Review: Nokia 2.4

Nokia (wow I haven’t heard the name in a long time…) has just released its latest entry-level smartphone, the Nokia 2.4. It boasts a 6.5-inch HD+ IPS LCD Display, dual rear cameras, a front-facing camera, and is LTE-ready. It is also dual-SIM and is ready for the latest Android 11 operating system. But how does Nokia fare in the ever so saturated market of entry-level phones? Let’s find out. 

Inside the Box

The Nokia 2.4’s box contains the unit itself, a micro USB cable, charging brick, a pair of earphones, SIM tray tool, clear case, and Quick Start Guide. The micro-USB cable and charging brick are standard and nothing special, but I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the earphones and the clear case. I honestly thought that the included earphones would sound like tin cans, but upon further testing, I realized that it doesn’t sound half bad. It has decent bass, treble, and mid. Each sound is still distinguishable from each other. Meanwhile, the clear case fits the phone perfectly and allowed for me to grip the phone without the fear of dropping it accidentally. 

Design and Build

The Nokia 2.4 comes in three colors:Fjord, Dusk and Charcoal, which we have on hand. The phone itself has a curved-edge design giving it a more premium look and the feel of the polycarbonate shell and die-cast metal chassis helps in giving you a comfortable handling experience. With Nokia’s 3D nano-textured cover it also gives a unique yet safe feeling when handling the phone. For example, there is an extra sense of security when touching the tiny grooves along the back shell. These grooves give the phone a little more grip when picking it up. 

There are three primary buttons on the Nokia 2.4, namely the Power button, the Google Assistant button, and the Volume button. At first it might be a little confusing having the volume above the power button rather than parallel to it, but I got used to this positioning after a while. The Google Assistant button is located on the left side of the phone and I was seriously impressed with the assistance features and ease of use – especially because it was responsive to native Tagalog. Some users may opt to do things manually but the Google Assistant just gives an extra layer of tech support to the phone while providing quality-of-life functionality. 

The phone also has a micro USB for charging, bottom speakers, a microphone and a 3.5mm audio jack. For security purposes it has a very responsive fingerprint sensor located at the back of the phone in order to easily scan your index finger when unlocking the phone.

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The phone’s screen measures a sizable 6.5-inches and has an HD+ IPS LCD Display (720 x 1600 Pixels, 270 ppi) with a 20:9 aspect ratio. The screen possesses a notch on the top of the screen and a prominent lower bezel. However, while using the Nokia 2.4, the bezels weren’t distracting at all and I still had optimal viewing room for whatever it was I was doing on the phone. For an entry-level smartphone the screen size is actually very impressive. But the quality of the display isn’t as impressive, as I found the colors to be lacking in sharpness and saturation.

Camera

The camera is where it gets a tad bit disappointing. I wouldn’t expect too much from an entry-level smartphone but there are 3 cameras on this phone: a 5MP front-facing camera, 2MP depth sensor, and a 13MP main camera. These cameras are decent for what they are, and with the main camera you are able to capture adequate quality photos; but for the same price point, other phones have more options when it comes to their photography modes. The Nokia 2.4 is limited to Photo, Night, Panorama, and Portrait. I would have maybe appreciated a wide-angle lens or a retro lens that is typically found on similar entry-level devices. 

Under the Hood

The Nokia 2.4 is powered by the MediaTek Helio P22 chip, an 8x Cortex-A53 2.0GHz Octa core CPU, and a PowerVR GE8320 GPU. It has 3GB RAM, 64GB stock storage, and is LTE-ready. It also has expandable memory making more room for all your photos, favorite music and video downloads. The Nokia 2.4 features a Li-Po 4500 mAh non-removable battery that is said to last 2 days when fully charged, which is excellent for phone battery life. 

Upon unlocking the Nokia 2.4 there were times when there was a significantly long response time between pressing the power button and home screen activation. I also noticed minor but apparent frame drops when navigating through apps. When testing its gaming capabilities I saw that it was pretty decent at handling most AA games. There were no significant frame drops and no crashing with any of the apps I tested. The texture quality of the games were not the best but most of the time the games were reasonably responsive to my handling of the phone. 

Opinion

Overall the Nokia 2.4 is a well-built reliable phone that offers much functionality. Although it has fewer camera options than its competition and a weak display, the 2.4 looks premium and offers tons of functionality including LTE, Google Assistant, and amazing battery life. The 2.4 is a decent phone for its price and it is not going to let you down especially in terms of battery life. For P6995, the Nokia 2.4 is a well-crafted and dependable device.

Pros:

• Large screen at 6.5″
• LTE ready
• Responsive Fingerprint Sensor for security
• Dedicated Google Assistant button
• Good, quality materials with a premium look
• Fantastic battery life
• Dual SIM capability
• Included, handy peripherals (headphones and case)

Cons:

• Lack of camera options
• Less-than-stellar display
• Not the best speaker quality
• Micro-USB charging port
• Frequent frame drops