Nokia C20 Plus Review 2021: Honest Review, Price, Design, Specification,Performance, Pros and Cons

Nokia C20 Plus Review 2021: Honest Review, Price, Design, Specification, Performance, Pros, and Cons 

Nokia C20 Plus Review 2021: Honest Review, Price, Design, Specification, Performance, Pros, and Cons 

The entry-level budget smartphone category is due for a big shakeup as the introduction of the next Jio Phone (literally called 'Next') approaches. It's possible that the Jio Phone Next will be released with Android Go, a stripped-down version of Android that has only appeared on a handful of devices in recent years. While Android Go was announced in 2018 with the goal of bringing Android to devices with 1GB of RAM or less for less than Rs. 5,000, it did not take off in India. It makes little sense in 2021, especially on a smartphone that costs closer to Rs. 10,000.

The Nokia C20 Plus is a new smartphone that runs Android Go. It's underpowered and doesn't really justify its price, starting at Rs. 8,999 for the 2GB RAM variant. Because it will be competing against Micromax's recently introduced In 2b, the Redmi 9i, and Realme's C21Y, the placing seems uncertain.

In India, the Nokia C20 Plus is available for purchase

In India, the Nokia C20 Plus is available for Rs. 8,999. At that price, the cheapest model comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The second option, which costs Rs. 9,999, includes 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Both models come in two colors: grey and blue, and have a dedicated microSD card slot for expanding storage up to 256GB.

Design of Nokia C20 Plus

The Nokia C20 Plus has a straightforward and utilitarian design. The tiny ridges on the textured rear provide a good grip. With a 6.5-inch display, it has a big footprint and isn't easy to use with one hand. It's also quite thick, measuring 9.35mm in thickness and weighing 204g. With its matte texture, the plastic unibody felt solid and was good at repelling fingerprints. The same can be said for the display glass, which remained smudge-free even after a long period of use.

At the top, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack, and at the bottom, there's a Micro-USB port. The spherical camera module protrudes somewhat from the already hefty casing, and the LED flash sits next to it. When this phone is put on a flat surface, the speaker is hidden behind a slit in the bottom right corner, and there's a little dimple to help prevent sound from being muffled.

There is no dedicated Google Assistant key on the left side, unlike other current Nokia devices, and merely the volume and power keys on the right. Because this phone lacks a fingerprint reader, the only method to unlock it is to enter a PIN or passcode or utilize facial recognition. The latter was typically unreliable due to its poor reaction time.

Specifications and software for the Nokia C20 Plus

The Nokia C20 Plus is powered by the Unisoc SC9863a processor, which runs at 1.6GHz. This phone comes with up to 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, which is less than many other smartphones in this price range. Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (only 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS and AGPS for navigation are all available. The Micro-USB port on the Nokia C20 Plus appears a little antiquated considering that most manufacturers are employing Type-C interfaces even on entry-level handsets.

Android Go is installed on the Nokia C20 Plus, which is based on Android 11. It's a pared-down version of the usual Android experience that was meant to run on devices with as little as 512MB to 1GB of RAM. According to a brief visit to the Android Go website today, that need has been reduced to 2GB or less.

You also get Google's Go-branded apps, which are substantially smaller in size than their regular equivalents, in addition to the watered-down experience. This should, in principle, make them launch faster while also freeing up space for images, videos, and third-party programs. Because most Android GO smartphones have limited storage space, the size of these default Go apps is critical.

When I first turned on the phone, though, things didn't go as planned. Unlike the Nokia G20 (Review), which only came with two third-party apps (Netflix and My Nokia), the C20 Plus comes with a slew of third-party apps and games, including Moj, MyJio, MXTakaTak, and Simple Soulful, to name a few. Popular apps such as Moj Lite and Facebook Lite had lite versions as well. This is in addition to Google's Go apps and a number of standard apps including Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and Files. Preinstalling so many apps defy the idea of Android Go, which was supposed to give a streamlined Android experience.

Nokia C20 Plus Review 2021: Honest Review, Price, Design, Specification, Performance, Pros, and Cons 

Performance and battery life of the Nokia C20 Plus

Outside, the 6.5-inch HD+ display is readable, but it isn't bright enough for direct sunlight. The display is noticeably dull when resting on a table or seen at an angle, and viewing angles aren't ideal either. I observed a lot of jagged edges around icons and widgets, and text and photos didn't look sharp. In Netflix and other streaming apps, the phone supports Widevine L3 for SD quality playback, which implies that streamed video content did not look sharp. Worse, the rear-facing speaker was not loud enough and sounded muffled, forcing me to use earbuds.

Android Go did not run smoothly on my review machine, despite having 3GB of RAM. In everyday use, I observed a lot of stuttering in animations and transitions. Although Google's Go apps save a lot of space, they are severely limited in terms of capabilities and mostly run on the Chrome browser, making the user experience cumbersome at best.

I also tried the Instagram Lite app, which took a few seconds to load, and felt a little sluggish while scrolling through feeds. The standard Android app was faster and had more features. The majority of apps took a few seconds to startup, which was rather slow. Slack started up in roughly four seconds, which is rather slow for a smartphone that costs Rs. 9,999 in 2021.

In terms of functionalities, Android Go is restricted. You can only have three visible toggles in the notifications tray, for example (you must swipe to the left for three more). Notifications are not indicated by badges or dot indications on icons. For a long-time smartphone user, Android Go on the C20 Plus was a bad experience.

The phone did not perform well in benchmarks, as expected. In AnTuTu, the Nokia C20 Plus received 77,335 points, while Geekbench's single and multi-core tests yielded 126 and 473 points, respectively. This is unacceptable, not only for an entry-level device but also when the C20 Plus competes with more capable phones at the same price point.

In terms of gaming, this phone is capable of playing casual games like Subway Surfers, but it struggled with graphics-intensive games like Call of Duty: Mobile, as expected. With much too much lag and too many skipped frames, even at the default Low visuals and Medium frame rate settings, this game was mostly unplayable.

With light use, the Nokia C20 Plus lasted around a day and a half. When you add in some recreational gaming, that figure drops by a few hours. In our HD video loop battery test, the phone lasted only 11 hours and 19 minutes, which is disappointing for a cheap smartphone. The Nokia C20 Plus's 4,950mAh battery took 3 hours and 30 minutes to charge with the included 10W charger, which is pretty slow.

Cameras of the Nokia C20 Plus

There are two back cameras on the Nokia C20 Plus: an 8-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. A 5-megapixel camera is in charge of taking selfies. The app's interface is classic Nokia, with the majority of the critical controls placed in the center of the screen. When toggling between camera modes, there was a lot of lag, to the point where the phone felt stuck at times, making for a terrible shooting experience.

The majority of the photos taken in daylight had poor detail and were overexposed. Even with HDR, the dynamic range was still a touch too limited, resulting in black regions near the shadows with little to no detail. Even in daylight, the camera was sluggish to focus, so I had to be patient while getting close-up images.

Portrait mode is only available when shooting with the rear camera, however, in daylight, photos had poor edge detection and blown-out highlights on both the subject and the background. Selfies appeared to be a little too dreary, with unusual color and a dreamlike haze. In daylight, the video was choppy and lacking in quality, with unusually strong contrast. After dusk, image quality plummeted, and this phone produced virtually worthless photos and videos.

Final Verdict of the Nokia C20 Plus

The Nokia C20 Plus does not provide anything unique in terms of hardware, and the software experience does not compensate for this, especially given its starting price of Rs. 8,999. Micromax's In 2b (Review), which costs Rs. 8,499, has a far superior software experience, with near-stock Android and nearly no bloatware or third-party apps. On the In 2b, you can also play games, and the camera quality isn't awful for the price. The C21Y from Realme is a new competitor with the same Unisoc T610 SoC as the In 2b. Both phones include a USB Type-C port as well as other features.

With a larger 6,000mAh battery and 18W fast charging, Realme's Narzo 30A (Review) appears to give significantly greater value at this pricing point. Even for a Nokia lover, it would be difficult to suggest the Nokia C20 Plus when there are so many alternatives, more capable handsets priced around Rs. 8,999 or even less.

Pros and Cons of the Nokia C20 Plus

Pros

• Design that is practical

Cons

• Slowly charge
• Cameras that are below standard
• Several pre-installed programs
• Android Go is still in its infancy.