Nokia XR20 review: A rugged and reasonably priced mid-range 5G phone Review

Rugged telephones tend to be manufactured by specialist handset makers, and are intended for use in environments exactly where they are probable to get bashed about, dropped or or else mistreated. They may possibly be challenging, but the requirements can be disappointing. Some of us want a telephone which is strong sufficient to cope with challenging use scenarios, with out on the lookout also ‘industrial’ and also packing superior requirements. 

Nokia’s option is the XR20, which also comes with four many years of security updates and three many years of OS upgrades. The entry-stage variant, with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, charges £399.ninety nine. Pay back £50 more and you get 6GB of RAM, when one more £50 adds 128GB of storage. My evaluate device was the best-close 6GB/128GB design, which charges £499.ninety nine. In the US, the value for the best-close design is $549. 

The Nokia XR20 seems relatively outsized, even for a six.67-inch telephone. It steps eighty one.5mm huge by 171.64mm deep by ten.64mm thick and weighs 248g. This extra bulk and heft is down to a thick all-close to bumper, which may possibly not search particularly stylish but is a single of the motives the handset satisfies the MIL-STD 810H ruggedness standard. The screen enjoys defense from Gorilla Glass Victus — the toughest at this time readily available from Corning. Need to it crack within a yr of obtain, Nokia will give a substitution for absolutely free. 

The handset is also IP68 certified, this means that it is ‘dust tight’ and can deal with immersion in 1-3 metres of h2o. In point, Nokia claims on its Nokia XR20 internet sites that “If it receives soiled, you can just clean up it with cleaning soap and h2o”. 

The rubbery backplate has a alternatively wise stippled complete that helps make the telephone rather tactile and should assist men and women with scaled-down, cold or soaked, or gloved fingers.  

The aesthetics may not be good, but Nokia has undoubtedly attempted. The handset comes with both blue (Extremely Blue) or grey (Granite) sides and back. The best edge carries the SIM caddy and a red button identified as the Emergency Vital which can be programmed to call specified contacts. It has limited- and prolonged-press features, and if a single of these is not essential for an unexpected emergency make contact with then choices involve launching applications, toggling the torch, activating factors like Bluetooth or the wireless hotspot, pause/engage in new music and more. It is a helpful characteristic — more telephones should have a single.  

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There is a lanyard slot on the bottom edge of the telephone, just in case you truly feel the will need to tether it, along with a 3.5mm headset jack. On the correct edge the electrical power button incorporates a fingerprint sensor and the volume rocker protrudes so it’s simple to uncover in a pocket or with gloved fingers. The Google Assistant button sits very pleased on the remaining edge for the similar purpose. 

The digital camera lozenge on the back of the chassis protrudes noticeably, and more than is strictly needed. Which is simply because there is a lip all close to its edge, presumably to assist safeguard the lenses from scratching as the telephone tumbles close to in pockets, luggage or where ever else it will have to are living. The lozenge is centrally located, leading to least motion as the screen is prodded when the telephone is sitting down on a desk. 

Rugged telephones slide limited on general performance, and the Nokia XR20 is no exception.  

I pointed out before that the foundation 4GB/64GB design is priced at £399.ninety nine. Which is a rather minimal specification, and my £499.ninety nine 6GB/128GB evaluate device is more in line with present-day expectations. Out of the box, 18GB was presently made use of, leaving 110GB absolutely free. The handset supports two SIMs or a single SIM and a MicroSD card, so storage expansion is readily available so prolonged as you you should not will need to install two SIMs. 

The Snapdragon 480 5G chipset is the similar as identified in the Nokia X20, a non-rugged and more reasonably priced handset. Even though it brings 5G, the fairly minimal-close Snapdragon 480 does not shine as a performer. The Nokia XR20 returned average Geekbench 5 CPU scores of 507 (one main) and 1675 (multi main). This is practically equivalent to the 8GB/128GB Nokia X20 (510 and 1689), and very well adrift of flagship-course telephones, which practically double these scores.

The Nokia XR20 operates on Android 11 and you will find barely anything included to that. The My Apps folder is made up of just four apps: My Cellphone Nokia (a guidance app), Amazon, Spotify and a 30-working day trial of ExpressVPN. Nokia offers three many years of OS upgrades and four many years of security updates. 

The screen is a significant six.67-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 1,080 by two,four hundred pixels (twenty:nine, 395ppi). It is considerably less vivid than an AMOLED, but presents 550 nits of brightness, which should assist with outside viewing. There is a modest central punch-gap for the entrance digital camera and substantial bezels surrounding the screen, which success in a moderate screen-to-physique ratio of seventy six.seven%.  

Nokia says the pair of speakers are ‘extra loud’ and they undoubtedly can make a racket. The good quality isn’t really all that good, though: if you count on your handset to deliver directions when cycling you may possibly uncover the substantial volume practical, but if you are in search of loaded tonality you will be unhappy.  

Although you will find a relatively close affinity among the Nokia X20 and the Nokia XR20, the digital camera set up is different. The X20 has a 32MP huge-angle entrance digital camera, when on the back the digital camera mix is a 64MP huge-angle, 5MP ultra-huge angle, 2MP depth-sensing, and 2MP macro. 

Here we have an 8MP f/two.two entrance digital camera and just two rear cameras — a 48MP f/1.79 huge-angle digital camera and a 13MP f/two.four ultra-huge-angle (123˚) digital camera. The digital camera lozenge is bulked out with a pair of LED flashes. Photos are perfectly enough, but not remarkable in any way. The set up appears to work very well for general snaps, which is all lots of men and women want from their telephone digital camera. Night taking pictures is a little bit of a washout. 

Just one issue rugged handset end users need is superior battery everyday living — hunting close to for mains electrical power or looking for a electrical power pack when you are on a prolonged wander, bicycle journey, or are or else active is a discomfort. The Nokia XR20 is geared up with a four,630mAh battery which isn’t really extra-capacious — 5,000mAh is relatively prevalent these days. The PCMark for Android Work 3. battery life test ran for seventeen hrs and nine minutes in advance of giving up the ghost in my check, the handset missing 28% from a whole charge when streaming three hrs of YouTube movie, which indicates battery everyday living of just under eleven hrs. 

The Nokia XR20 supports 15W wireless charging, but Nokia does not give an adapter for wired charging. This is standard for the company these days — most of us will presently have USB-C bricks, Nokia argues, so why cause environmental problems by supporting the manufacture of yet one more a single? It is a honest stage. Making use of a random charger from my desk drawer, the handset rose to 30% from twenty% right after fifteen minutes, achieving forty one% right after 30 minutes and 51% right after 45 minutes. 

Conclusions 

Nokia has occur up with a good rugged handset listed here: the XR20 should be ready to endure knocks, splashes and drops, and is even supplied with a absolutely free screen substitution for a yr right after obtain. The cameras, general performance and screen may possibly be unremarkable, but the XR20 does supply 5G connectivity, four many years of security updates and practically no program bloat.

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