The Nokia C20 Plus was launched in India a few weeks back, we will do a detailed review of the smartphone. The Nokia C20 Plus starts from INR 8,999 for the base variant of 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage, INR 9,999 for 3GB and 32GB variant. The Nokia C20 Plus will be available in two colors Grey and Blue, it also supports 256GB expandable storage with a microSD card. The Nokia C20 Plus will be competing against Micromax 2b, Redmi 9i and Realme C21Y.
Design
The Nokia C20 Plus has a simple design with a textured back which offers a decent grip. It has a 6.5-inch display which is a large footprint and is not easy to use with a single hand. It weighs around 204gms and is 9.35mm in thickness. It has a matte finish with plastic unibody which makes it sturdy, the display is smudge-free in day-to-day use.
The 3.5mm is present on the top may not be counted as a feature some years back but in 2021 it is a great advantage for those who still like wired earphones. It has a micro-USB port in the bottom, the fingerprint reader is not present and it can be unlocked with facial recognition. PIN or passcode. The speaker is located at the back bottom panel with a tiny dimple which helps to prevent it muffle. Unlike the last few recent Nokia smartphones, there is no dedicated Google Assistant key. The power button is placed on the right side along with the volume rocker button.
Hardware and Software
The Nokia C20 Plus houses Unisoc SC9863a Chipset with a maximum clocking speed of 1.6GHz. The phone we are reviewing has 3GB of RAM with 32GB of internal storage. For connectivity, it has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (only 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS and AGPS for navigation.
The Nokia C20 Plus is running on the Android Go version, which means you will experience Google’s Go apps which are lite version apps, and they launch quickly. The Go version by Google was made for the less RAM variant models from 512MB to 2GB RAM.
The Nokia C20 Plus comes with pre-loaded installed apps like My Jio, MxTakaTak, Moj, Facebook Lite and Simple Soulful, all these apps can be uninstalled too. In addition to this bloatware, it also has Google Go apps like Gallery Go, Google Go and regular version apps like Gmail, Maps, Drive, Calendar and Files.
Camera
The Nokia C20 Plus has two rear cameras with an 8MP primary lens and a 2MP depth sensor. The front camera sports a 5MP sensor. The interface is the same as what we have seen in Nokia phones earlier. I found the camera shutter a little slow and also lag can be found in switching modes.
The photos captured in daylight was average even with HDR mode on as the dynamic range is low and using the camera you might need a little patience while you try to focus the close subjects. The edges in the portrait modes were blown out and the video recording in daylight came out low in detail and high contrast. Selfies came out okayish in the daylight. After the sunset, the photos and videos are not usable as it has too much noise.
Performance and Battery Life
The Nokia C20 Plus has a 6.5-inch HD+ display and viewing angles aren’t good and isn’t bright enough to use in direct sunlight. The phone supports Widevine L3 for SD resolution playback in Netflix and other streaming apps. But after the first update, the Netflix app is showing not compatible with the smartphone model. The audio out is not enough and the back speakers produced muffled, so earphone is recommended for better audio.
The unit we got for review packs with 3GB RAM and I do find a few hiccups while using and lag at times.
Facebook Lite is a pre-installed app and you can’t uninstall it, I tried Instagram lite and it was slow while scrolling. Apps launching was a little slow compared to other Android smartphones.
Android Go offers very limited features like in notification toggles only 3 toggles are visible, and for such a big screen user should see at least 5 toggles, there is no notification dot in the icons for new notifications. Overall C20 Plus didn’t give a pleasant experience in terms of software. The AnTuTu score for C20 Plus is 76,550, Geekbench for Single and Multicore are 120 and 475 respectively. The scores are low compared to the competition.
Surprisingly it handled Free Fire easily in medium graphics, also tried BGMI and CODM both the gaming apps loaded properly in low graphics but get crashed while playing so definitely do not recommend you guys to play high intense graphic games.
The Nokia C20 Plus lasted for one day and a half with casual usage and medium use will let the phone battery drain in a single day. The battery is 4950mAh packed with the smartphone is good for use but the 10W charger takes 3hr and 20 minutes to charge which is very slow in 2021.
Gizmo Verdict
The Nokia C20 Plus comes with a big 6.5-inch HD+ display and 4950mAh battery which is only the highlight of the smartphone and at the starting price of INR 8,999, it is getting very tough competition from Micromax 2b, Redmi 9i and Realme C21Y.
