Nokia C30 First Impression: A Promising Budget Phone with Big Battery

Nokia C30 was launched in November 2021 with a price tag of Rs. 12,999. However, it has now received a price drop.

The Nokia C30 price in Nepal is now Rs. 12,999 for the 2/32GB variant. After the price drop, the C30 looks much more appealing.

I got to spend some time with the Nokia C30 and this is my first impression. Let’s see if it is any good.

Nokia C30 Impressions

Design

• 177.7 x 79.1 x 9.9 mm
• 237 g
• Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)

Nokia C30 is not an eye-pleaser but it is built like a tank. It’s a huge phone that measures 9.9 mm in thickness and is quite tall at 79.1 mm. So, it is not an easy phone to handle with a single hand. Plus, it is quite heavy at 237 g.

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The circular camera module on the plastic rear panel is quite standard in Nokia’s phone. And, they have also included a fingerprint sensor right beneath it. The fingerprint sensor works well and I had no issues during my short usage period.

For ports and buttons, the volume and power buttons are on the right side. The bottom of the phone houses a mic and a micro-USB port whereas the top section has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Where are the speaker, sim slot, and sd card slot? Well, the speaker is placed on the rear panel whereas you will need to take apart the rear panel to access two sim slots and a micro sd slot. Yes, it’s an old-school phone with a detachable back panel.

Overall, the build quality of the C30 is very good but it is a chunky phone that is hard to handle with a single hand.

Display

• 6.82 inches HD+ IPS LCD
• 720 x 1600 pixels
• 400 nits (typ)
• 20:9 aspect ratio

Nokia C30 comes with a 6.82 inches IPS LCD panel with a screen resolution of 1600 X 720.

For the price, it boasts one of the good display panels with more than enough brightness and decent color reproduction. However, you will have to settle with relatively big side bezels and chin.

The big display is definitely a treat for media consumption and the panel is quite sharp given it’s a 720p panel.

Camera

• Rear Camera: 13MP
  • 2MP Depth
  • Video: 1080p@30fps

• Front Camera: 5 MP

In terms of photos and videos, Nokia C30 gets a dual-camera setup on the rear with a 13MP main sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, it houses a 5MP sensor for selfies.

MAIN SENSOR

The photos taken from the main camera of the Nokia C30 are as expected from an entry-level smartphone.

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The photos have a natural color tone and the dynamic range is average. The images do not look sharp but the results are quite good for an entry-level phone.

We will check out the camera in detail in the full review.

FRONT SENSOR

On the front side, there is a 5MP Selfie camera. It takes decent photos under good lighting conditions. Other than that, there is nothing special to talk about this camera either.

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The details are missing, it looks very soft. But considering its price, we can’t complain much.

Performance

• Unisoc SC9863A (28nm)
• Octa-core (4×1.6 GHz Cortex-A55 & 4×1.2 GHz Cortex-A55)
• PowerVR IMG8322
• 32GB 2GB RAM

The Nokia C30 is powered by a Unisoc SC9863A SoC. It is paired with 2GB RAM and 32GB ROM.

Unisoc SC9863A has an octa-core CPU with 4 A55 cores clocked at 1.6 GHz and 4 A55 cores clocked at 1.2 GHz. At this price range, it goes up against the Helio G25 that we can find on the likes of Redmi 9A.

During my short usage, I found the performance of this phone to be good for the price. It smoothly handled normal UI, switching between multiple apps, and playing light games.

To know how the phone handles graphics-heavy apps such FreeFIre, I will be testing it in our full review.

Battery and OS

• Non-removable Li-Po 6000mAh battery
• 10W Charging
• Android 11 Go

Nokia C30 comes with a 6000mAh battery and a 10W charger.

The battery capacity seems promising, it should last at least 2 days without any problem. We will find out as I test the phone for the full review.

Moving onto the best bit of the Nokia C30, it runs on Android 11 Go. The Go version of Android 11 feels smooth and optimized on the C30. Even though the C30 doesn’t have the best chipset at this price tag, the OS optimization makes it one of the fluid phones in this price segment.

Follow Up

Nokia C30 is a good option for someone looking for an entry-level smartphone.

This might not be the best choice if you like compact phones but it has its own perks like a big display and a big battery. On top of that Android 11 Go makes this device smooth.

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What do you think about the Nokia C30? If you have any questions or aspects of the device you want me to test for the full review, please let me know in the comments!

Also, watch our review of the vivo Y15s in Nepali.