Nokia G21 now available from KES 20,000; Should you get it?

Dickson Otieno April 1, 2022

1 1 minute read

HMD Global recently announced it would be steering clear of flagships for a while. That means they will be focusing on the mid-range and budget smartphone segment (while also making good budget tablets). In that regard, the company has today announced the availability of the Nokia G21 in the Kenyan market.

Pricing and availability:

The phone will come in two variants with pricing as follows:

KES 19,999 for 4GB RAM and 64GB storage
KES 21,999 for 4GB RAM and 128GB storage

The phone will be available across the following outlets:

Safaricom Shops
Nokia Dealer shops
M-Kopa device financing
Open channel market

The Nokia G21 is now available in the Kenyan market. It comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC storage for KES 20,000. Should you buy it?

Announced in February of 2022, the Nokia G21 comes with a 90Hz 6.5-inch 720p panel supporting 90Hz refresh rate. It runs Android 11 out of the box (Android 12 Update promised), and is powered by the entry-level 12nm Unisoc T606 processor.

It has a glass front and a plastic frame and back. The battery is huge with a 5050mAh rating, supporting 18W charing with USB Power Delivery 3.0 supported over the Type-C port.

The storage technology used is eMMC 5.1 instead of the faster UFS storage which we see on most phones nowadays. Which considering the processor, would mean performance may not be at par with competing devices of the same price range.

There’s a triple camera setup including a 50 MP main sensor and two 2MP sensors for macro shots and depth mapping. The selfie camera is 8MP.

Nokia G21 now available from KES 20,000; Should you get it?

At its price point, it is competing with the REDMI NOTE 11 base version – which we already said is really good, and many other offerings from TECNO, Infinix and OPPO. For example, the TECNO Camon 18 base version, the Infinix NOTE 11i, and others. Or even the Samsung A-series.

Given its specs, and the tech inside, I feel it would be a really good offering for a little less asking price. However, there are key things like HMD’s promise of three years of monthly security updates, and two years of system updates, which would attract people to the device as compared to the competition.

What are your thoughts?