Nokia 1 review
Build Quality
Phone Set Up
Features
Camera & Video
Battery Life
Enhanced performance / budget price tag
Our Nokia 1 review finds a mobile phone that is priced for the budget end of the market. Although the price tag is small, Nokia has been clever in its choices of hardware and software. The result is performance that is much faster and sleeker than you would expect.
Build Quality
Compact and durable
The Nokia 1 has a compact 4.5” display and this keeps the phone small, making it ideal for slipping into a pocket or bag. This Nokia phone is 9.5mm thick and very light at 131g.
The polycarbonate shell has through colour and this hides any future damage, such as knocks and scratches, well. You can buy the Nokia 1 in either Warm Red or Dark Blue. If you want to change the look, then you can purchase Xpress-on covers.
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This mobile phone is not waterproof but it does have IP52 certification. This means that the phone has basic drip protection.
Processor and audio performance
Performance is driven by a 1.1GHz quad-core processor with 1GB RAM. This is not a remarkable processor but it is paired up with software (more on this later) that dramatically improves the experience.
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The Nokia 1 has a back mounted speaker for music playback and a 3.5mm audio jack, for earphones. The earphones are included and you will need these if you want to listen to the FM radio because they work as the antenna.
Phone Set Up
Expandable memory
The Nokia 1 will allow you to transfer your old smartphone content over onto it. The memory is fairly small though, at 8GB. The good news is that there is an up to 128GB memory card slot, so you can expand the memory when needed.
Features
Android Go Edition
The Nokia 1 has Google’s latest Android 8.1 Oreo (Go edition) operating system. Go Edition is optimised for speed and minimal lag, with no unneeded apps or background processes slowing you down, or using up your battery life.
The pre-loaded apps take up less of the valuable memory reserves and the Chrome Data Saver saves up to 60% of your mobile data. Certain apps have been tweaked so that they run faster and these include:
- Google Assistant Go
- Maps Go
- YouTube Go - Uses less data, streams video faster, downloads faster
Camera & Video
Basic camera features
The Nokia 1 really doesn’t bring with it any photography whistles and bells. However, if you just want a basic camera then there isn’t a lot to complain about. The main 5MP camera has a LED flash and you get the most useful features, such as panorama and a countdown timer.
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The portrait camera has a 2MP resolution and while this isn’t high, we should appreciate that selfies are always taken up close. This camera also allows you to make video calls.
Battery Life
Respectable performance
Okay, so you are going to see much larger batteries on other phones but the small 2,150mAh battery in the Nokia 1 may well give you better usage times. This is because the screen is fairly compact and the Go Edition of the OS preserves power.
So what can you get out of the battery? You should be able to enjoy up to 53 hours of music playback or up to 4.8 hours of video playback, 15 days standby or up to 9 hours of talktime. There is also a handy Battery Saver for when you run short or know that you will not be able to charge the phone for a long time.
Next: LG G7 ThinQ review
Written by: Michael Brown