a fluid interface expertise.
Saying that, in case you don’t use your telephone an excessive amount of, you may not discover the gradual speeds; likewise, this processing gained’t actually have an effect on streaming video, so your TV present playback gained’t be any totally different.
The chipset is paired with both 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of storage - we’d advocate choosing the latter, as in case you download a number of apps, 64GB can shortly refill. There’s a microSD card slot that allows you to stand up to 512GB of storage although.
As we’ve mentioned, the telephone is 5G-compatible, letting you entry the most recent technology of mobile connection. This permits you to download issues quicker, bounce on video calls simply when out and about, and play on-line video games with out lagging far behind your companions.
The software program right here is Android 11 - and that’s inventory Android, as Google designed it, not a fork as many firms design to put over the bottom software program. HMD Global has pledged not less than three years of software program updates, so this telephone will theoretically assist Android 14 (if that’s what it finally ends up being known as).
There are literally a number of pre-installed apps on the Nokia G50, a reality which could flip eyebrows from Android purists. However they're Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Shopping and ExpressVPN, and there’s a great likelihood you’d download some mixture of these anyway.
Early verdict
We have been pleasantly shocked by our time with the Nokia G50, partly as a result of it appeared a promising and competitively-priced Android telephone, and partly as a result of HMD Global has set its personal bar fairly low lately.
With an enormous display screen, 5G connectivity, 3.5mm headphone jack and massive battery, this appears to be an excellent telephone for individuals who like their on-the-go entertainment.
Sure the cameras and chipset depart lots to be desired, however for that low worth, we are able to look previous a number of points. Stay tuned for our full review to make certain, although.
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