Nokia G22 – The smartphone that can be repaired but that you will throw in the bin
We left off with the review of the Nokia G42 5G, the older brother of what I bring to your attention today and on this occasion I was not satisfied. Well I could simply conclude this review by saying that I absolutely do not recommend the brand's eco-sustainable terminal, but it is also necessary to tell you why, trying to be as concise as possible.
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SALES PACKAGE
As with the Nokia G42 5G, the G22 also boasts a package made from recycled cardboard, but this time we have a protective cover for the smartphone available, while the charger, display film and headphones are absent. The rest of the package therefore includes a pin for removing the SIM tray and a double Type-C power and data transfer cable as well as the manuals which in my opinion could have been saved by instead inserting a QR Code that refers to this manual, truly preserving the environment .
MATERIALS AND DESIGN
Nokia G22 offers dimensions equal to 165 x 76,19 x 8,48 mm for a total weight of 196,11 grams, which make the device not exactly compact although the "brick" format helps in the grip and stability of the terminal. The smartphone is IP52 certified and the back cover is made entirely of 100% recycled plastic, a single body available in two colors: meteor gray and lagoon blue, both with contrasting frames which make the design decidedly tacky, also due to a photographic compartment on the rear which integrates 3 lenses and LED flash, with a retro aesthetic.
The upper profile is clean, while on the left we find the SIM tray, capable of hosting two nano SIMs with 4G Dual connectivity, or by giving up the Dual SIM function we can insert a micro SD to expand the system memory with support for up to 2 TB. We don't have e-SIM so the choice is yours whether to have two numbers or whether to give more space for storing photos, videos etc.. The right profile houses the volume rocker and the power button which integrates the biometric sensor for unlocking of the device by means of fingerprints, whose reactivity was not the best although the recognition occurs in a rather precise manner. Face unlock is also available if necessary using the selfie camera. Finally, the lower profile gives space to the microphone, the Type-C input for charging and data transfer with OTG support, the mono system speaker and 3,5 mm jack for wired earphones, which will allow us to exploit also the FM Radio present in the operating system. Overall the design is not convincing at all, too obsolete and too "cheap".
DISPLAY
Nokia G22, in addition to having a body made with recycled materials, also seems to recycle the hardware component starting from the display, a panel interrupted by the presence of a teardrop notch with an attached selfie camera, something that hasn't been seen on current smartphones for at least 3 years. But it is precisely the quality of the display that leaves a bad taste in the mouth, whose only advantage is that it boasts Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. 6,52″ IPS screen, 253 ppi, in 20:9 format with resolution HD+ (720 x 1600 pixels), whose peak brightness is only 400 nits, specifications that are decidedly out of place nowadays and therefore the presence of Widevine L1 support is somewhat useless due to the HD+ resolution. There is also no support for HDR content and overall the 90 Hz refresh rate that the device should enjoy seems to be activated rarely, as the user can only choose whether to have a fixed 60 Hz or let the system decide the frequency. update based on the content shown on the video. A panel that I fail also due to its color rendering poco natural and with a white imbalance that I had never seen, not to mention the enormous asymmetric frames that wrap the screen. Fortunately, the proximity sensor works well while the lighting sensor was a bit conservative.
SOUND AND CONNECTIVITY
As already mentioned, the speaker is mono and the audio returned seems to suffer from a certain imbalance towards the medium-high tones to the detriment of the bass. Nokia G22, like the G42 5G, also integrates the BOOST volume function (it also works in hands-free mode) which increases the volume, but is absolutely to be avoided as the final result will be equal to crackling audio. Even the capsule audio was poor in quality although I must admit overall the result was crystal clear as long as you manage to keep the call active: in fact every single call received or made you will have to make it twice, as after about ten seconds the line drops or the audio seems to go away. I can't give you a technical explanation, but on the second try everything seems to work fine.
There is a Bluetooth 5.0 module, NFC for contactless payments, 3,5 mm jack and FM Radio, GPS with connection to Galileo satellites, which does not seem to fix the satellite or at least takes forever to pick up the signal, with considerable difficulty while browsing. Finally we find OTG and WiFi Dual 2.4/5.0 GHz. Guaranteed operation with Android Auto while data navigation is of the 4G Dual type whose navigation speed was quite acceptable in the various speed tests and above all during my use, but poco constant, in the sense that at times the phone seems to be running fast, at other times slow, but above all I often received delayed notifications, as if a sort of standby was present, even though everything was correct from the settings.
HARDWARE, PERFORMANCE AND SOFTWARE
Nokia G22 5G adopts a very low-end SoC, namely the UNISOC T616, an octacore processor with a maximum clock of 1.6 GHz and a 12nm production process, already seen on the Oukitel C35, which is accompanied by a 3 GB DDR4 RAM expandable in virtual way of additional 4 GB GB. The GPU is the Mali G57 and the storage is 128 GB UFS 2.1 expandable up to 2 TB via micro SD card. You read it right, no errors, we are talking about old hardware and definitely poco performing, even if for example the processor mentioned on the Oukitel C35 worked wonderfully. On the Nokia G22, however, everything seems to be slowed down, in fact sometimes the phone actually freezes. I wouldn't have expected the device to be able to perform stressful operations like with the latest generation gaming, but even daily operations are sometimes performed with difficulty.
Another sore point is the software, still based on Android 12 with patches updated in September 2023. But the company guarantees 2 major releases and 3 years of patches updated on a monthly basis. It's a shame that we're in mid-November and there's not even a sign of the month's patches other than the fact that the September ones arrived right towards the end of the month, so the first lie, the fact of the monthly security update. Furthermore, we find some bloatware already installed, which on a stock version like the one adopted by Nokia, does not make a good impression.
AUTONOMY AND REPAIRABILITY
The battery is a 5050 mAh QuickFix type unit, which can be easily replaced using the toolkit provided by the brand in collaboration with IFIXIT. The company declares a battery life of up to 3 days and guarantees 800 complete charging cycles while maintaining 80% of the original performance before deterioration. There is no wireless charging and the maximum charging power supported is a usual and modest 20W, so it takes at least 1,5 hours if not 2 to have full energy. In reality, the 3 days declared by the company are utopia, at most you will get 1 and a half days with very light use, while more realistic is an autonomy of one day with semi-intense use, arriving in the evening with around 10/15% of residual charge. For considerations on repairability using the IFIXIT tool, which costs at least 30 euros, I refer you to the review of the Nokia G42 5G.
CAMERA AND VIDEO
Another painful and disappointing aspect is that relating to the photographic sector and related performances. The main camera of the Nokia G22 is made up of a 50 MP primary sensor, f/1.8 with 5 lenses, flanked by two 2 MP lenses which perform macro functions and collect depth of field data. The videos are not stabilized in any way and the maximum resolution we can shoot them at is 1080p 30 fps. the selfie camera is an 8 MP, f/2.0 unit which, as with the entire photographic sector in general, does not give any satisfaction. Night photos to be absolutely avoided, shaky videos that make you feel seasick and photos with little detail whose only richness lies in the presence of digital noise.
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CONCLUSIONS AND PRICE
Nokia G22 costs poco less than 170 euros to which you should add at least 30 euros for the repair kit, considering that this smartphone boasts DIY repairability. A decidedly crazy price considering the fierce competition which offers much, much more at lower prices, just look at Motorola. I won't add anything else because I don't want to rage and become mean, but with these "slips" Nokia risks going belly up.
