Nokia 4.2 design
The most important aspect of the Nokia 4.2 is its design, it has taken some elements from the Nokia 6.1 Plus and Nokia 5.1 Plus (Review) and looks attractive. The overall aesthetic profile is clean, especially the black variant of the phone. We are reviewing this black variant of Nokia 4.2, apart from this it also has a gloss pink variant.
Nokia 4.2 has 2.5D glass on the front and back panel which gives it a premium look. On the other hand, nowadays most smartphones are coming with gradient finish. There is a dual camera module on the back of the phone, just below the rear camera there is a flash and a fingerprint sensor. The rim of this phone comes with a curved profile and glossy finish. If we look at the price of Nokia 4.2, it gives a premium look at this price.
The length and width of Nokia 4.2 is 148.95×71.30×8.39 millimeters. Nokia 41. has a small profile and is easy to hold and use. You do not need to adjust the phone after holding it in your hand nor do you need to stretch your thumb to reach every corner of the screen. Let us tell you that the build quality of Nokia 4.2 is also good.
There’s a dedicated Google Assistant button on the left side of the phone, which may come in handy for those who use the virtual assistant regularly. Pressing it once will open Google AI Assistant, while double pressing it will open a page containing relevant information and suggestions based on the user’s activity and location.
The volume button is given just above the power button on the right side of the phone. There is a SIM tray on the left side of the phone in which two nano-SIMs and a microSD card can be inserted. With the help of a card, it is possible to increase the storage up to 400 GB. A 3.5 mm headphone jack and microphone are provided in the upper part of the phone, while the lower part of the phone has a micro-USB port, speaker and other microphone.
The Nokia 4.2 certainly looks premium but it also has a downside. Due to the glass rear panel, dust particles and fingerprints get trapped. You will not get a protective case in the retail box, so you will have to buy it separately. Overall the Nokia 4.2 is one of the best looking phones in this price range. There is only one variant of Nokia 4.2 which comes with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage and its price in the Indian market is Rs 10,990.
Nokia 4.2 specifications and features
Nokia 4.2 not only looks premium but its build quality is also good. Let us now talk about the specifications of Nokia 4.2. The phone has a 5.71-inch HD+ (720×1520 pixels) display which comes with a waterdrop notch. Its aspect ratio is 19: 9 and pixel density is 270 pixels per inch.
Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 processor has been used in Nokia 4.2. 3 GB RAM is provided for multitasking. The processor can be a bit disappointing, that too when smartphones coming in the same price or less are equipped with powerful processors like Snapdragon 660 and MediaTek Helio P70 chipset.
If you increase your budget a little, you will also get phones equipped with Snapdragon 675 or Snapdragon 710 processor. Nokia 4.2 has two cameras on the back. The primary sensor is 13 megapixels. This autofocus lens has F/2.2 aperture. With this, a 2 megapixel sensor will work in Jugalbandi. There is an 8-megapixel front camera for selfie whose aperture will be F/2.0.
There aren’t any fun camera features except for Bokeh mode, panorama and time-lapse. The default camera app of Nokia 4.2 does not have features like AR stickers, slow-mo video recording and night mode. Talking about software, the Nokia 4.2 smartphone is part of Google’s Android One program and it runs on Android 9 Pie. Our review unit is running the February 2019 security patch.
Since the phone is running on Android Pie, you will also get features like Digital Wellbeing, Adaptive Battery, Adaptive Brightness and Navigation Gestures. Ambient Display is another useful feature that shows notifications for incoming messages, calls and alarms without opening the screen. Nokia 4.2 is equipped with face unlock feature but it is not reliable nor works fast. On the other hand, the fingerprint sensor works fine and unlocks the phone within a second.
There is no bloatware in Nokia 4.2 nor did we see any ads in the phone. One big advantage the Nokia 4.2 has over competing handsets is that it is assured of OS updates. Android Q and Android R will also be rolled out for this phone in the coming time. Besides, the phone will also get security updates for three years. The viewing angles of the phone are also not very good.
Nokia 4.2 performance, camera and battery life
Let’s first talk about the display of Nokia 4.2. Nokia 4.2 has a 5.71-inch HD+ display, text is sharp and video content looks good. Reflectivity is a problem if the phone is used outside in daylight. Readings in sunlight were acceptable. However, it was difficult to view photos and videos with dark backgrounds.
Everyone wants a phone which has a better display and is equipped with high resolution and wide viewing angles. One good thing about Nokia 4.2 is that it has Adaptive Brightness feature for automatic brightness adjustment. Apart from this, night light mode has also been provided so that there is no problem in viewing the screen at night.
Despite running stock Android, we found the Nokia 4.2 to be a bit slow. We hope that its performance will be made faster. Apps take their time to load. For example, the keyboard in WhatsApp and Twitter takes some time to open when other apps are running in the background.
When it comes to gaming, the Snapdragon 439 processor is not that capable but we still played games on the phone to test it. We tried playing games like Temple Run and Candy Crush and it ran smoothly but when we played heavy games like PUBG Mobile on low-graphics, it still took time to load.
While playing Asphalt 9: Legends, we felt that the phone had become a bit slow. We have also seen the similarly priced Redmi Note 7 and Realme 3 and these phones perform better when it comes to gaming. One thing is clear that if you want to play games regularly then Nokia 4.2 is not for you.
Now let’s talk about the camera performance of Nokia 4.2. Pictures taken in daylight were good but the pictures lacked sharpness and edge detail. Photos taken in natural light came out crisp and the dynamic range was also above average. In macro shots, colors were captured well, gradients were visible properly but we got better results from Realme 3 and Redmi Note 7.
Apart from this, you will definitely be disappointed due to lack of AR stickers, scene mode and artistic Bokeh or lighting effect in Nokia 4.2. This phone also doesn’t have a low-light mode so it wasn’t surprising that photos taken in the dark showed noise and grainy textures. Now let’s talk about the front camera. Pictures taken with the selfie camera looked natural. The phone also applies blur effects to separate the subject and background. But the pictures lacked sharpness. You can adjust the intensity of the Bokeh effect while taking a photo.
There is an optional beautification filter that works to enlarge the eyes, slim the jawline and smooth the skin. This phone comes with Google Lens which identifies objects easily. Even though it performed slowly, the results were mostly accurate.
When it comes to video, both the front and rear cameras are capable of recording videos at Full-HD and HD resolutions, but there is no way to adjust the frame rate or aspect ratio. Talking about video quality, it is average. Colors appear fine but there was some trouble while locking the focus.
There are two major issues with the Nokia 4.2 that may frustrate users. The phone has some trouble while locking the focus, due to which its effect is visible on the quality of the photo. The second big problem is that the phone becomes a little slow. We often had to wait for a few seconds and tap the shutter button several times before the camera tried to lock focus again. This problem happened with both front and rear cameras.
To check whether this issue was caused by the outdated software on our review unit, we tested on another Nokia 4.2 phone which was running the May 2019 security patch but we still had the focus lock issue.
The 3,000 mAh battery gives life to this phone which can hardly last the whole day. We made a few phone calls, used social media apps, browsed the web for a while, watched a few videos on YouTube, played games for about 30 minutes, and not only that, we also used productivity apps. Battery capacity is definitely on the lower side.
The phone lasted only 10 hours and 13 minutes in our HD video battery loop test. Talking about charging speed, the charger that comes in the retail box takes more than two and a half hours to fully charge the phone. Nokia 4.2 does not have fast charging support. About 10-15 percent of the battery was consumed after playing for about 30 minutes. The Nokia 4.2 also gets a little hot.
our decision
The Nokia 4.2 certainly looks good and many will appreciate its stock Android experience as well. The notification LED around the power button is also well placed, apart from this there are no other benefits in the phone that can be mentioned. Nokia 4.2 does not have a powerful processor, and its camera performance is also not special. The camera app also does not have many features that customers want. The price of Rs 10,990 is too high for this phone.
If we talk about Nokia 4.2’s hardware specifications and overall experience, then it is a competitive handset. redmi note 7 ,review) And Realme 3 ,reviewNokia 4.2 is not more powerful than Nokia 4.2. Other than this Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2 ,review, Realme 3 Pro (review) and Redmi Note 7 Pro ,review) are also good options which can be a profitable deal to buy.