Review Nokia 4.2

SPECIFICATION

NETWORK

Technology : GSM / HSPA / LTE

Speed : HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat4 150/50 Mbps

GPRS : Yes

EDGE : Yes

BODY

Dimensions : 149 x 71.3 x 8.4 mm (5.87 x 2.81 x 0.33 in)

Weight : 161 g (5.68 oz)

SIM : Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

DISPLAY

Type : IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size : 5.71 inches, 81.4 cm2 (~76.6% screen-to-body ratio)

Resolution : 720 x 1520 pixels, 19:9 ratio (~295 ppi density)

PLATFORM

OS : Android 9.0 (Pie); Android One

Chipset : Qualcomm SDM439 Snapdragon 439 (12 nm)

CPU : Octa-core (2x2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 & 6x1.45 GHz Cortex A53)

GPU : Adreno 505

MEMORY

Card slot : microSD, up to 400 GB

Internal : 32 GB, 3 RAM or 16 GB, 2 GB RAM

MAIN CAMERA

Dual : 13 MP, f/2.2, 1/3", 1.12µm, PDAF / 2 MP, depth sensor

Features : LED flash

Video : 1080p@30fps

SELFIE CAMERA

Single : 8 MP, f/2.0, 1/4", 1.12µm

SOUND

Loudspeaker : Yes

3.5mm jack : Yes, Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

COMMS

WLAN : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot

Bluetooth : 4.2, A2DP, LE, aptX

GPS : Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS

NFC : Yes (market dependent)

Radio : FM radio

USB : microUSB 2.0, USB On-The-Go

FEATURES

Sensors : Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, proximity

BATTERY

Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery

REVIEW

Design

Classy looks with a glass on front and back design, and a neat curved form factor, the Nokia 4.2 excels on the build and design front, and is easily on the best designed phones of this price segment. Compact, and very friendly for one handed smartphone use. The power key houses a “breathing” notification light, which pulsates in white every time there’s a new notification. There is also a dedicated Google Assistant key, to fire up the assistant.

But, actually the glass back is of course susceptible to fingerprints and smudges. While the fingerprint scanner at the back works well, it’s hard to find in a hurry with just your finger as there’s no dimple.

Performance

Sadly, powered by a Snapdragon 439, performance (especially GPU) is not the Nokia 4.2's strong suit, so while the phone is fit for everyday tasks like light browsing, video playback, calling, messaging, and light gaming, if you are more of a power user, you will want to look elsewhere.

Software

The best part about Nokia's phones remains the clean, stock Android One experience with the promise of regular software updates for up to two years. Android 9 Pie’s gesture navigation feature is enabled by default, and you get all other Pie goodies too, like Adaptive Battery and Digital Wellbeing.

Display

Decent, modern, tiny notch 5.71 inch display with fairly rich colors.

Camera

Sadly, Camera performance too is average, both from the dual rear cameras and single front camera. Photos taken are moderately bright and colourful but contain an unexpected tinge of light yellow. Photos taken indoors appear noisy and even a bit blurry no matter how steadily the phone is held. 

The default camera app, while easy to use, is on the slow side, the digital viewfinder freezes for nearly a second when a shot is taken or a mode is changed, the lag worsens while shooting in low light, rendering Live Bokeh shots and previewing regular shots taken through Auto mode also take over a second or two to happen.

Battery

Good battery life with a 3000mAh battery, supported by Android Pie's Adaptive Battery feature, you will comfortably get a day even with heavy use.

Audio

Sadly, it has average single bottom firing speaker, while it's loud music sounds shrill on the ears when played at full volume.

Conclusion

One the whole, while the Nokia 4.2 is a pretty decent budget Android One phone, it loses out on the performance front, and in the camera department, so if you are looking for a better 'all rounder' budget phone, you will find better choices around.