Nokia 2 Vs Nokia 3: Closer look at HMD Global’s most affordable Android phones
The Nokia 2 and the Nokia 3 — that both cost under Rs 10,000 — are currently the most affordable Android-based phones in HMD Global’s line-up. While the Nokia 3 is already available for buying in India at a price of Rs 9,499 the recently announced Nokia 2 will be available here sometime in mid-November (or later) at a global price of 99 euros (roughly Rs 7,465).
Although in terms of design and specifications the Nokia 2 and the Nokia 3 look competent, they don’t exactly blow away the other phones in the market the way a Xiaomi phone like the Redmi Note 4 or the Redmi 4 does. Instead, Nokia is relying on the overall experience to woo buyers in India. And that overall experience is something that the company is hoping to offer with three elements: design, the brand appeal/nostalgia and pure Android software.
Of the three, the pure Android part is the most exciting. Most of the Xiaomi phones for instance still use Android Marshmallow and by using clean and pure Android Nougat aka Android 7.0 in its phones Nokia is hoping to offer consumers something that will make their smartphone experience better. At the same time, Nokia is also hoping that its design expertise will help it create phones that look different and unique in a market where almost every phone looks similar to the next one. As for nostalgia, well, not many companies out there can really brag about a legacy as rich and vibrant as Nokia, so that’s that.
The Nokia 3, being the more expensive of the two has slightly better specs although the fact that it is based on an entry-level MediaTek processor does come out as a sore thumb in an otherwise pretty well thought-out device. Good thing, the Nokia 2 ships with a Qualcomm-based CPU, but then, it’s lacking on some of the other aspects like RAM and ROM, that could be deal-breakers for some. The Nokia 2 and the Nokia 3, when you look at them closely, look like a mish-mash of sorts: so much so that there seems to be no clear winner: both the phones offer at least one thing that makes it a better buy over the other. As such, it’s important that you — the buyer — weighs in all your options before taking the plunge.
Nokia 3
Priced at Rs 9,499, the Nokia 3 comes with a 5-inch IPS LCD 720p display, a quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor clubbed with 2 gigs of RAM under the hood, and 16GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 128GB via a micro-SD card slot. The phone is backed by a 2,650mAh battery.
On the camera front, the Nokia 3 comes with an 8-megapixel shooter on the back with f/2.0 aperture, autofocus and LED flash. On the front, the Nokia 3 comes with an 8-megapixel camera.
Nokia 2
Priced at 99 euros, the Nokia 2 comes with a 5-inch LTPS LCD 720p display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor clubbed with 1GB of RAM under the hood, and 8GB of internal memory which is further expandable by up to 128GB via a micro-SD card slot. The USP of the Nokia 2, according to HMD, is its 4,100mAh battery that can last for two days on single charge.
On the camera front, the Nokia 2 comes with an 8-megapixel shooter on the back with autofocus and LED flash. On the front, the Nokia 2 comes with a 5-megapixel camera.
Points to remember:
–Both the Nokia 2 and the Nokia 3 boast of a polycarbonate body and an outer frame that is carved out of Aluminum. On the front, the Nokia 2 and the Nokia 3 come with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
–Both the Nokia 2 and the Nokia 3 don’t have a fingerprint scanner.
–The Nokia 2 and the Nokia 3 are dual-SIM phones. The Nokia 3 supports NFC. The Nokia 2 doesn’t.
–The Nokia 3 and the Nokia 2 both run a vanilla version of Android Nougat and will be “pure, secure, and up to date,” according to HMD Global.
–The Nokia 2, although it ships with a massive 4,100mAh battery, the phones doesn’t support fast charging.
