Nokia is aiming to liberate smartphone users of battery life anxiety with the Nokia 3.2 smartphone which packs in a large 4000 mAh battery and a promised two days worth of battery life. Even power users will get to a day and a half of usage, using the Nokia 3.2 while less demanding users will make it to the promised two day mark. Even with Bluetooth on 24/7 (with the smartphone connected to our Fitbit Versa smartwatch) and almost eight hours of screen on time, we easily made it to a day and a half with more than 20% battery life remaining.
We doubted this claim when first getting our hands on the compact (159.44 x 76.24 x 8.60 mm; 181 g) smartphone. It delivers decent performance, despite boasting specs from the lower end of the midrange including 2 GB worth of DDR3 RAM, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 429 processor. This combo means Android 9 Pie runs relatively smoothly in general usage, though we did notice more than a couple of stutters while multitasking.
With the Nokia 3.2, you get a sizable 6.26″ HD+ a-Si TFT LCD with selfie notch that sports an unremarkable 720 x 1520 (269 PPI) resolution and equally uninspired brightness levels. The latter actually makes the smartphone one of our least favourate mobile phones to use outdoors in direct sunlight, as it makes readability difficult.
Facing the right way to unlock this smartphone’s potential
Also onboard is biometric face unlock which is snappy when it works, which was around two-thirds of the time for us at the start. You do learn to utilise this feature as you go along though, as you eventually realise that you have to hold it at the right angle and distance (about 30 cm – ruler length) away from your face for it to work 90% of the time. Personally, I would prefer a fingerprint sensor on the back of the device, which apparently is a feature you do get on the 32 GB and up versions of this smartphone.
In terms of optics, you get 13 MP rear camera with flash that captures ohk for social networking usage photos in the daylight but paltry images at night or bad lighting conditions. On the front, there is a 5 MP selfie shooter that does double duty for face unlock. It takes average looking selfies.
This phone will make you a cloud storage convert
One disappointing feature of this smartphone is the amount of onboard storage you get, namely 16 GB, which was literally 89% filled up after our Android backup from my previous smartphone (the LG Q60) was restored. If you buy this smartphone, make sure to make the most of Google’s cloud-storage services such as Google Photos and others like Microsoft OneDrive. Or if you can’t be using data for such, utilise the smartphone’s MicroSD card slot that supports cards up to 400 GB in size.
The smartphone will suit those users who want their midrange smartphone to be really affordable and offer good specs for the price. Those who love to use their smartphone a lot but hate to charge it a lot. The Nokia 3.2 offers excellent battery life and a good smartphone experience for buyers in the lower end of the midrange. It goes for an RRP of R2399.
