Overview Nokia 3.

Nokia 3 runs on Android 7.0 Nougat with a recognizable pure interface, supports 4G communication standard and is available at a low price.

You are reading a review of the Phonearena.com portal, The original material was published on July 24, 2017.

Introduction

Nokia returns to operation. The new company called HMD Global has become the owner of a popular brand and puts big plans for his future, including the release of flagship smartphones with the highest characteristics.

Before the appearance of the flagships, the company released a somewhat more accessible at the price of the models and the cheapest among them is Nokia 3. How does this device differ from other budget devices? To begin with, Nokia offers a clean version of Android and it is important. Nokia 3 works on Android 7.0 Nougat with a recognizable clean interface, supports 4G communication standard and is available at a low price. At the same time there are several drawbacks even by the standards of such a cheap smartphone, such as the lack of the fingerprint scanner. Let's find out if this smartphone has a chance on the crowded market of budget Android devices.

Delivery set

  • Smartphone Nokia 3;
  • Charger 5 V, 1 A;
  • MICROUSB cable;
  • In-ear headphones;
  • SIM card extraction tool;
  • User Manual.

design

If you take into the hands of Nokia 3 I had a couple of years ago, not including the screen would seem, What is the next apparatus of the Finnish manufacturer on the Windows Phone platform. The traits of the past here appear clearly. It is quite good because there are no rounded angles of most modern smartphones, Nokia 3 is more rectangular. It is made of metal, which gives a feeling of a premium device. The back cover is made of plastic, but combined well with the frame. As an additional advantage, you can call the lack of fingerprints on the housing.

The thickness of the smartphone is 8.5 mm, but it is felt thinner and elegant thanks to roundings on the sides.

The front in the upper right corner is located the Nokia logo, below are the three capacitive buttons android. These buttons have no backlight, there is also no LED indicator on the housing.

The main thing, there is no fingerprint scanner. In 2017, this is a strange disadvantage, since the scanner is available at most modern inexpensive Android smartphones. Below is the MicroUSB connector to recharging the device. There are compartments for two SIM cards, MicroSD is installed in a separate compartment on the left side of the housing. There is no protection from water here.

in Nokia 3 is used panel IPS LCD Diagonal 5 inches with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. Low permission is not the main disadvantage of this screen. You can see individual pixels, especially when reading texts, but even worse inaccurate color reproduction. White color has a strong blue tint, the colors are completely unbalanced. By accuracy of color reproduction, this screen can be called the worst for a long time.

The advantage of the display is support for 10 point of touch and oleophobic coating, not all budget smartphones can boast. Also more than good maximum brightness, it is 485 threads, but at the same time there are very many glare on the screen, which makes it difficult to use outdoors. There is no blue color filter, although you can install third-party applications. The minimum brightness is bad and equal to 20 threads, which is too much for viewing in the dark.

Interface and Functionality

As already mentioned, a clean version of Android is used. There are no pre-installed applications, but there are no advantages of third-party shells.

You can also mark the lack of duplicate applications, the Google program is used here. To view images, there is Google photo, there is a calendar for events, Chrome is used by default for websites for Gmail Mail.

There is also a FM Radio here, which works when connecting headphones or external speakers. Disappointing work with Facebook application. The bugs and the slow speed of its work recently are observed on many Android smartphones, but here the program simply hangs when opening the gallery of photos, and the scrolling of the news ribbon slows down.

Keyboard Here is also a stock for Android, it vibrates for a long time with each click, which is more annoying than it helps.

The processor, performance and memory

in terms of performance immediately becomes obvious that Nokia 3 is budget Smartphone. It uses a 4-nuclear processor of the initial level of MediaTek MT6737 on the process of 28 nm, the volume of the RAM 2 GB. This is not the best combination for everyday work.

Navigating on the home screen and pre-installed applications are quite smooth, but it is worth loading third-party applications, the drop in the speed is noticeable.

Another disadvantage is the volume of storage. It is of all 16 GB, which is very little in modern standards. Of these, more than 9 GB are used by the operating system, so about 7 GB remains the user to store photos, applications, video and audio. As a result, many will have to additionally buy microSD memory card.

Internet and communication

By default, the Google Chrome browser is used here, other options are not pre-installed. Chrome for this smartphone is too heavy, peeling is observed, especially if more than one page is open at a time.

4G LTE Communication Standard offers support for FDD-LTE 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 20, and TDD-LTE 38 and 40 frequency bands. There are two slots For SIM cards, Wi-Fi b / g / n, Bluetooth and NFC.

chambers

The rear chamber has a resolution of 8 megapixel and light f / 2.0, front Permission also 8 MP. Double tapping the power button launches the camera app. The app looks extremely outdated, slow, and has strange buttons. At first, it was even difficult to figure out how to record video. There are two shutter buttons next to each other. The small one does not work as a shutter, it opens up two shooting modes, beautification and panorama. Clicking on the video button at the bottom reveals weird big 1x, 2x, 3x buttons. This means the speed of video recording, but not everyone needs such a setting, and it was not necessary to display it on the main screen of the application.

Photo Quality

The camera is slow to focus and because of this, you can miss a lot of the right moments. If the focus can be caught, the photos come out good, but not great. Colors are not bad, although details are often lost and highlights can fade. You can click to change the focus or exposure, but it's best not to try this as you won't like the result.

The front camera is good, but nothing special. Focus is also difficult for her.

Movies can only be recorded at 720p. Even the cheapest smartphones offer 1080p video these days. The quality of the video is simply bad: the detail is extremely low, as if the shooting was carried out by a ten-year-old device. Focus is slow here too, colors are weak. Not happy with the sound quality in the videos.

Sound and media

The only speaker is located at the bottom of the case. It is for this place that everyone is holding the device, so the sound is easily muffled by hand.

The sound quality through the speaker is disappointing. The volume is low, the saturation is weak. The sound has a tinny taste, so even low expectations may not be met. There is a headphone jack on the top.

For images and videos, there is the Google Photos app, which captivates with its interface and basic editing capabilities. You can also back up your content to the cloud here.

Call quality

This setting is fine if you don't expect perfect sound clarity. You can easily understand your interlocutors, but their voices sound a little muffled. The interlocutors will normally hear and understand you.

Battery life

Nokia 3 has a 2650 mAh battery. Testing with the screen on gave a result of 7 hours 47 minutes. That's a little more than the iPhone 7 and a little less than the Galaxy S8.

When used in real life, it was possible to get a full day of work, often a day and a half. It all depends on the load. The charging time is not so pleasing, from zero to 100% the adapter included in the kit was able to charge the smartphone in 3 hours.

Price, alternatives and conclusion

In Europe, Nokia 3 is sold for 140 euros, Yandex-Market shows 9900 rubles. Despite such a low price, it has a lot of competitors. For a slightly higher price, you can get a sleeker Samsung Galaxy A3 2017. It stands out for its design, water-resistant case, better camera and unique Samsung software interface.

There is last year's Moto G4 with a clean version of Android and a more attractive camera. Also notable is the Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime with long battery life, better performance thanks to the Snapdragon 625 processor and better camera.

As a result, we can say that Nokia 3 attracts attention with its appearance, but this pleasant impression is deceptive. Working with a smartphone reveals many shortcomings: it slows down, the speed is weak, the camera does not shoot video well and the screen is unbalanced. If there is an ideal cheap smartphone, it is not Nokia 3.

Pros

  • Price;
  • Good build quality and nice design;
  • Pure Android;
  • microSD card support;
  • Good photo quality.

Cons

  • Poor video quality;
  • Poor screen color with blue tint;
  • Poor performance;
  • Small amount of flash memory.

Evaluation: 6.8