Nokia 2.2 Review: Everything Is Great Except For Performance

Smartphones are getting much more affordable in the last few years. We now have lots of options in the budget segment that are sufficient for day-to-day usage. With less than Rs. 8,000, you can get the Realme C2, Redmi 7, or Nokia 2.2, all of which offer decent performance and features. In this article, we will deliver to you the Nokia 2.2 review in four key departments, including display, performance, cameras, and battery life. Let's see if this phone is the best budget smartphone at the price point.

Nokia 2.2 review: Price in India

The Nokia 2.2 price in India starts at Rs. 6,999 for the base 2GB + 16GB option or you can pay Rs. 1,000 more to buy the 3GB + 32GB option. 

Nokia 2.2 review: Display & Design

The Nokia 2.2 display has the size of that of the Nokia 4.2, which is 5.71 inches. The display supports HD+ (1,520 x 720p) resolution. All the bezels are pretty thick, especially the bottom one, but are expected for a smartphone in its price point. At the top, there is a water-drop notch for a selfie camera. 

Even though the Nokia 2.2 and 4.2 have the same display size, you will easily notice a relatively significant difference in quality between the two. I feel that the display on this phone shows darker color than it really is. As for the viewing experience, it has a maximum brightness of 400 nits, which is quite enough for most environments, even for outdoors. 

The back panel has a glossy finish, which is great if you care about your phone’s appearance. However, it is prone to fingerprints and smudges, so you might have to clean it more often.

Nokia 2.2 review: Performance

It is surprising that HMD Global decides to use the MediaTek Helio A22 chipset on the 2.2 instead of continuing using a Qualcomm chipset like on the Nokia 2.1. While we can’t say whether that is an upgrade or a downgrade, it is clear that having 2GB or 3GB of RAM is definitely a huge improvement over 1GB of RAM on the 2.1. 

The brand offers two storage options, 16GB or 32GB. The software is also upgraded from Android Go, which is for ultra-budget smartphones with low-end specs, to Android One. Moreover, having Android One means that the device will boot a complete operating software with all the features.

In terms of performance, the Helio A22 isn’t really a good pick, even for day-to-day tasks. It felt pretty sluggish even when I tried to message on WhatsApp or read and respond to an email. If you are in search of a smartphone for gaming purposes, then stay away from this one. You could still run PUBG Mobile on the Nokia 2.2, but the default settings will be set at Smooth for graphics and Medium for frame rate. However, even that, we didn’t even get a comfortable gaming experience as there were frequent lags during the match and the in-game audio was quite laggy. It also took much longer to load the game.

Nokia 2.2 review: Cameras

Let’s continue with the Nokia 2.2 camera review. There is only a single 13MP camera at the back of this phone. You will also get a 5MP camera on the front for selfies and video calls. The camera app of the device is pretty basic, including time-lapse, Google Lens, panorama, and square modes. It also comes with a quick toggle for enabling HDR.

As for image quality, the photos were pretty good in bright conditions, but it doesn’t really get the exposure right as we notice that most images were overexposed. When it comes to taking macro shots, the device was quite slow to focus on the subject and the outcomes were not that sharp. It was also pretty slow in saving photos and get ready for the next shot. 

As expected for a budget smartphone, the device didn’t perform well in low-light conditions as the results were still dark with lots of grain. You could get slightly brighter photos with HDR and that is the best option for low-light photography as the brand doesn’t offer night mode on the Nokia 2.2.

The device doesn’t support portrait mode, so you can’t take photos with blurred backgrounds. As for the front-facing camera, it does just an average job. Photos don’t have much detail and looked washed-out to me. I did try HDR for the selfie shooter, but I did not notice much of a difference

Nokia 2.2 review: Battery life

It is pretty interesting that the Nokia 2.2 battery is actually user-removable while most of the current smartphones come with a non-removable one. However, I’m not sure if this is an advantage over other smartphones as I find phones with removable batteries don't look as “modern” as the models with non-removable batteries.

In daily use, the phone lasted around one day with moderate use, including 30 minutes of web browsing, 20 minutes of gaming, and some phone calls. Sadly, the handset doesn’t support fast charging, so you will have to wait around two hours to fully charge the phone. 

Nokia 2.2 price: around Rs. 8,200

Nokia 2.2 price in India: Rs. 6,999

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