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Nokia X20 Review: Another Great Edition

At this point it feels like we are repeating ourselves, but HMD Global knows how to make solid smartphones.

Ever since the company began manufacturing Nokia Mobile phones a few years ago it has consistently launched affordable devices in South Africa that sported good specs too.

The latest in this conveyor belt is the Nokia X20. It is part of a new series of devices that the company added to its lineup earlier in the year. Crucially the X series gives HMD an option in the mid-range space that supports 5G.

While we’re still waiting for spectrum to be allocated locally, 5G supporting phones carry a premium, but at R7 999 (RRP) is a more affordable option.

But enough about 5G, is the Nokia X20 any good? We spent two weeks with the device to find out. Here’s what we learned.

Tried and tested

Yes, we are starting with design and here HMD is not serving up anything we have not seen before. On that front we have a large device with a punch hole on the screen and circular camera housing, along with the Nordic Blue colour option on our review model that the company usually favours.

Added to this is a metal frame and plastic back cover, with the latter featuring a matte finish, which all in all adds up to a fairly solid phone.

We also need to talk about the heft on the X20, which tips the scales at 220g. As such, it’s a phone that feels densely packed. Luckily though, that heft feels well balanced and the phone’s 6.67″ (diagonal) frame does not become unwieldy.

Speaking of the the 6.67″, it yields a FullHD+ 2400×1080 resolution, which means content is crisp, but as we have spotted on more recent Nokia phones, there is a slight shadow at the top of the screen.

As for other elements of the design, a power button on the right hand side doubles as a fingerprint sensor, which is fairly quick and accurate until the cover (included in the box) is added to the mix.

Instead of the generic clear plastic option that normally comes with a phone, the Nokia X20 features a 100 percent compostable version as part of HMD’s recent sustainability push.

The most apt description of the colour would be peach yoghurt in out books, with tiny flecks of orange littered throughout the cover. It is a nice enough option, but does not pair well with the X20’s Nordic Blue in our opinion.

Colour coordination is not the issue here though, with the cover impacting the fingerprint sensor as we mentioned earlier. To that end the thickness of the cover means you don’t always place your thumb flush on the sensor, which cannot lead to reading errors.

It is by no means a deal breaker, but something we picked up and thought to mention.

As for the rest of the X20, everything is as we have come to expect from Nokia Mobile phones of late.

Jack of all trades

Shifting to performance and the X20 does most things well, if not superbly, with the exception of its camera performance that we will touch on shortly (don’t worry, we’ll be praising it).

Powering the experience is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G chipset, with the name denoting the 5G functionality we spoke about earlier.

It is a more than capable chipset, but the element that help it chug along smoothly is the generous heaping of 8GB RAM from HMD Global. That mount of memory is a little rare in this space and very much welcome, making multitasking and switching between apps a breeze.

The result in hand is great, as is the performance while benchmarking. For those who place a lot of value in these kinds of metrics, the Nokia X20 scored 1 684 and 509 on the multi-core and single-core tests in GeekBench.

This is slightly less than similarly specced and priced devices like the POCO M3 Pro 5G that thoroughly impressed us when we reviewed it recently.

As for the camera performance, the quad camera array on the rear is genuinely flagship-rivalling.

The quartet on offer here is a 64MP primary, 5 MP ultra-wide, 2MP depth sensing and 2MP macro. The results, particularly when snapping pictures while outdoors, are great and a few points above other phones in the same price bracket, so kudos to the work done by Zeiss on that front for HMD.

The other impressive element is the battery, which at 4 470mAh is sizeable and generally sips on power throughout the day, and certainly keeps to the two-days battery life claim that HMD makes about the V20 in its marketing.

Final verdict

At R7 999 (RRP) the Nokia X20 is a great choice. It is solidly constructed, well specced, performs ably and features a pure version of Android that is only outclassed in terms of a Google-focused experience by Pixel phones.

As such, it ticks all the boxes, but we were always expecting it too given the track record of HMD Global on Nokia phones in recent years.

The problem facing the X20 and HMD Global in general is increasing competition in the mid-range space, with a few new players in the market this year that have been extremely aggressive in terms of pricing.

This means that that if price is your biggest determining factor, there are other Android devices from lesser known brands out there, such as POCO and TECNO Mobile.

If pure Android is important to you, along with the surety of three years of OS updates, then go for the Nokia X20. If not, you can find equally well specced, but cheaper options out there.

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