Standing out in the world of smartphones is what Nokia Mobile has been trying to achieve over the years. The Nokia G42 5G is the ancient brand’s latest attempt to retake the smartphone market by integrating unique features that’ll make the device public-worthy.
The quite expensive but repairable Nokia G42 5G is a smartphone you can easily open the case and change the charging port, battery, and screen with the provided iFixit tools without visiting a phone expert. Meanwhile, it sports a 6.56-inch 720p display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 480+ 5G processor, a 50MP camera lens, and up to a huge 5000mAh battery life.
Undoubtedly, the Nokia G42 5G is one of the best phones of this year with low maintenance cost which earned it a spot in our Best Nokia Phones list. Looking for something flagship, try checking out some of the Best High-end Samsung Galaxy Smartphones. But if you want something fitting to place in your ears and listen to your favourite music while working out, the Best Xiaomi Earbuds will be of great help to you.
With a lot of competition, it takes more than specs to rate the G42 5G. But how does the latest Nokia G42 5G perform in real life? Let’s find out as we dive into the world of the Nokia self self-repairable handset.
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Table of Contents
Nokia G42 5G Key Specifications
- Display: 6.56-inches IPS LCD
- Resolution: 720 x 1612 pixels
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 480+ 5G
- Front Camera: 8-megapixel
- Rear Camera: 50-megapixel + 2-megapixel + 2-megapixel
- RAM: 4GB /6GB
- Storage: 128GB
- Battery Capacity: 5000mAh
- OS: Android 13
Design and Build-up
Since it’s a 2023 smartphone, you’ll expect a striking design handset and the Nokia G42 5G didn’t disappoint. The G42 5G’s purple back gave it an extremely distinctive hard-to-reist aesthetics. The other Grey variant doesn’t match the purple’s rich hue.
The screen of the phone is your regular rectangle glass with a small front camera for selfies. The plastic frame material helped to keep the weight low at 193.8g and equally offers a better handgrip than metal or glass back.
As expected, the Nokia G42 5G offers a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom alongside a single stereo speaker and USB-C port. However, you can listen to music wirelessly with one of the Best Noise-cancelling Nokia Earbuds. It has a fingerprint scanner that equally functions as a power unlock button. Besides it is the volume rocker while on the left side is a tray that houses both the SIM and microSD card slot.
Beyond mystery and imagination, the Nokia G42 5G came with an iFixit-branded repair kit that’s occupied by multiple guitar pick-like implements, screwdrivers, suction cups, tweezers, and spudger. With these tools, you can open up the case and change the screen, charging port, and battery should they stop functioning without the help of a technician.
This is a feature that first debuted on the Nokia G22, but fortunately, Nokia decided to reintegrate it in this year’s G42 5G. However, getting the phone open for replacement requires some level of expertise with screws and clips to avoid damaging the phone. But once you’ve removed the clips through the SIM tray, you can easily get the phone open for parts replacement.
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Display
Coming to the display, the 90Hz refresh rate is the best feature of the Nokia G42 5G screen (although some competitors offer 120Hz). But, the 6.56-inch screen size makes it easy for one-hand use and small-size phone fans.
However, the 720p resolution is the lowest on a smartphone and we’re disappointed to find it in a 2023 smartphone. A Full HD (1080p) resolution would have been better, but it’ll lead to a shorter battery life.
The 90Hz refresh rate is of course the G42 5 G’s highest display feature as it helps to keep things smooth while scrolling through the phone. Unfortunately, an IPS panel is outdated and can’t match the brightness level of AMOLED screens which makes the G42 5G enemy to direct sunshine use.
Camera Performance
The Camera performance on $200 phones is generally average but solely depends on the phone maker. The Nokia G42 5G comes with the standard arrangement of three sensors on the back and one up front.
On the rear is a 50MP primary sensor, 2MP depth sensor, and another 2MP macro lens while the selfie camera is capped at 8MP. The camera app is similar to the Google Camera interface as it’s clean and easy to use due to no additional customizations. Even with the absence of video stabilisation, the Nokia G42 5G does well in taking 1080p videos @30fps.
Coming to the camera performance, the quality is good with plenty of detail in shots and colors are not oversaturated to make the photos remain appealing. Broad daylight is indeed your best time to take shots with this phone. However, that doesn’t make night shots bad either, but can’t be compared to the quality of daylight shots. Selfies are good too, and if you know your way around the camera, you’ll find it good for TikTok challenge videos and social media upload in general.
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Performance, Storage, and Software
One general problem of Nokia phones for the past few years is the use of outdated chipsets, but it seems to have changed with the G42 5G. The Nokia G42 5G Snapdragon 480+ 5G appears to be more recent than the one used in the last model.
Performance was good enough for your day-to-day tasks and will easily meet your needs if you’re the type that uses the phone for basic games. However, for gamers, high-end games like Call of Duty, PUGB, Asphalt 9, etc can run on this phone but you might experience frequent slowdowns and a drop in refresh rate. But if gaming is a priority in your phone choice, our list of dedicated gaming phones will be of help.
Of course, the phone supports 5G which is no longer something to celebrate in 2023. On the top end of the spec sheet is a dual 4GB and 6GB RAM options and 128GB British storage, plus an option for expansion via the dedicated microSD card slot.
Since Nokia is offering two years of major OS updates and the G42 5G coming with Android 13 out of the box, this means it’ll get up to Android 15 future updates. However, the phone comes with some pre-installed apps which is no longer a problem as you can delete them with the help of our guide on how to uninstall bloatware apps.
Battery Life and Fast Charge
Battery life is no longer a thing to worry about in recent smartphones as most of them come with strong battery cells. The Nokia G42 5G with its 720p resolution, low processor, and 5000mAh battery capacity has all it takes to give you at least 2-day battery life.
From this, we’re confident that the G42 5G battery life is good, but Nokia’s claim of 3 days between fuel-ups depends on how you use the phone. But from our observation, it’s easy to say that two days of use is easily achievable with the Nokia G42 5G.
Meanwhile, the issue comes with fast charging. Thankfully, at 20W, it’s faster than the Nokia C32 (10W) but slower than Samsung, Xiaomi, and Realme phones that even offer at lesser prices. However, the Nokia G42 5G 20W charger works exactly as expected, giving a full battery in 1 hour 20 minutes charge.
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Nokia G42 5G: Price in Nigeria and Availability
The Nokia G42 5G is sold at ₦183,000 (roughly $199) in the official Nokia store, but you might buy it slightly higher at third-party phone stores and retail shops. This is a good price to pay for a phone with up to 128GB storage, this kind of performance, and battery life. But if you feel like trying something new, our guide on the Best Xiaomi Phones to buy this year will be of great help to you.
Nokia G42 5G Full Specifications
General
- Brand: Nokia
- Model: G42 5G
- Release Date: June 28 2023
- Weight: 193.8g
- Colours: Purple, Grey
- Touchscreen: YES
- Type: IPS LCD, 90Hz
- Display Size: 6.56-inch
- Screen Resolution: 720 x 1612 pixels
- Facelock Support: YES
- In-display fingerprint scanner: No
- Sensors: Fingerprint (side-mounted)
- Dimensions: 165 x 75.8 x 8.6 mm (6.50 x 2.98 x 0.34 in)
Platform
- Operating System: Android 13
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 480+ 5G
- CPU: Octa-core (2×2.2 GHz Kryo 460 & 6×1.8 GHz Kryo 460)
- GPU: Adreno 619
Memory
- RAM: 4GB/6GB
- Inbuilt Storage: 128GB
- SD Card slot: Yes (dedicated slot)
Camera
- Rear Flash: LED Flash
- Rear Camera: 50-MP f/1.8 (wide), 2-MP (macro), 2-MP (depth)
- Video: 1080p@30fps
- Front Camera: 8-MP (wide)
- Front Flash: –
Connectivity
- Wi-Fi: YES
- Bluetooth: 5.1
- USB: MicroUSB Type-C 2.0
- GPS: YES
- WLAN: Yes
Network
- SIM: Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
- Technology: GSM /HSPA /LTE /5G
- 3G Support: Yes
- 4G/ LTE Support: Yes
- 5G Support: Yes
- Speed: HSPA, LTE, 5G
Battery
- Capacity: Li-Po 5000mAh, non-removable
- Fast Charge: 20W
Price
- Price in Nigeria: ₦183,000
- Price in the US: $199
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