Nokia C32 – Review

The new budget phone from Nokia, C32, certainly manages to live up to its title, as the 6.5inch handset comes with an octa-core chipset, an IPS display and a 50Mp main camera that seems to be more expensive than it actually is.

Design and build

Nokia has continued with the basic Android plan for the phone, which means it is a rectangle with switches on one side and rounded corners. C32 has a very generic design, so there is not much to say about it. The power button has the fingerprint reader built into it and this is certainly a good option instead of putting it under the screen. The phone is black from the front, but back color choices include green, grey and pink.

The camera bulge is compact and the top of the phone also has a headphone socket. The front and back are toughened glass, while plastic has been used for the sides. This makes it less slippery, easy to hold and it also feels light in the hand.

Screen and speakers

The C32 has 720×1600 resolution, which feels like a step back from 1080p resolutions. But, this is due to the device’s budget nature. While you will not have any complaints, you cannot get the best experience when you view video streams of 1080p resolutions. The display also boasts IPS tech, which is not as good as OLED and AMOLED.

Nonetheless, the screen seems fine in general. The bottom of the phone has a single speaker grille, which gives a good sound for phone calls, but if you want to play music, it is best to use headphones.

Specs and performance

The UnisocSC9863A1 is the octa-core chipset that powers the C32 that boasts 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. There are eight Arm Cortex A55 cores, which is also used in flagship phones because of its efficiency. In terms of performance, the C32 can obviously not match flagship devices and the phone will feel quite slower if you have used devices released in the last few years.

As far as gaming is concerned, the Nokia C32 is certainly not meant for it, unless you aim to play basic 2D games. The phone does come with a microSD card slot for complementing the internal storage, but cards of about 256GB are supported and not more. But, the phone lacks a 5G wireless data connection, NFC support and the Wi-Fi is stuck at Wi-Fi 4.

Cameras

The camera department of the C32 certainly impresses. The back has a 50Mp main camera and there is also a macro camera of 2Mp. The wide-angle camera produces 12.5Mp files that are quite impressive. The low-light capabilities are also good and the shots also have good detail. The rear camera also has 2x digital zoom and it can switch between video recordings of 720p and 1080p. The front selfie camera is 8Mp and the images it produces are decent enough.