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Apps do take a little while to load, though, the virtual keyboard often pops-up more slowly. There’s a certain lethargy with which phones of this level of power operate. And you have to flush out storage fairly regularly to stop it from all-but grinding to a halt. To get away from this treacle glaze, consider an upgrade to the excellent Motorola Moto G6 Play.
There’s a slightly surprising side to the Nokia 2.1 performance too, though. It can handle some good-looking games reasonably well. Asphalt 8 is enjoyable at “mid” graphics, just not “high”. The game still looks great at the lower setting.
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Casual games? No problem, as long as you don’t play a title like Egg Inc where small armies of objects end up on the screen as you progress. Storage is the main block to the Nokia 2.1’s hopes as a gaming phone. It just doesn’t have the room for enough stuff.
Nokia 2.1 —Camera The Nokia 2.1 has a basic 8-megapixel rear camera. It offers just what we would expect from a basic sensor. Low-light images are poor, daylight images are barely passable.
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They are fairly low on detail, and dynamic range is fairly poor until you activate HDR. There is an Auto HDR mode, which is a pleasant surprise in a phone with such a basic camera. However, use it and you can see why Nokia decided not to activate it as standard. Shooting speed with standard non-HDR shots is good, but a lengthy pause is introduced whenever you use HDR. This is because all the processing is done in a serial manner. The Nokia 2.1 finishes compiling the HDR image before you can shoot another, where other phones beaver away in the background, letting you carry on shooting.
Is this more-or-less the kind of experience we expected from a phone with bottom-rung camera hardware? Yes. Adjust your expectations similarly. The front camera is feels quick and responsive, but again image quality is not great. Selfies often have a milky quality and fine detail is indistinct. Both cameras can shoot video at up to 1080p, but there’s no software stabilisation so you can add a juddery look to uninspiring image quality.
Nokia 2.1 — Battery life Cameras are clearly not a focus of the Nokia 2.1. Battery life is. The phone has a 4000mAh cell, following the Moto E5 and Moto G6 Play by aiming for two days of real-world use. This is perhaps the best choice Nokia made with this phone. Battery life is excellent. The Nokia 2.1 outlasts almost every phone in every single price class, right up to models ten times the price. Like almost any high-capacity phone, you’ll only get two days’ use if you are not a heavy user, though. I stream a lot of audio, and watch the odd YouTube video.
The Nokia 2.1 lasts around a day and half with this sort of use. There’s no fast charging or, obviously, wireless charging. The Nokia 2.1 is a phone you’ll want to charge overnight. Should I buy the Nokia 2.1? The Nokia 2.1 has a good screen and a large battery, which will last two days for some people. However, it’s only a sensible buy for someone who only uses a couple of apps, and has never experienced a good recent phone.
If you’re buying for a relative still using a feature phone, or an Android so out of date it seems from a different era, the Nokia 2.1 makes sense. However, much as we’re completely on-board with the concept of a mobile “for the basics”, the general sluggish response to actions and extremely limited storage mean it’s still tough to recommend at £100. Fill up the storage and the situation worsens, making the Nokia 2.1 borderline unusable. For just a little more the Moto G6 Play is a radically better phone.
Verdict As keen as we are on affordable phones, the Nokia 2.1’s performance tests your patience too much.
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