Nokia XR20 review- Rugged Mid-Range Rambler

Nokia‘s early-2000s devices had a reputation for ruggedness and reliability. That reputation was built on phones like Nokia 5110, 3210 and the widely memed 3310. The former monarchs of indestructible have returned to claim their throne with Nokia XR20. XR20 is a midrange device with an eye on one of their old techstomping grounds.

Clawing Back a Market

Builder phones used to be a lucrative market. Though a market remains, the mass market for tough tech has mostly moved onto sticking a regular smartphone in a bullet, water and dust proof case. This has its advantages, it allows a user to use their familiar everyday device at work and you don’t have to carry something ugly around.

What’s left of the rugged phone market is distinctly low-end and nigh-on unusable. Or immensely expensive devices that weigh a kilogram and are always purchased by the taxpayer or the expense account of a major corporation.

Nokia XR20 is neither of those. The handset is a throwback to their ruggedised heyday. Part of their success that their most famous hardphones were designed to allow users to use the same device at work and at home due to their deceptive good looks.

And XR20 certainly deceives with its eye-catching appearance.

Needlessly Attractive

Nokia XR20 looks like a phone in a superslim and visually appealing case. Far from the screw motifs and chunky bumpers of elder builder phones, XR20 looks amazing.

Our review model is Ultra Blue and the device wears the dark icy blue with a hint of grey well indeed.

Like Nokia X20, XR20 doesn’t attempt to mimic expensive devices nor their expensive materials. The machined aluminium frame that gives the device its rigidity peeks out along the sides of the device. A rubber-ish plastic surround covers the top and bottom as well as any corners.

The rear is a soft plastic with a fine diagonal pinstripe texture that draws the eye into the frosted underlay. It’s a lovely detail that Nokia has used on several devices before. It takes a little of the cheap look from plastics and adds micro detail to a plain face of a device.

The soft plastic bumper and rear are functional, of course, but it’s commendable that Nokia paid so much attention to detail with the textures and colours of the necessary materials and produced something so pleasant to look at.

Even the red emergency button atop Nokia XR20 becomes a style piece with our review device’s colour. Seriously, is it possible Nokia chose this overall colour to look unadulterated ‘fire’ with the red emergency button? If so, bravo.

Nokia XR20 is so understated as a rugged device that clumsy Claras and Clarences of this world should buy it to save themselves some money in the long run and just use it as a normal, albeit chunky and gorgeous, phone.

Also a Functional Device

Nokia XR20 is built to MIL-STD810H standards. A set of tests that involves adverse temperatures, moisture, altitude as well dropping onto rocks and into water. Nokia XR20 should survive, completely intact from a fall of 1.5m onto solid concrete. It’s also good to be immersed in up to 1.5 metres of water for 30 minutes.

Nokia XR20 does its job as well as looking unexpectedly cool. Those soft plastic surrounds absorb and deflect energy with you drop the device. That outer bumper extends a fraction of a millimetre beyond the display to offer itself to the ground first in the event of a drop.

The glass used on the the display is Corning Gorilla Glass Victus that, coupled with the shockproof shell, gives Nokia the confidence to offer a one year warranty on the screen.

Naturally I have dropped it a few times in the name of science. And it works as well as sounding like it works for the reason it’s supposed to work. Nice job.

That red emergency button can call emergency services or a designated contact but it can be remapped. A quick menu of core functions, like flashlight or timer, can be chosen along with any app you feel like.

Along with that one-year warranty for the display, the device comes with a three-year warranty for everything else. All of this comes on top of that Nokia standard three-years of Android security updates.

A Midrange Chipset

Nokia XR20 has the same chipset as Nokia X20 and as such performs mostly the same.

The 480 5G seen in Nokia X20 and XR20 has enough power for the everyday applications as well as the kinds of mobile work I use my phone for. It’s not lacking at all in this respect.

The plain Android One experience is fantastic on Nokia XR20. Smooth, attractive and user-friendly, it’s a joy to use next to bloated and ad-filled competitors in this price-range.

Nokia devices getting Android 11 before most other brands is a nice bonus.

However, there are some occasions where the lack of power can be seen. Complex apps can take a beat longer to open than you might like. Taking certain types of photos can make the device hang for a moment as it processes these images. It reminds you of the modest chip powering the lot.

Our 6GB RAM review model had enough RAM to multitask and handle large amounts of tabs. The 4GB model might be too light memory as we were usually at 3.2 GB of RAM in everyday use. Chuck in some more apps and things might get complicated for the 4GB model.

The display is a competent 1,080 x 2400 at a 20:9 aspect ratio. It’s mostly the same sharp, nicely coloured IPS panel from X20 but a little brighter. This is supposedly for the amount of outdoor work the XR20 may see. Another wonderful touch.

Work Camera that Works

The dual-lens setup of XR20 is not quite as fully featured as the Nokia X20. It’s understandable as portraits with Bokeh effect aren’t usually part of any non-influencer job specs.

To make up for the lack of artistry in the photo department, there is a third LED (or second one, whichever you prefer)

The dual-LED and extra LED can produce far more light than a conventional handset offering something like a penlight’s lumen output. Obviously, this has benefits for safety and navigation but it also allows for clearer video and images in large dark spaces.

The user can also shoot with the dual-LED flash while navigating with a separate light.

The lens setup is very different to that offered on X20. Nokia XR20 has only two lenses in its X-detailed camera housing. The aforementioned loss of options is offset by a superior ultrawide lens.

The two lost lenses were the weak 2MP macro and the focus-focused 5MP lenses. Given their limited utility, I would say Nokia XR20 has the better camera setup in general use as well as a more work-centric suite.

The lack of either optical zoom or optical image stabilisation seem like two design oversights in a device otherwise well-prepared for life in the field or on-site. It’s also a little disappointing to see video top out at 1080p30.

In action, outdoor shots fare well with the 48MP main sensor. There is just enough resolution to pull off the recommended 2x zoom. Auto HDR can wildly adjust shots in one way or another so you’ll need to take a few shots to get a decent shot, especially high-contrast scenes.

Specifications

Since the market for rugged phones has changed; most flocked to the normal smarphone in an expensive case while the rest split into awful, borderline unusable devices and devices that cost five-figures. Amongst all of this, Nokia XR20 is a refreshing device.

It’s built tough with Nokia prepared to fork over under warranty if it’s not tough enough for you. Yet it could pass as an regular device. Nokia XR20 is about as big as a 6.67″ smartphone in the most rudimentary of slimline cases but it offers the protection of something bulkier.

While builders and climbers will love the idea of device like Nokia XR20, I reckon the clumsy could do with something like it also.

Review unit provided by PR, 6GB RAM unit priced at €499 at time of review