Nokia X30 5G Review – Eco-Friendly Comeback

Nokia X30 5G has been launched in India in a single storage variant. It comes at a price of Rs. 48,999 for 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage.

The phone is available in two different colour options: Cloudy Blue and Ice White. You can buy the phone online directly from the official website of Nokia or from Amazon.

The Nokia X30 5G packs the following items inside the box:

• Handset
• Type-C Cable
• SIM ejector pin
• Quick Start Guide
• Safety Booklet

Before we talk in detail about the Nokia X30 5G, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.43 inches AMOLED
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
• RAM & ROM: 8GB 256GB
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 50MP + 13MP
• Selfie camera: 16 MP
• Battery: 4200 mAh
• Weight: 185 grams
• Dimensions: 158.9 x 73.9 x 7.9 mm

So… it’s a Nokia, right? Must be well built. Jokes apart, Nokia X30 5G comes with an aluminium frame with a polished finish and a plastic back panel with a matte finish. The whole body is made of mostly recycled material and that’s why Nokia calls it the most eco-friendly phone till date.

The phone feels solid and rigid in hands and has a nice feel to it. It does look like a premium phone at first look. I have the white variant with me which gives out an expensive phone vibe and the phone is also available in blue colour.

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The camera unit on the back protrudes a bit and there’s a Nokia branding on the centre of the backside. It’s pretty lightweight and easy to carry, weighing just about 185 grams. On top of that, it comes with an IP67 rating and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. So yea, it is pretty well built.

The right side has a power button along with volume buttons while the left side is clean. The bottom side holds the type-C port, loudspeaker and SIM card slot.

Nokia X30 5G features a dual camera setup on the back which includes a 50MP main camera and a 13MP ultra-wide lens. The front side has a 16MP selfie camera housed inside the punch-hole cutout.

The main camera takes some really good shots in daylight conditions. It captured the details however the images had some colour shift sometimes. The dynamic range was wide and the overall images turned out good.

There’s a night mode to take pictures in low light. The low-light shots turned out nice with good details and nice colours. However, the noise creeps in and the images turn out smudged sometimes.

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The ultra-wide shots were impressive. The 13MP lens manages to capture the details. The images were punchy and definitely usable.

The front camera takes pleasing selfies in outdoor conditions. The images were sharp and skin tones looked natural to me. Detail level was fine and the dynamic range was good. The quality drops as you go indoors.

Nokia X30 5G packs a 4200mAh battery which does not seem like a good option. The phone offers a decent battery backup but it would have been much better with the usual 5000mAh battery which we see nowadays.

Nonetheless, it lasts around a full day of casual use. I still had some juice left while heading to bed to scroll Instagram. But if you are a heavy user, you will definitely need to charge it during the day.

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It comes with 33W fast charging support which is again much slower than what the compression offers. But what’s even more depressing is that you don’t get the adaptor in the box. Wrong path Nokia. Anyways, the 33W fast charger takes about an hour to fully charge the phone. A half an hour charge would take you to around 70 per cent.

Nokia X30 5G features a small and compact FHD+ 6.43 inches AMOLED display. It has a refresh rate of 90Hz and a peak brightness of 700 nits. Well, it’s not the smoothest or brightest display in the segment.

However, it’s good enough for casual use. Anyways you won’t notice much difference between a 90Hz display and a 120Hz display during everyday use. You do get the option to switch between standard and adaptive refresh rates.

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It’s an AMOLED panel, so there’s not much to say about the quality. It produces vibrant and punchy colours. The blacks were deep and the contents on the screen looks sharp. Thanks to the compact screen size, it was perfect for scrolling Instagram reels and one-hand usage.

I watched a couple of videos on YouTube and my viewing experience was good. However, there was no HDR playback support. On the other hand, it comes with Widevine L1 certification so you can watch high-quality content on OTT platforms.

Nokia X30 5G does not do very well in the performance department. I don’t mean it’s bad, it’s just way behind if we compare it to similarly priced phones. The phone is powered by a Snapdragon 695 chipset which we see in phones which are costing less than half of its price.

The processor is paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 2.2 internal storage. Nokia should have used the Snapdragon gen 1 at least if not the latest Gen 2. Nonetheless, the phone runs well in everyday usage. Apps like Instagram and Snapchat run smoothly.

However, don’t expect to run graphic-intensive games on high settings. You can play COD Mobile and Asphalt 9 on low-medium settings to get a playable experience. If you try to play on high settings, you will encounter frame drops and lags.

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Overall, it’s good enough for casual gaming but if you are a hardcore gamer, there are better performing phones in the market for lesser price.

Nokia X30 5G runs on Android 12 with stock UI. Hopefully, the Android 13 update would be coming soon. Nokia promises three years of major OS updates. There is some bloatware in the system but you can uninstall it. Overall, the UI feels simple and easy to navigate.