Nokia C30 Review: Big Display & Big Battery Life

Nokia C30 was launched in November 2021 with a price tag of Rs. 14,199. 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 used the Nokia C30 for a week and it turned out to be a good budget option. Why? I’ll explain in this review article.

Nokia C30 Review

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 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.

C30 probably has the biggest display in this price segment which is really handy for media consumption and social media usage. On top of that, the display is bright and I had no issues using it under sunlight.

Its IPS panel doesn’t have the most vibrant color for the price but it looks decent. The color profile is neutral and the viewing angle is good too. However, it only comes with Widevine L3 certification. So, you will be limited to SD content on Netflix.

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.

The Unisoc SC9863A can handle basic tasks such as navigation, opening apps, and app switching quite well. The app opening time is respectable given it is an entry-level phone with 2GB RAM.

As for gaming, you cannot expect these phones to run high-end games but you can play games like Free Fire without any issues. I played Free Fire on Medium graphics settings and the game ran decent without major stutters or frame drops.

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

I really like the natural color tone of the photos captured from the Nokia C30. The photos do not have a good amount of details and it lacks sharpness as well.

Another thing I noticed is its focus time. It is a bit longer than it should be which resulted in out-of-focus images sometimes.

Overall, the rear camera has average performance with a decent dynamic range.

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FRONT SENSOR

On the front side, there is a 5MP Selfie camera. It takes decent photos under good lighting conditions. The face tone is pretty good for an entry-level phone.

The detail on the face is above average and the selfies have a good exposure balance as well. Overall, it can capture decent selfies under good lighting.

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VIDEOS

Moving on to videos, the Nokia C30 can capture videos up to 1080p 30fps from the rear camera.

As expected from an entry-level phone, the video is shaky and lacks details. The dynamic range is also poor and you can notice noise even in daylight conditions.

Battery

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

Nokia C30 comes with a 6000mAh battery and a 10W charger. You will find it hard to finish the Nokia C30’s battery even in 2 days. After 8 hours of screen time, I still had 50% battery left. So, the Nokia C30 will easily last for 3 days on heavy usage.

As for charging, it only has a 10W charger that takes more than 3 hours to fully charge the phone.

Software

• Android 11 Go

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. You get some pre-installed software like Google’s Go apps and Facebook lite. Except that, it is a clean experience.

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.

Conclusion

Nokia C30 is a good device if you want a big display, amazing battery life, and good enough performance.

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It might not have been a good option for its original price tag. But the price drop makes it a good entry-level smartphone with a good software experience.

Also, young people might not be attracted to this device due to its bulky design but it’s a great choice for their parents!

What do you think about the Nokia C30? If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments!

Also, watch our video review of the Nokia C30.