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MagyarNokia G11 Plus review - Good camera in a cheap 4G phone
Possible competitors in comparison
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Drive | Size | Resolution | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 77.2 % v7 (old) | 07 / 2023 | Nokia G11 Plus T606, Mali-G57 MP1 | 192 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 6.52" | 1600x720 | |
| 77 % v7 (old) | 04 / 2022 | Nokia G11 T606, Mali-G57 MP1 | 190 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 6.50" | 1600x720 | |
| 79 % v7 (old) | 04 / 2023 | Motorola Moto G13 Helio G85, Mali-G52 MP2 | 183.5 g | 128 GB eMMC Flash | 6.50" | 1600x720 | |
| 75.9 % v7 (old) | 07 / 2023 | Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE Helio G80, Mali-G52 MP2 | 201 g | 64 GB eMMC Flash | 6.60" | 2408x1080 |
Case and equipment - Robust plastic
Like with the Nokia G11, there is a decent-quality, nicely designed plastic cover with a slight wave pattern and clean material transitions. The phone is 2 grams heavier and slightly larger than the predecessor, but it also has a slightly larger screen.
A new feature is the IP52 certification, which at least promises protection against rough dirt and splash water. The phone is built very stably but creaks quietly under pressure or twisting. Gray and blue are available as color options.
The Nokia G11 Plus is optionally available with 3 GB RAM and 32 GB mass storage or 4 GB RAM and 64 GB mass storage. In Central Europe, you can currently almost only get the smaller storage variant, which costs about 150 Euros.
NFC for contactless payment is unfortunately not available, but a microSD slot in addition to the two SIM slots is. In our tests with the reference microSD Angelbird V60, the reader works on the fairly low class level in terms of transfer rates.
| SD Card Reader - average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs) | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE (Angelbird AV Pro V60) | |
| Average of class Smartphone (7.7 - 77, n=80, last 2 years) | |
| Nokia G11 (Angelbird V60) | |
| Motorola Moto G13 (Angelbird V60) | |
| Nokia G11 Plus (Angelbird V60) | |
Cross Platform Disk Test (CPDT)
Communication, software and operation - Stable WLAN in the Nokia phone
The fastest WLAN standard available is WiFi 5, and Nokia's G11 Plus achieves the usual transfer rates of around 300 - 350 MBit/s. These are very stable in our test with the reference router Asus ROG Rapture AXE11000.
5G is still not supported, but that is not unusual for such an inexpensive phone. There are also not many 4G frequencies, so you should check whether the phone can connect to the network in the destination country when you travel further. The Nokia G11 Plus proved to be quite reliable in short tests of the mobile signal during our test, even though it did not reach the reception strength of high-end phones.
It is great that Nokia promises two major operating system updates and three years of security patches for the G11 Plus. However, an update to Android 13 has already been released, so probably only Android 14 will be delivered after that. As always with Nokia, it is quite pure Android, but you have to put up with some advertising apps. Thanks to Widevine L1, streaming content can also be viewed in HD.
Again, there is a 90 Hz screen, which makes the operation much smoother, even though the slow SoC sometimes gets in the way and produces stutters. The fingerprint sensor moved to the back in contrast to the Nokia G11, but still works flawlessly, albeit with a short waiting time when unlocking. Facial recognition only works based on 2D images and is thus susceptible to manipulations, as we already reported.
| Networking | |
| iperf3 transmit AXE11000 | |
| Motorola Moto G13 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
| Nokia G11 Plus | |
| Nokia G11 | |
| iperf3 receive AXE11000 | |
| Motorola Moto G13 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
| Nokia G11 Plus | |
| Nokia G11 | |
Cameras - Significant upgrade
The Nokia G11 Plus comes with a new main camera with 50 megapixels, but in return, the 2-megapixel macro lens that was still available in the Nokia G11 has been dropped. This is not a great loss, because its resolution was so low that it could hardly be used meaningfully. The remaining 2-megapixel camera, which is supposed to provide depth information for portrait photos, hardly adds any value either. Effectively, then, there is one camera on the Nokia G11 Plus that can be used for taking pictures.
Camera can take 50-megapixel shots but only in a special mode; by default, 1/4 of the resolution is used and larger pixels are created for this. While the shot of the plants still looks quite usable, with passable detail sharpness and dynamics for such a cheap phone, a strange yellow haze covers the surroundings shot. However, details are still displayed decently for such an inexpensive phone. In low light, the sharpness decreases significantly and you can hardly recognize anything in dark areas.
Videos can be recorded in a maximum of 1080p and 30 fps. The brightness adjustment works quickly but is visibly graduated. The autofocus needs a bit now and then until a sharp picture is produced again.
The front-facing camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels. Selfies look a bit dim and grainy in magnification, even in good lighting. Furthermore, there is no more drawing in dark areas.
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.
Main cameraMain cameraLowLight
Display - Barely any luminosity
The IPS screen in Nokia's G11 Plus has a resolution of 1,600 x 720 pixels, which is common in the class, but the Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE shows that Full HD is also possible. Unfortunately, Nokia does not install a particularly bright screen. It did not even reach 400 cd/m² in our test with the spectrophotometer and CalMAN software. Thus, outdoor use will probably be difficult, especially on bright days.
We did not notice PWM even at very low brightness, but a blatant bluish cast and the resulting inaccurate color reproduction.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 94 %
Center on Battery: 395 cd/m²
Contrast: 1317:1 (Black: 0.3 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 6.21 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.93
ΔE Greyscale 8.3 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
96.5% sRGB (Calman 2D)
Gamma: 2.639
| Nokia G11 Plus IPS, 1600x720, 6.5" | Nokia G11 IPS, 1600x720, 6.5" | Motorola Moto G13 IPS, 1600x720, 6.5" | Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE PLS, 2408x1080, 6.6" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | -29% | -29% | 27% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 47.7 ? | 48 ? -1% | 48.5 ? -2% | 35.55 ? 25% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 21.8 ? | 34 ? -56% | 33.8 ? -55% | 15.68 ? 28% |
| PWM Frequency | 343500 | |||
| Screen | -2% | 24% | -23% | |
| Brightness middle | 395 | 502 27% | 555 41% | 465 18% |
| Brightness | 385 | 486 26% | 553 44% | 439 14% |
| Brightness Distribution | 94 | 89 -5% | 93 -1% | 89 -5% |
| Black Level * | 0.3 | 0.53 -77% | 0.29 3% | 0.47 -57% |
| Contrast | 1317 | 947 -28% | 1914 45% | 989 -25% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 6.21 | 5.73 8% | 5.17 17% | 8.5 -37% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 10.61 | 8.72 18% | 10.61 -0% | 15.8 -49% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 8.3 | 6.8 18% | 4.5 46% | 11.8 -42% |
| Gamma | 2.639 83% | 2.352 94% | 2.131 103% | 2.2 100% |
| CCT | 7999 81% | 8800 74% | 7380 88% | 10757 60% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -16% /
-7% | -3% /
14% | 2% /
-13% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 21.8 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 10.3 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 11.5 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows good response rates in our tests, but may be too slow for competitive gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 44 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is similar to the average of all tested devices (21 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 47.7 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 24.6 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 23.1 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. » 80 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (33 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM not detected |  | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 17146 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance, emissions and battery life - Stutters in everyday use
The Unisoc T606 was already installed as a SoC in the Nokia G11, and thus it is not surprising that both are on a similar performance level. The performance is quite low according to the price range, and you already have to deal with stutters while navigating the menus, and even simple applications take quite a long time to load.
This is also due to the fact that only slow eMMC flash is used for storage, which is a norm for the price range.
The phone can heat up considerably under a longer load: We measured up to 48.5 °C. That is clearly noticeable. The SoC also throttles slightly when under heavy load: In the 3DMark stress tests, we still measured 95.4% of the performance that was available at the beginning.
Nokia's G11 Plus has a mono speaker on the back, and a small plastic knob prevents the phone from resting completely flat on the table and covering the speaker. However, it can still happen on soft surfaces.
The speaker can get reasonably loud but sounds very treble-heavy, and not very differentiated so that individual instruments can hardly be heard. The 3.5 mm audio port can be used to connect external audio devices or Bluetooth, for which the most necessary codecs are available. With aptX HD and LDAC, there are also some for higher-quality audio transmissions.
The Nokia G11 Plus can only be charged with 10 Watts, whereas the previous Nokia G11 supported 18 watts. Since the battery with 5,000 mAh is still almost as big as in the predecessor, it takes considerably longer time for a full charge, namely up to 3 hours. The G11 Plus lasted 17:18 hours in our Wi-Fi battery test, which should easily last for a day at work, school or university. There is also enough power for a second day if the phone is used sparingly.
| PCMark for Android - Work 3.0 | |
| Average of class Smartphone (4609 - 21385, n=186, last 2 years) | |
| Motorola Moto G13 | |
| Nokia G11 | |
| Nokia G11 Plus | |
| Average UNISOC T606 (6637 - 8303, n=19) | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score | |
| Average of class Smartphone (2228 - 100368, n=197, last 2 years) | |
| Motorola Moto G13 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
| Average UNISOC T606 (2228 - 13455, n=14) | |
| Nokia G11 Plus | |
| Nokia G11 Plus | Nokia G11 | Motorola Moto G13 | Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | Average 32 GB eMMC Flash | Average of class Smartphone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AndroBench 3-5 | -19% | 19% | -12% | -45% | 427% | |
| Sequential Read 256KB | 270.6 | 252.7 -7% | 281.1 4% | 298.69 10% | 242 ? -11% | 1808 ? 568% |
| Sequential Write 256KB | 196 | 187.6 -4% | 244.7 25% | 200.17 2% | 100.5 ? -49% | 1400 ? 614% |
| Random Read 4KB | 81.5 | 48.2 -41% | 99.4 22% | 55.9 -31% | 43.2 ? -47% | 272 ? 234% |
| Random Write 4KB | 77.1 | 59 -23% | 94.9 23% | 55.86 -28% | 22.4 ? -71% | 302 ? 292% |
Temperature
(-) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 48.5 °C / 119 F, compared to the average of 35.1 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 63.2 °C for the class Smartphone.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 46.9 °C / 116 F, compared to the average of 33.9 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 27.2 °C / 81 F, compared to the device average of 32.8 °C / 91 F.
| 3DMark | |
| Wild Life Extreme Stress Test | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
| Wild Life Stress Test Stability | |
| Motorola Moto G13 | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
| Nokia G11 Plus | |
Speaker
Nokia G11 Plus audio analysis
(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (82 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 32.1% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (8% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | higher mids - on average 6.2% higher than median
(±) | linearity of mids is average (10.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(±) | higher highs - on average 6.8% higher than median
(±) | linearity of highs is average (11% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(-) | overall sound is not linear (30.4% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 76% of all tested devices in this class were better, 4% similar, 19% 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%
Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE audio analysis
(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (90.7 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 27.8% lower than median
(+) | bass is linear (4.9% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | reduced mids - on average 7.3% lower than median
(+) | mids are linear (6.4% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(±) | higher highs - on average 9.6% higher than median
(+) | highs are linear (2.5% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (23.5% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 48% of all tested devices in this class were better, 9% similar, 43% worse
» The best had a delta of 12%, average was 37%, worst was 134%
Compared to all devices tested
» 67% of all tested devices were better, 7% similar, 27% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 25%, worst was 134%
Battery life
| Battery Runtime - WiFi Websurfing | |
| Motorola Moto G13 | |
| Nokia G11 | |
| Nokia G11 Plus | |
| Average of class Smartphone (476 - 3244, n=201, last 2 years) | |
| Samsung Galaxy A14 LTE | |
Pros
Cons
Verdict - Camera and software updates are convincing
The Nokia G11 Plus offers a much better main camera than its predecessor, as well as a slightly larger screen. Otherwise, there are no changes compared to the Nokia G11, but there are also some drawbacks: a minimally smaller battery that hardly changes anything in terms of runtime. More annoying are the much slower charging speed and the darker screen.
We like the regular updates for the phone, which are actually delivered monthly and are supposed to continue until 2026. This is a great thing for such a cheap phone. The case is pretty and very sturdy and even has basic protection against splashing water. We also like the pure Android, the stable WLAN connection and the reliable fingerprint sensor.
In terms of performance, you cannot expect much in this price range, and the speaker is also more of a stopgap. At least the most important Bluetooth codecs are available, so you can also connect higher-quality headphones without problems.
Nokia's G11 Plus has a good camera for its price range but saves on charging power and screen brightness.
If the camera is not that important you can also go for the Nokia G11 and save even more. The Samsung Galaxy A14 offers a screen with a much higher resolution.
Price and availability
At the time of testing, the Nokia G11 Plus can be found for around $330 on Internet retailers, for example at Amazon US.
Nokia G11 Plus
-
07/13/2023 v7 (old)
Florian Schmitt
Transparency
The selection of devices to be reviewed is made by our editorial team. The test sample was provided to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or retailer for the purpose of this review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review. We never accept compensation or payment in return for our reviews. As an independent media company, Notebookcheck is not subjected to the authority of manufacturers, retailers or publishers.
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