The new avatar Nokia 3310 was first introduced in the Indian market. It received mixed reactions. The remaining two Android smartphones Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 are not yet available in the market. To be honest, the Nokia brand made the most headlines in Mobile World Congress 2017. But there is a lot of difference between headlines and sales. The sale of these handsets will be more only when the customer feels that these are strong phones.
HMD Global, Nokia 3 is marketing as a handset that is excellent and customers will get pure Android experience with regular updates in the budget. The price of Nokia 3 has been kept in such a way that it is directly colliding with many popular handsets. However, the paths are not easy for this. HMD Global will have to beat handsets like Xiaomi Redmi 4, Moto G5 and Yu Yureka Black to make a special place in the Indian market through phone. It is also being said about Nokia 3 that this Android phone has all the important Android features. Is this enough? Let’s try to know.
Nokia 3 Design
Nokia 3 is introduced in a white retail box. This will remind you of Nokia days. Seeing the phone, you will also remember the handset of the Lumia range running on the Windows mobile platform. But equality is limited to just design, as Nokia 3 runs on Android. If you look at a smartphone of less than Rs 10,000 in the market, you will find that all these phones are metal unibss and their designs are also similar. Whether it is U Eureka Black or Xiaomi Redmi 4. In our view, Nokia 3 gives a feeling of being new in the budget segment. Nokia 3 is not a full-metal body phone. In this, polycorbonate has been used on the back and due to the metal frame, the design comes out. Nothing is unique, but it does not look cheap.
The feeling of this phone in the hands is the best in this segment so far. During the review, we used this phone with one hand without any fruit. Due to the square texture, it is easy to grip the phone from all sides. We got Nokia 3’s Matte Black Unit for review. It is also available in silver white color. Power and volume buttons are on the right side. But their color has also been kept black to match the body of the phone.
On the left, you will get separate slots for both SIM cards and microSD cards. This is a good thing, because in recent times companies have shown more confidence in hybrid slots. At the bottom, you will get a charging port with a speaker grill. At the same time, 3.5mm audio jack has got a place at the top. If you look closely, you will also be able to see an antenna band on the top and lower back. Nokia’s logo is on the front and back, exactly like the old handset of Nokia.
It was easy to type on the phone. This phone with a thickness of 8.48 millimeters is thinner than Redmi 4. But the phone with Xiaomi has a bigger battery. During the review, we found that power and volume buttons have got more space from the facility. While using with one hand, we found that it was not easy to reach these buttons. We also lacking fingerprint sensor, which is common in this price handset today. Capsitive buttons of this handset are not backlit. This means that you will have difficulty in finding them in the dark.
In the retail box of Nokia 3, you will find a instruction book, a charger, USB cable and a SIM Ejector Tool.
Nokia 3 specification and software
Nokia 3 has a 5 -inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 720×1280 pixels. It has a protective of 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass. It has 2 GB RAM with 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737 chipset. Inbuilt storage is 16 GB and it will be possible to use microSD card up to 128 GB if needed. It has 8 megapixel sensors on the front and back panels. The rear camera comes with F/2.0 aperture, autofocus and LED flash. On the other hand, the front camera also has an autofocus and comes with an 84 degree field of view. The phone has a 2630 mAh battery. 4G and Voice overs are supported for LTE. Connectivity features include USB-OTG, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Nokia 3 is one of the selected smartphones of the budget segment that comes with Android Nougat. You will get stock Android experience. You will find all the notifications in one app. It will be possible to answer any message from the notification pop-up. Through notification management, users will be able to disable or mute the notification of a particular app. It will be possible to switch between the app by double tapping on the overview button. Apart from this, the Settings app will also come in a new avatar. Split screen multitasking will also be possible. Nokia 3 out of box supports Android Assistant. This feature is not yet in many phones in this price segment.
Apart from the monthly security update, HMD Global has also promised to give Android O update when Nokia 3 is made available.
Nokia 3 Performance and Camera
Nokia 3 plays its role in daily use. The phone is not very hot even after GPS navigation and playing games for a long time. Perhaps this happened due to polycarbonate back.
However, we found that the phone definitely slowed down during multitasking. There was a little lag to switch from one app to another. Please tell that 12 apps were already open in the background. The phone handled the common game easily. But it definitely slowed down with more powerful graphics games like Need for Speed. The phone easily played many types of videos and audio files.
A loudspeaker is suitable for small rooms. The voice comes clearly. The same can be said about the earphones given in the retail box. The funny thing is that Nokia 3 is one of the selected handsets that come with bundled earphones.
The color reproduction and brightness of Nokia 3’s 5 -inch display is excellent. We enjoyed watching the video on the screen of Nokia 3. We found that this is one of the finest screens of the budget segment, especially in sunlight and in terms of viewing angle. But it is also worth noting that you get a full-HD screen in cheap U Eureka Black from Nokia 3.
Nokia 3 did not greatly influence us with benchmark results. Xiaomi Redmi 4 (Review) and U Eraka Black (Review)) The same tests gave better results.
The 8 megapixel rear camera works well in good light. Autofocus also works rapidly. There was also details in the sample shot taken in good light and a little noise on the edges. However, we also found that there was a lack of details in the blurred part of the sample. And there was more exposure complaint in the large area. Many times the white balance in the pictures was also a mess. Nokia 3 also has HDR mode but it does not switch in these many times in times of need. We feel that this feature can prove to be effective at times. Sadly, the pictures did not come very good in low light. The autofocus is slowly locked. And the sample shots we took was lack of details. There were also many nobles.
In Nokia 3 you will get the facility to record 1080 pixels videos. And quality is also fine. The front camera of the phone also disappointed. Despite having an autofocus feature, many pictures came to blur. If you want, you can use Nokia 3 for video calls or selfies, but do not expect too much in quality.
However, we liked the camera app. Its user interface is very easy to understand. More functions can be activated in a single tap. The phone tries to improve the photo by applying some filters in beauty mode, but it is not always effective.
Nokia 3 Battery Life
The Nokia 3 battery lasted for 16–18 hours when he was used fiercely. There is nothing shocking in this, especially given the capacity of 2630 mAh. We used the phone for about a week and we can say that only after not using too much, the phone gave better battery life. In our HD video loop test, the battery lasted for 10 hours 25 minutes which is fine for this size phone. You will not get fast charging support. It took about 2 hours to charge the phone’s battery from zero to 100 percent.
Our decision
Nokia 3 is sold in India for Rs 9,499. It is a good handset in appearance and you will get VoLTE support with 4G. Another good thing is that the company has promised Android updates in the future. Its performance and camera in every department do not go in its favor. We also lacking the fingerprint sensor, it should now have a common feature.
In our view, Nokia 3 is made for the user using smartphones for the first time, if you are successful in buying it from a nearby shop. You also have the option of Xiaomi Redmi 4 and U Eureka Black at this price. Both handset are better in terms of performance. Asus Zenfone Live also presents a strong challenge in this price range.