I’ve waxed lyrical before about my love of reviewing lower-end handsets. How I love seeing where the money went. What the engineers and marketers deemed most important to customers. Nokia have been delighting this reviewer for a few years now with bright, visually appealing devices that are always interesting though not always excellent. Nokia 2.3 is another gorgeous price-conscious model from the Finnish marque.
Bold Visual Design with Tactile Intrigue
Though it comes in just above the bottom of the market at around €129(£109), Nokia 2.3 doesn’t look or feel a penny under a mid-ranger. The rear of Nokia 2.3 is obviously but not overtly textured. This fine pinstriping adds a little grip and an little tactile intrigue. It’s a minor shame the detailing isn’t visible in our outdoor shots.
The texturing also also adds visual matting to the semi-gloss of our Cyan review model. And with that, it helps offsets the feel of plastic.
The rounded corners of the chassis follow a classic Nokia curve. This curve is followed by the screen bezel and gives a nice visual harmony with the screen on.
We haven’t seen Sand or Charcoal in person so we won’t comment but suffice to say I absolutely love the look of the Cyan Green.
A Pleasant View
The 6.2-inch IPS LCD display is mostly excellent. It’s bright and despite its 720×1050 resolution, Nokia 2.3’s screen isn’t grainy. The IPS muted colour is here but many prefer the most realistic tones of the tech and I would be one to agree. The notch is small and its truncated tear-drop shape barely disturbs the display experience.
The default colour temperature of the display is a little blue. Most won’t notice and even fewer will mind but there is not easy way to change it aside from using the
There is one minor problem with the display. At the highest brightness, the backlight seems to flicker – it’s not very obvious but it is there.
Performance Matches Price
The 2GB of RAM isn’t fond of media-rich multitasking and the same Mediatek Helio A22 chipset as Nokia 2.2 is built for efficiency rather than power. But it does handle the majority of apps and games I tried well enough to use without impedance.
For under €150 you can’t expect too much from a smartphone but Nokia 2.3 is solid and usable for everyday tasks. The continued deployment of Android Go apps for low-power devices is welcome. Apps like Gmail Go and Maps Go are too important to deal with being choppy and unresponsive.
The small footprint of constantly-running apps like Gmail Go also goes a long way in freeing precious resources for the harder stuff.
Nokia 2.3 handled 2D RTS and some modest 3D surprisingly well. But it must be said that what few bleeding edge 3D games are available are mostly not worth playing.
A Mixed Capture
The dual-lens main camera comprises of a 13MP lens and a depth sensor. Nokia 2.3 does a lot with the setup – daylight and other well-lit scenes are pleasing on the eye. Colours aren’t particularly accurate but aim for saturation and when flicking through snaps on an appropriate screen, they hold their own.
The portrait bokeh and depth-trickery are OK. Most shots apply an appropriate level of defocus but it sometimes leaves unblurred gaps or smears details on the outer edges of objects. Overall, the feature is satisfactory and gives users a nice artistic option.
Low-light performance isn’t quite as good but as this price, night or dim scenes will always be trouble. Not being able to decide on light-level is Nokia 2.3’s biggest night-time foible with shots regularly ending up too dark or a bit washed out.
While I generally love the implementation of Android One on Nokia phones, one area where I would love some complexity and bloat is the Pro mode for the camera overall. There just aren’t many settings to fiddle with when the AI can’t get it quite right.
Another issue is capture lag. When the AI is doing almost any refinement capture hangs for a moment with the most notable freeze coming with portraits.
1080p30 is the maximum video capture and it benefits and suffers from a few of the stills capture characteristics. Video is generally bright and vivid with the right light. Darker scenes can, again, confuse the sensors. Audio capture is poor with a little more white noise with video than I would like.
Battery, Charging and Usability
A 4,000mAh battery is generous and the device did indeed have a little more stamina than you might expect. But I didn’t find its endurance exceptional, especially when streaming video or performing demanding tasks when the slow processor and weak networking hardware are under load.
The micro USB charger is a bit of a relic now. It doesn’t just look a bit dated and mark the handset out as low-end – the large battery takes a notably long time to fill from the in-box charger.
The lack of a fingerprint sensor isn’t unusual at this price. The face scanner makes up for it a bit but it’s only 2D so this method isn’t particularly secure. I am sure those of you in touch with valuable or sensitive information can pester your boss for something more expensive.
Nokia 2.3 comes as a dual-sim handset. The sim-tray carries the micro-SD card in a fairly standard and convenient layout.
Specifications
- Chipset: Mediatek MT6761 Helio A22 (12 nm)
- GPU: PowerVR GE8320
- Memory: 32GB Storage (accepts Micro SD cards), 2GB RAM,
- Display: 6.2″ IPS LED, 720×1050, 19:9 aspect ratio
- Rear Camera: 13 MP, f/2.2, 1/3.1″, 1.12µm, AF; 2 MP depth
- Video Capture: 1080p30
- Front Camera: 5 MP, f/2.4
- OS Version: Currently Android 9, upgradeable to 10 & 11
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only
- Battery: 4,000 mAh
- Dimensions: 157.7 x 75.4 x 8.7mm
- Colours Available: Cyan Green, Sand, Charcoal
A Contender
Despite the innards seeing little upgrade over Nokia 2.2, Nokia 2.3 adds enough to stay competitive. Knowing what you will need and being realistic about what performance you expect from such an inexpensive handset is essential. That elegant design is an easy sell once you aren’t expecting too much from this device.
