Designed to permit the again to be popped off and the battery changed inside minutes, Nokia’s new G22 isn’t the primary smartphone to be DIY-repairable. However the Android handset is the primary to come back in at a finances worth.
Costing lower than £170, the brand new cellphone has alternative elements already accessible beginning at simply £19. The repairable design is midway between the really modular £449 Fairphone 4 and the £849 iPhone 14, which has been constructed to make skilled repairs simpler.
At first look, the G22 is a normal-looking smartphone with no actual trace of its repairable nature. However unclip the again from the body utilizing a easy guitar-pick device and you’ll discover all the pieces is secured with tiny screws and pull tabs on the within. It might probably all be disassembled with a little bit of care without having issues corresponding to warmth pads, knives and alcohol, which you’d for many different telephones.
The Finnish agency HMD International, which makes the cellphone, has partnered with the repair-specialists iFixit to provide thorough, easy-to-follow guides and promote spare elements for the G22. Hopefully you’ll by no means want them, however if you happen to smash the display screen or put on out the battery you may repair it your self or entry low cost skilled restore choices.
On the skin, the G22 has a easy design. The large 6.5in LCD display screen on the entrance isn’t very sharp however has a 90Hz refresh price, so scrolling and animations are fairly clean. It was brilliant sufficient indoors however struggled a little bit outdoors in daylight. It’s coated by Gorilla Glass 3, which is a a lot older model of the scratch-resistant glass than accessible on top-end telephones, however does the job if you happen to deal with it with care.
The body is plastic on the skin and clips seamlessly into the 100% recycled plastic again. It feels a lot nicer within the hand than you’d count on for the cash – a stable piece of equipment.
Specs
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Display: 6.5in 90Hz HD+ (269ppi)
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Processor: Unisoc T606
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RAM: 4GB
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Storage: 128GB + microSD card
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Working system: Android 12
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Digital camera: 50MP, 2MP depth, 2MP macro; 8MP front-facing
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Connectivity: 4G, wifi 5, NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, 3.5mm headphones, FM radio, GNSS
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Water resistance: IP52 (rain)
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Dimensions: 165 x 76.2 x 8.5mm
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Weight: 196g
Three-day battery life
The G22 has a low-performance chip made by the Chinese language-firm Unisoc. It’s gradual by any measure however manages to really feel snappy sufficient typically interactions: the menus pop up promptly, the cellphone unlocks quickly and the keyboard is responsive.
You need to wait a second or two for heavier apps corresponding to Evernote to open and cargo any content material. Some websites in Chrome wrestle to load pictures as you scroll additional down the web page and you’ll overlook making an attempt to play Fortnite or something aside from easy video games.
What the G22 lacks in uncooked energy it greater than makes up for in very lengthy battery life. The cellphone lasts for a full 72 hours in my testing, racking up nicely greater than eight hours of energetic display screen use with 5 hours on 4G, the remainder on wifi.
Be aware the G22 doesn’t help 5G and solely has wifi 5, not the most recent 6E. I discovered it was typically quick sufficient however struggled for a connection in weaker sign areas the place different wifi 6 units had no downside connecting.
Sustainability
HMD charges the battery to keep up no less than 80% of its authentic capability for a minimal 800 full cost cycles. A alternative costs from £22.99. Different elements are also available, together with the £18.99 cost port, £22.99 again cowl and £44.99 display screen, whereas HMD and iFixit publish DIY repair guides.
The again is made from 100% recycled plastic. The corporate publishes environmental reviews and gives circular phone subscription, trade-in and recycling schemes, together with for non-Nokia telephones.
Android 12
The cellphone runs Android 12, which was launched in 2021 and is a little bit disappointing to see because it was outmoded by Android 13 in the summertime of 2022. Nonetheless, not like that utilized by most smartphone producers, Nokia’s model of Android could be very near that supplied by Google instantly with out intensive modification. That makes it quick and uncluttered regardless of the low-power processor. Nevertheless it additionally contains some undesirable pre-installed third-party apps, together with Reserving.com and ExpressVPN, all of which could be uninstalled.
HMD will present two years of main Android model updates and three years of month-to-month safety updates, which is aggressive for the worth however poor in contrast with the perfect available in the market, which supply no less than 5 years of software program help.
Worth
The Nokia G22 is available in blue or gray and prices £169.
For comparability, the Samsung Galaxy M13 prices £169, the Motorola G13 prices £149, the Google Pixel 6a prices £399 and the Fairphone 4 prices £449.
Verdict
The Nokia G22 is a low-end Android smartphone that units itself aside from the gang in two methods. It has a really lengthy three-day battery life and an easier-to-repair design that makes DIY fixes a practical proposition.
You gained’t want specialised heating and prying instruments because the again unclips with out glue and elements could be unscrewed. You have to some extra basic instruments and a display screen repair continues to be a reasonably laborious affair, however it may be finished with sufficient persistence after iFixit’s thorough guides. A battery swap is quite a bit simpler, and you will get these elements to do fixes at residence, which is the primary hurdle in any restore. Hopefully that is the beginning of a constructive development.
In any other case the G22 is a reasonably low cost cellphone. It’s fairly gradual, the digital camera is nothing to write down residence about, it runs Android 12 not the most recent 13, and the 90Hz display screen is OK however a great distance from nice. It’s good to see a microSD card slot for including extra reminiscence and a headphone socket. However one of many large downsides is a brief help lifetime of simply three years.
Irrespective of what number of instances you may restore the cellphone, as soon as it’s not getting safety updates it shouldn’t be used.
Execs: DIY-repairable design with guides and elements accessible, very lengthy battery life, clear Android model, OK digital camera, microSD card slot, headphones socket, low price.
Cons: gradual, common display screen, solely rain resistant, solely three years of software program updates.
