Nokia 4.2 review: Features | Pricing | Specs

Where to buy

The Nokia 4.2 is yet another budget Nokia handset. That's been the play style of HMD Global, the company that holds the right to produce phones under the Nokia branding, for some time now. For its price it's not a bad phone, but it lacks that special something that would make it a compelling option, with slow app performance and mediocre battery life.

Design

• Available in black or pink sand finishes
• Notification button glows
• Google Assistant button inbuilt
• Cheap plastic feel

• Read more on the Nokia 4.2's design

  The Nokia 4.2 follows Nokia's design language quite closely, which means it's sporting an uncomplicated and mostly smooth finish, with your choice of either a traditional black or "pink sand" body. It's the latter I've tested, and while I'm not personally much of a fan of pink tech items for their own sake, it's certainly eye catching, especially for a phone in this price range.

  The Nokia 4.2 measures in at 148.95 x 71.3 x 8.39mm, which at one point would have been a large phone. In 2019 it's almost veering towards small. It features a 5.71 inch display with a relatively low resolution of 720x1,520. It's not unusual for cheaper phones to feature lower resolution displays, but we've seen better at this price point recently.

  Nokia appears to have taken a both-ways bet when it comes to the display on the Nokia 4.2 as well. At the base there's a noticeable jutting bezel, while at the top, a rounded notch covers the front-facing camera. Annoyingly, you can't opt to turn the entire top of the Nokia 4.2 black to obscure the notch if you don't like it. You're stuck with that hefty chin and bulging notch, whether you like it or not. Astonishingly, Nokia refers to the Nokia 4.2 as having an "edge to edge" display, but that's simply not the case for the top and bottom of the phone.

  On the right-hand side of the Nokia 4.2 you'll find volume controls above the power button. Here Nokia has done something I've not seen in a phone in years. The power button lights up when it's charging, but also when you have an incoming notification to attend to. For folks with OCD this may increase the quantity of time you spend on your phone. For folks who sleep with their phone at their bedside, you may find the light distracting, although you can opt to switch it off if it truly annoys.

  On the right-hand side of the Nokia 4.2 you'll find a dedicated Google Assistant button. I'm not a huge fan of these single-purpose buttons, but at least Google Assistant has plenty of flexibility, unlike Samsung's Bixby.

  The rear of the phone houses the camera array, with just a small raised area for protection, above the fingerprint sensor. At this price point a fingerprint sensor still isn't an automatically assumed inclusion, so it's nice to see it here. You do also get a standard headphone jack, located at the top of the phone, as well as charging via micro USB.

  I've spent the past couple of weeks getting used to the Nokia 4.2's design, and while it's functionally fine, it's nothing more than that. Some of Nokia's prodigious output of phones has included models that genuinely felt premium, but the Nokia 4.2 never felt like anything but cheap plastic.

Camera

• Dual 13MP/2MP rear sensors
• Adequate but never great photography
• Very simple camera app

• Read more on the Nokia 4.2's camera

  If you want premium photo quality out of Nokia... well, that's what the Nokia 9 Pureview is for, really. The Nokia 4.2 never really strays outside what I'd expect from a budget 2019 handset in photographic terms.

  At the rear, it houses a primary 13MP f/2.2 sensor, paired up with a 2MP f/2.2 secondary lens. As is the style for so many dual lens budget cameras, that secondary sensor is simply there to help with bokeh-style effects. In the case of the Nokia 4.2, this incorporates a live bokeh effect, although it's one that's often extremely artificial in real world situations.

  However, there's a bigger problem with the Nokia 4.2's camera and it's one that hits the rest of the phone's operation as well. It's simply not that quick and this extends to when you want to quickly take a snapshot with a rapid double press of the power button. More than once I missed a shot while the Nokia 4.2 languidly launched the camera app during testing.

  The Nokia 4.2's camera app is at least simple to use, with just a few shooting modes for standard photos and videos to contend with. If you're not a fan of complex shooting choices, it's entirely adequate for the price Nokia's asking, but nothing more.

  Nokia 4.2 sample photos

  

  

  

  

  

  

Performance

• Snapdragon 439 isn't impressive
• Android One gives some room for improvement
• Very close to stock Android

• Read more on the Nokia 4.2's performance

  The Nokia 4.2 is a budget handset and that means it's running on quite a low-end platform. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 that runs underneath the display isn't high-end in any way, and even the fact that we get the 3GB RAM model here in Australia doesn't do much to improve matters. It does mean you'd want to be careful buying one internationally, as there's a 2GB model as well that's likely to be even slower.

  Slow is the name of the game here. Here's how the Nokia 4.2 compares against a range of similarly priced handsets using Geekbench 4's CPU test:

  It's an even less compelling story when you look at 3D performance benchmarks, although that's very common for budget handsets across the board:

  Outside the benchmark world, the Nokia 4.2 is a slow and mostly unexciting handset. However, there's a little room for improvement here because like the rest of Nokia's output, it's an Android One phone.

  What that means is the software updates are essentially handled by Google, with guaranteed updates for at least the next couple of versions of Android. It's a big problem for Android phones generally, and HMD Global, to its credit, has been generally very prompt in getting new versions onto its many phones. The Nokia 4.2 could improve under Android Q or Android R when they appear, but for now it's a rather poky proposition.

  Android One is also a double edged proposition for the Nokia 4.2, because it means it runs a basically vanilla Android installation. That's great if you want to tinker and can put up with the speed issues, but it equally means that there's no software on board to differentiate it from any other Nokia phone you could name.

Battery life

• 3,000mAh battery provides mediocre battery life
• microUSB charging feels very old school at this point

• Read more on the Nokia 4.2's battery life

  Low-end phones can differentiate themselves by offering better battery life, if only because those slower processors are typically less power-hungry than mid-range or premium models.

  Sadly, that just isn't the case for the Nokia 4.2. Its benchmarked performance, and indeed its day-to-day battery life, just isn't that special, despite its fixed 3,000mAh battery.

  Here's how it compares using Geekbench 4's battery test:

  From a practical viewpoint, the Nokia 4.2 can last through a day's usage, but only if you're somewhat prudent with it. To exacerbate matters, it's stuck with the older microUSB standard for charging, presumably again to keep the costs down, which means it's a little trickier to plug in when it does need a battery boost.

Verdict

• An average phone, and Nokia isn't exactly short of those
• Even in the budget space there are better options

• Read our full Nokia 4.2 verdict

  The pace at which Nokia pumps out new handsets is quite remarkable, but it rather inevitably does leave the market rather stuffed with options to buy.

  If Nokia was only announcing a few phones a year, the Nokia 4.2 might seem remarkable within the budget space.

  However, it doesn't do that and that means a phone with middling performance and mediocre battery life really will fail to stand out. Outside that nice pink sand colour, there's really not a lot to get excited about here.

  Alternatives

  While it's nowhere near as flashy as the pink sand Nokia 4.2, our pick of the budget range phones at the moment has to be the Motorola Moto G7 Power, thanks to its amazing battery life.

  If you're after a phone with a sense of style and dual lens operation, the Oppo AX7 is a good choice at a similar price point to that of the Nokia 4.2.

  If you're after Nokia style specifically, consider the Nokia 2.1, a phone that's somewhat cheaper than the Nokia 4.2, but arguably a little better looking too.

Pricing and availability

• Price: RRP $299
• Where to buy: Amazon | Kogan

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Specifications

Display

Display Size

5.71 inches

Resolution

720 x 1520px

Pixels per inch (PPI)

270 ppi

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Camera

Rear camera megapixels

13MP + 2MP

Rear camera aperture size

f/2.2 + f/2.2

Video recording

N/A

Front camera megapixels

8MP

Front camera aperture size

f/2.0

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Physical Dimensions

Dimensions

148.95mm x 71.3mm x 8.39mm

Weight

161g

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Connectivity

NFC

No

Wi-Fi

802.11 b/g/n

Network category speed

Category 4

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Power, storage and battery

Processor

Snapdragon 439

RAM

2GB/3GB

Operating system

Android 9

Internal storage

16GB, 32GB

External storage support

Up to 400GB

Battery capacity

3,000mAh

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Device features

Headphone jack

Yes

Fingerprint sensor

Yes

Water resistance rating

N/A

Wireless charging

No

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