Nokia G10 smartphone review - Sustainable cell phone for little money?
Possible competitors in comparison
Rating | Rating Version | Date | Model | Weight | Drive | Size | Resolution | Price from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 76.3 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 05 / 2021 | Nokia G10 Helio G25, PowerVR GE8320 | 197 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 6.50" | 1600x720 | |
| 77.3 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 04 / 2021 | Motorola Moto G10 SD 460, Adreno 610 | 200 g | 64 GB eMMC Flash | 6.50" | 1600x720 | |
| 72.5 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 03 / 2021 | Samsung Galaxy A02s SD 450, Adreno 506 | 196 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 6.50" | 1600x720 | |
| 78 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 01 / 2021 | Xiaomi Poco M3 SD 662, Adreno 610 | 198 g | 128 GB UFS 2.2 Flash | 6.53" | 2340x1080 |
Case, equipment and operation - Crackling in the chassis
Nokia wants its customers to keep their smartphones a bit longer, in the first smartphone of the new generation, the Nokia X20, this should be ensured by a three-year warranty. This is to protect the environment. The X20 but a biodegradable protective cover was included.
The Nokia G10 is now considerably cheaper than the X20it costs 139 Euros. And you can see that the air for such thoughts is much thinner here: There is only a 24-month warranty and the package content of the Nokia G10 presents itself like many other entry-level smartphones including a charger. There is even a headset included. We think: Nokia could have left that out, for example, if they really care so much about reducing the number of electronic accessories. At least the manufacturer wants to guarantee monthly security updates, and the smartphone is part of Google's Android-One program.
The casing is made of plastic, but it is quite sturdy and compact. However, it cracks audibly in the camera area when twisting. There are two Nordic sky-inspired colors to choose from: A dark blue and a delicate purple.
You cannot find NFC in Nokia's entry-level phone, and you also have to make do with WiFi 4 Motorola Moto G10 offers much more. Space is also a bit tight with 32 GB of mass storage. The slow Wi-Fi is also seen in our review with the reference router Netgear Nighthawk AX12. At least there are no such serious problems as with the Samsung Galaxy A02s.
| Cross Platform Disk Test (CPDT) | |
| SDCard Sequential Read 0.5 GB | |
| Average of class Smartphone (36.9 - 1269, n=77, last 2 years) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| SDCard Sequential Write 0.5 GB | |
| Average of class Smartphone (11.4 - 49.7, n=77, last 2 years) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
Cross Platform Disk Test (CPDT)
| Networking | |
| iperf3 transmit AX12 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Motorola Moto G10 | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A02s | |
| iperf3 receive AX12 | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Motorola Moto G10 | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A02s | |
Cameras - Standard equipment on the Nokia G10
On the back of the smartphone, as usual for inexpensive devices, a main camera, a macro lens and a lens that provides additional data for blur effects in portraits are found
The main camera in Nokia's G10 has a resolution of 13 megapixels. That seems to be better in comparison to the Moto G10 which has a 48-megapixel lens. However, the Motorola Moto G10 only takes 12-megapixel pictures by default, since four pixels are combined into one to achieve a higher light yield. The option to also take 48-megapixel pictures naturally gives the competition a bit more flexibility, though.
In normal light, the main camera takes decent pictures that lack a bit of sharpness in detail. Lens edges look unclean from time to time. The brightness is quite good in low light, but the sharpness decreases considerably here. Videos can be recorded in 1080p and 30 fps at most.
The front-facing camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels. It takes solid selfies, but you should not enlarge them too much.
Image Comparison
Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.
Hauptkamera BlumeHauptkamera UmgebungHauptkamera Low Light
Display - HD screen in Nokia phone
The IPS display shows an expanded 720p resolution and is thus on par with the comparison devices. However, the Poco M3also shows that a Full HD display is possible at this price level.
The screen of Nokia's G10 can shine quite brightly and you should be able to cope with it outdoors when the sun is not shining directly on the display. The black level and contrast are also good. We did not notice PWM, or at such a high frequency that it should not be perceptible.
In terms of color reproduction, the CalMAN software helps us determine the test rates. Nokia's G10 is on a medium level here: While grayscale hardly shows any deviations and at most a minimal bluish cast, some blue tones are overemphasized.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 89 %
Center on Battery: 485 cd/m²
Contrast: 2425:1 (Black: 0.2 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 3.61 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.91
ΔE Greyscale 2.1 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
93.4% sRGB (Calman 2D)
Gamma: 2.195
| Nokia G10 IPS, 1600x720, 6.5" | Motorola Moto G10 IPS, 1600x720, 6.5" | Samsung Galaxy A02s PLS, 1600x720, 6.5" | Xiaomi Poco M3 IPS, 2340x1080, 6.5" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | -14% | 30% | -13% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 66 ? | 67 ? -2% | 48 ? 27% | 44 ? 33% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 38 ? | 48 ? -26% | 26 ? 32% | 28 ? 26% |
| PWM Frequency | 100000 | 893 ? -99% | ||
| Screen | -20% | -53% | 9% | |
| Brightness middle | 485 | 359 -26% | 482 -1% | 465 -4% |
| Brightness | 458 | 347 -24% | 460 0% | 428 -7% |
| Brightness Distribution | 89 | 95 7% | 92 3% | 89 0% |
| Black Level * | 0.2 | 0.18 10% | 0.44 -120% | 0.21 -5% |
| Contrast | 2425 | 1994 -18% | 1095 -55% | 2214 -9% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 3.61 | 4.89 -35% | 5.52 -53% | 1.7 53% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 8.32 | 8.13 2% | 7.78 6% | 3.5 58% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.1 | 3.7 -76% | 6.3 -200% | 2.4 -14% |
| Gamma | 2.195 100% | 2.292 96% | 2.54 87% | 2.16 102% |
| CCT | 6850 95% | 7462 87% | 7882 82% | 6664 98% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -17% /
-19% | -12% /
-36% | -2% /
3% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 38 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 21 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 17 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 95 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (20.9 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 66 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 37 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 29 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.165 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 98 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (32.8 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM detected | 100000 Hz |  | |
The display backlight flickers at 100000 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) . The frequency of 100000 Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 8705 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 343500) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance, emissions and battery life - Charging takes time
With the Helio G25 from MediaTek, the Nokia G10 has a suitable SoC that cannot quite keep up with all current smartphones in the price range. You rather get average performance that is sufficient for everyday use, but as soon as you demand a bit more from the smartphone, you sometimes have to wait a bit longer.
In return, the heating on the surface is quite low, which pays off especially on hot summer days. The small mono speaker on the bottom edge does not get that loud and hardly offers low frequencies in its sound image. Accordingly, voices and vocals sound very thin, and the speaker is not really fun to listen to. The sound output via 3.5 mm jack and Bluetooth compensates for that with clean sound.
The large 5,050 mAh battery (battery ) lasts for almost 18 hours in our Wi-Fi test. That is ample and should easily last for several days. However, it is best to charge the smartphone overnight, because the charging power of only 5 Watts is very low and it sometimes takes well over 2 hours until the smartphone is full again.
| PCMark for Android | |
| Work 3.0 (sort by value) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio G25 (5329 - 5405, n=2) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (4609 - 27169, n=197, last 2 years) | |
| Work 2.0 performance score (sort by value) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Motorola Moto G10 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A02s | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio G25 (4938 - 5296, n=6) | |
| GFXBench | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Motorola Moto G10 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A02s | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio G25 (1.5 - 7.9, n=6) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (3.6 - 247, n=208, last 2 years) | |
| 1920x1080 Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Motorola Moto G10 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A02s | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio G25 (3.6 - 7.4, n=6) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (2.3 - 321, n=208, last 2 years) | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins High Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Motorola Moto G10 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A02s | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio G25 (2.1 - 4.8, n=6) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (0.85 - 144, n=208, last 2 years) | |
| 2560x1440 Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Nokia G10 | |
| Motorola Moto G10 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A02s | |
| Xiaomi Poco M3 | |
| Average Mediatek Helio G25 (1.4 - 1.4, n=6) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (0.85 - 115, n=208, last 2 years) | |
| Nokia G10 | Motorola Moto G10 | Samsung Galaxy A02s | Xiaomi Poco M3 | Average 32 GB eMMC Flash | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AndroBench 3-5 | 117% | 112% | 285% | -2% | 949% | |
| Sequential Read 256KB | 245.6 | 295.9 20% | 299 22% | 509 107% | 242 ? -1% | 1887 ? 668% |
| Sequential Write 256KB | 120 | 172.4 44% | 103.9 -13% | 269.2 124% | 100.5 ? -16% | 1474 ? 1128% |
| Random Read 4KB | 43.6 | 123 182% | 84.8 94% | 147 237% | 43.2 ? -1% | 279 ? 540% |
| Random Write 4KB | 20 | 64.5 223% | 88.5 343% | 154.1 671% | 22.4 ? 12% | 312 ? 1460% |
Temperature
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 38.4 °C / 101 F, compared to the average of 35.1 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 63.7 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 38.7 °C / 102 F, compared to the average of 33.9 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 27.5 °C / 82 F, compared to the device average of 32.8 °C / 91 F.
Loudspeaker
Nokia G10 audio analysis
(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (78.6 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 35.7% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (10.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | higher mids - on average 6.9% higher than median
(±) | linearity of mids is average (8.7% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(±) | higher highs - on average 6.8% higher than median
(+) | highs are linear (6.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(-) | overall sound is not linear (30% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 76% of all tested devices in this class were better, 4% similar, 20% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 37%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 87% of all tested devices were better, 3% similar, 10% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Motorola Moto G10 audio analysis
(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (81 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 64.4% lower than median
(+) | bass is linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(-) | nearly no mids - on average 64.4% lower than median
(+) | mids are linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(-) | nearly no highs - on average 64.4% lower than median
(+) | highs are linear (0% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(-) | overall sound is not linear (119.2% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 87% of all tested devices in this class were better, 9% similar, 4% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 37%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 96% of all tested devices were better, 3% similar, 1% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Battery life
| Nokia G10 5050 mAh | Motorola Moto G10 5000 mAh | Samsung Galaxy A02s 5000 mAh | Xiaomi Poco M3 6000 mAh | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | |||||
| WiFi Websurfing | 1068 | 1038 -3% | 1201 12% | 1249 17% | 989 ? -7% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict - Inexpensive yes, sustainable well
Nokia's G10 is an inexpensive smartphone and the manufacturer does not have much room to offer expensive warranty extensions or unusual accessories. The manufacturer apparently does not trust price-sensitive customers to accept a missing charger, but Nokia could have at least dispensed with the plastic headset in favor of the environment when advertising sustainability.
The smartphone proves to be solidly built and if the manufacturer keeps its monthly update promise for 3 years, then Nokia's G10 has something ahead of other inexpensive smartphones. There are better competitors in terms of features: Nokia's smartphone has to do without NFC or fast Wi-Fi 5, and the tight memory is not really up-to-date anymore.
Nokia's G10 is an inexpensive smartphone, as you often find them, even better equipped elsewhere. It can only really stand out with its update promise.
Camera and runtimes are overall convincing for the price range, but you have to deal with long charging times.
Overall, Nokia's G10 is a solid entry-level smartphone, but the best price-performance ratio can be found elsewhere due to the weak configuration.
Price and availability
The Nokia G10 is available from the manufacturer at the time of the review for about 139 Euros. Numerous online stores also sell the smartphone in the meantime, for example Cyberport or Amazon.
Nokia G10
- 05/22/2021 v7 (old)
Florian Schmitt
Price comparison
