Nokia 2 review

 
Nokia 1 to 10 - a Nokia for everyone. Well, we're getting there - after the famed brand's return with the Nokia 6 in early 2017, the 5 and 3 followed, and then the flagship Nokia 8 came to be. The 7 showed up later filling one of the gaps, though not everywhere in the world - like the others, actually. The portfolio's expansion continues into the entry-level segment with the Nokia 2 - a budget model if there ever was one, priced around the $100 mark.

What that gets you in Nokia world is a 5-inch 720p display - pretty great at this price point if you ask us. Going by the numbers, it could be the same as the one on the Nokia 3, so thumbs up to Nokia for not digging up a qHD panel (small 'q' - 540x960px) long forgotten in some distant warehouse. It's covered with Gorilla Glass 3, so there's no complaints about that either.
Where things start looking gloomy is the chipset - the Snapdragon 212 is an old dog, a minor upgrade to the 210, neither of which is particularly quick. And that's just us being polite. A single gigabyte of RAM and 8GB of storage further reinforce the feeling we're looking at a smartwatch specsheet.
Smartwatches don't typically have cameras, and we certainly haven't heard of ones with two shooters. The Nokia 2 is no wearable and does have a pair - an 8MP camera on the back, and a 5MP front-facing unit. Nothing fancy, obviously.
What it lacks in oomph, the Nokia 2 makes up for in battery - a 4,100mAh power pack promises plenty of on time, 2 days Nokia says. We'll see about that.
There are goodies you won't find on most flagships though - like the dedicated microSD slot, whether the Nokia 2 is single or dual SIM. There's an FM radio receiver too, beat that, Pixel 2!

Nokia 2 key features

• Body: Aluminum frame, removable plastic back, Gorilla Glass 3 front.
• Display: 5.0" LTPS IPS LCD, 1,280x720px resolution, 294 ppi.
• Rear camera: 8MP, f/2.6 aperture, autofocus; LED flash; 720p video recording.
• Front camera: 5MP, f/2.6 aperture; fixed focus; 720p video recording.
• OS/Software: Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 212: quad-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 CPU, Adreno 304 GPU.
• Memory: 1GB of RAM; 8GB of storage; dedicated microSD slot.
• Battery: 4,100mAh Li-Ion (sealed).
• Connectivity: Single SIM and dual SIM versions, market dependent; Cat. 4 LTE (150Mbps/50Mbps); microUSB 2.0; Wi-Fi b/g/n; GPS, GLONASS, BDS; no NFC; Bluetooth 4.1.
• Misc:FM radio, 3.5mm jack, back-firing single speaker.