The Nokia G42 5G is user-repairable – at least the battery and some parts, and has a great warranty and OS/Security Patch policy.
But at $449, it offers little more than a more mainstream Qualcomm SD480+ SoC over the UniSoc T606 found in its $349 Nokia G22 – DIY repairable. Motorola has the $329 G53, $399 G62, and $449 G42 that all meet or exceed the Nokia G42. As we often say of Nokia, if you ignore the price and accept that you pay more for the Volvo of the smartphone world, it is a decent handset.
What is user-repairable?
Nokia and iFixit Australia have spare parts, including the tools and screen ($94.99), charge port ($44.99), nokia smartphone battery ($52.99) and rear cover ($52.99), that are user-replaceable. Interestingly, it promotes its 800-charge cycle battery (and still takes an 80% charge), which lasts about 60% longer than the 500-cycle batteries used on lower-cost smartphones. You are going to get 4-5 years out of it anyway.
iFixit also has agreements with Google and Samsung for selected model parts, and it is a move we applaud that needs to go so much further.Deep-Dive review format
It is now in two parts – a summary (the first) and a separate 300+ line database-driven spec, including over 70 tests to back up the findings. It also helps us compare different phones and features.
We use Fail (below expectations), Passable (meets low expectations), Pass (meets expectations), Pass+ (near Exceed but not class-leading) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. These are based on the price bracket as well. You can click on most images for an enlargement.
* Grey market – no Australian warranty, and 5G won’t work
We strongly advise you to buy a genuine model with Australian firmware. It is easy to identify the Australian version – under Settings>System>Certification, there is an Australian RNZ C-tick mark. There is also an RNZ C-Tick on the box. They use unique Australian 5G sub-6Ghz and 5G low-band frequencies, requiring local activation first. Read Don’t Buy a Grey Market Phone (guide)First Impression – Pass
Nokia has a sustainability push – a large part of the frame and back is made from recycled plastic. While we appreciate the effort, our research shows that consumers generally won’t pay more for that when buying. Why? Sustainable practices are expected now!
It looks well-made, has a three-year warranty, and can be repaired. But under the hood is a basic Qualcomm SD480+ four-cylinder, naturally aspirated motor. That has long been superseded by the SD4 Gen 1 and Gen 2. Some in this price bracket use SD690/695 5G SoC and offer 1080p screens.
Regardless, everything is fit for purpose, provided you remember this is an entry-level device at an above-entry-level price.
Screen – 6.5”, 1600 x 720, 60/90Hz IPS LCD – Pass
Nokia claims 560nits peak brightness, but the reality is that typical brightness is a maximum of 389 nits and a peak of 490nits in 2% of the screen when playing video. It has quite a low contrast of 990:1, meaning blacks are more greys. It has a distinct blue cast, but you can adjust that with the white balance slider. Colours are inaccurate at a Delta E of >6 (<4 is good).
Gorilla Glass 3 offers some scratch protection. The selfie camera uses the older style ‘notch’.
It is not for gamers – 35ms GtG and the Qualcomm SoC just don’t cut it.
Summary: It is not a bad screen, but you can get 1080p screens for similar money.
Processor – Qualcomm SD480 Plus – Pass
It is an 8nm chip with two fast cores and six slow ones. Performance as a phone is reasonable. You only see lag when you have too many Apps open.
The 6/128GB is standard for this category, and it is nice to have a hybrid (shared with SIM 2) microSD slot to 1TB.
It does not Throttle under load (good), but it gets a tad warm at 44° – not an issue. USB-C 2.0 allows OTG cut and paste to external flash and SSD drives to 1TB.Comms – Pass
Nokia claims it is Wi-Fi 6 AX ready – it is not. The SoC supports a maximum of Wi-Fi 5 AC and 433Mbps half-duplex data transfer rates. It holds a 433Mbps Wi-Fi signal up to 10m from the router.
The dual-band GPS is accurate to 3m, so it should be fine for in-car navigation.
USB-C 2.0 does not support audio/video/data streams, so the only way to show a screen on a TV is via casting.
NFC is standard in this category.
4/5G – Pretty good – Pass+
Qualcomm knows how to make 5G modems, so much so that Apple use them instead of its own. This gets a strong, usable signal on the closest four towers. It is suitable for the city, suburb, and regional use with reasonable tower coverage. It may not be ideal for rural use. It has a dual hybrid SIM.
nokia smartphone battery– Pass+
Nokia claims 800 full recharge cycles and will still hold 80% charge – far better than Samsung et al., which use 300-500 cycleSamsung batteries. Ironically, the QuickFix program has a battery you will probably never need.
It does not come with a charger. Nokia claims it can charge at 20W, but tests with several third-pa
rty USB-C PD, QC and PPS chargers only get 5V/3A/15W for the first 30% of charge, then fall back to 5V/2A/10W when the charge remains.
Test (adaptive screen)
Charging: 15W 2 hours 20 minutes fast charging and 10W 2 hours 45 minutes
1080p video 50% volume/brightness, airplane mode: 17 hours 21 minutes (slightly lower than expected)
PC Mark 3 battery life: 17 hours, 9 minutes
Battery life: 17 hours and 49 minutes
GFX Bench T-Rex (simple game): 7.6 hours
Power consumption at 100% load: 6 hours and 44 minutes
mA full load: 1350-1450 (slightly higher)
mA idle: 500-550 (slightly higher)
A typical user should have two days. Nokia shouldn’t make a 20W charging requirement unless it provides a suitable charger.
Speakers – Mono – OK
A single amplifier is used for either the top earpiece (phone) or the bottom speaker (music or hands-free). Applies to clear speech only. There are no equalizers or presets. The maximum volume is about 80 decibels.
BT 5.1 has a suite of codecs including SBC, AC, LDAC, aptX, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive. That means up to 24-bit, 96000Hz. Left/right stereo headphone separation is excellent.
BUILD – REPAIRABLE – PASS+
Some phones, like Apple’s, are built from the screen down – which can be removed to reveal the internals. Nokia uses a back cover – remove it to access things. It’s much better and protects fragile screens.
It’s QuickFix (mentioned earlier), so it’s nice to know you can get the major parts when you need them.
It measures 165 x 75.8 x 8.55 mm x 193.8 g, and the back and frame are made from a high proportion of recycled plastic. It has an IP52 rating and can withstand light rain.
Perhaps its most striking feature is the color – so pink, so purple and so grey.
We repeat, the phone doesn’t come with a charger, and a 33W charger (up to 11V/3A/33W) costs $33.95.
Operating System – Android 13 – Pass+
Nokia uses pure Android 13 and will upgrade to 15. Has three years of security patch updates. Coupled with the 2-year warranty, it can be a keeper.
To make money, it has succumbed to installing bloatware Booking.com, Express VPN, GoPro Quik, Linkedin, Netflix, Quickstep and Spotify.
Security is provided via a fingerprint sensor on the power button. Face ID is two-dimensional—not very secure.
Nokia G42 5g camera – pass, maybe more
It uses a 50MP bin to 12.5MP Samsung GN5 sensor – a ubiquitous sensor in this price range. There is a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro. In other words, one sensor does it all. The video is up to 1080p@30fps, any AI processing is straight “Qualcomm”, HDR and night shots take a few seconds.
The selfie was taken by an 8MP Hynix Hi846 – adequate, but nothing special.