How much does a smartphone have to cost? The Nokia G60 needs to justify its price

I want to find out how much money I have to spend for a usable smartphone. After my first attempt with the Nokia C12 ended disastrously, the Moto G13 already felt much better. I now want to know what a bigger budget brings to the table. I’m technically bending the rules with the Nokia G60. In September 2022, the smartphone released for a recommended retail price of 349 euros/francs. That’s a big leap from the Moto G13. Now you can get the G60 for about 100 euros/francs less than at launch.

A good display that lacks blacks

The design of the Nokia G60 is kept simple. Small speckles ensure that the back of my black test device isn’t too boring. That bit’s made of 100 per cent recycled plastic, the frame only manages 60 per cent.

On the front there’s a 6.58-inch IPS display. Its frame is wider than those on more expensive smartphones. But with a Full HD+ resolution of 2408 × 1080 pixels and a refresh rate up to 120 hertz, it still keeps up. The brightness is lower at 400 nits, but it’s sufficient even in direct sunlight. And the colours are strong yet natural. Only, black tones look more like grey. OLED displays have a clear advantage here.

Gorilla Glass 5 is used to protect the display. It isn’t the latest generation of shatterproof glass, but it’s still safer than the conventional stuff.

Enough power on board

Nokia equips the G60 with the Snapdragon 695 and provides the chipset with four gigabytes of working memory. The 128-gigabyte internal storage can be expanded with a microSD card. Alternatively, you can insert a second SIM card in its place.

The Snapdragon 695 is capable of 5G and also proves itself a usable mid-range chip in the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G.
In Geekbench 6, it clearly achieves better results than the Helios G85 on the Motorola Moto G13, but unsurprisingly falls short of current top chips like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on the Edge 40 Pro.

The user interface runs smoothly during everyday use and apps launch quickly. Only in some games loading times are a bit longer, so you won’t always be able to select the highest graphics settings. However, slower loading times are only noticeable in a bad way when you start the same app on a more expensive smartphone right next to it.

The battery, with a capacity of 4500 mAh, easily lasts a typical day for me. It accepts up to 20 watts via the USB-C port. It doesn’t charge superfast, but it’s decent. Especially since some pricier devices can’t handle more than 25 watts. An empty G60 battery is fully charged again after about two hours.

Modern standards and a perennial favourite

The Nokia G60 uses several current standards:

• Wi-Fi 6
• Bluetooth 5.1
• NFC (e.g. for mobile payment)
• GPS, Galileo and Beido (for determining location)
• 3.5 mm jack for headphones

The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button. It can be used to unlock the smartphone quickly and reliably.

Three years of updates and only one bloatware app

The Nokia G60 was released with Android 12 in the fall of 2022 and has received an update to Android 13, in the meantime. Nokia wants to deliver two more updates, i.e. until Android 15, and promises monthly security updates until fall 2025. Thus, it receives one more Android update than the Moto G13. However, the smartphone doesn’t reach the five years ordered by the EU as a requirement.

The Android One logo lights up briefly when the G60 is started. A program that no longer exists. But no matter, I’m happy about a smooth, pure Android experience with a tidy interface in the Nokia. Netflix and MyDevice from Nokia are the only additionally installed apps. The streaming service can be deleted directly from the home screen.

Good main and front cameras, only a passable ultra-wide

The Nokia G60 has three cameras on the back and one on the front:

• A 50-megapixel main camera
• A 5-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera
• A 2-megapixel depth sensor
• An 8-megapixel selfie camera

Main camera

The main camera’s colour reproduction looks natural, but could be stronger for my taste. The level of detail is high and ensures a sharp display. Slight artefacts in the corners are only noticeable when viewing an image in its original size.

Ultra wide angle and zoom

The ultra-wide-angle camera exhibits a slight yellow hue. However, strong contrasts don’t seem to be an issue. The software eliminates distortion. However, the low resolution ensures that the level of detail is lacking on larger screens compared to the smartphone display. This is particularly noticeable, for example, at the edges or in the clouds. The main camera offers a sharper picture in direct comparison.

The 2x zoom is exclusively digital. Again, this looks decent on a smartphone screen, but falls apart on larger monitors.

Portrait

My clothes turn out well in Portrait mode. Only at the cuff under my arm is the software slightly confused. I’m unsatisfied with the neckline of my beard and bald head, it all blends together. Even the black, clearly delineated glasses aren’t recognised correctly by the software despite the additional depth of field lens.

Using the Portrait Editor, you can change the level of blur in selfies afterwards. There are also different patterns of distortion to choose from. You can also shift the focus point – if you want the background in focus rather than the person. Aside from flaws around the edge of my body, I like the blur. As long as I don’t overdo it in post-processing, it looks natural.

Nighttime

In the dark, night mode doesn’t just brighten images a bit, but also provides more sharpness. However, the dynamic range is small. In night mode, for example, the lighting above the front door is overexposed. When shooting in Automatic mode, the lamp doesn’t outshine its surroundings.

Night mode does improve the picture, even when using the ultra-wide-angle lens. However, I still wouldn’t use the camera in the dark.

Selfies

The front-facing camera delivers usable selfies. They’re colourful and very detailed considering it’s front facing. However, the HDR can’t compensate for strong contrasts, as can be clearly seen in the overexposed sky.

Portrait mode also provides a blurred background for selfies if desired – only via software, though, no second camera. It still cuts out my head better than Portrait mode on the main camera – but it doesn’t separate me from the background perfectly either.

Verdict: more power and an extra camera

While the Moto G13 fulfils the minimum requirements of a modern smartphone, the Nokia G60 already offers more than just the pure necessities. In most points, it scores slightly better than Motorola’s cheaper smartphone.

Many users won’t need more power than the Nokia G60 provides. The display is nice to look at, but you still have to live with wide edges in this price range. The camera system consists of a good main and front lens. The ultra-wide-angle camera, on the other hand, has a lot of room for improvement. You also have to reckon with poorer image quality in the dark than in pricier smartphones.

The battery life of the G60 is completely fine, only the charging speed could be a bit faster. In terms of software, you can expect the most long-term update promise in this small series of articles so far – a year has nearly passed already, however. All in all, I think the Nokia G60 is okay at its current price. Next, I’ll crack the 300 euro/franc mark with the Samsung Galaxy A34. I’m curious to see how much of a difference it makes.

Header image: Jan Johannsen