Best Nokia phone 2023

The Nokia X30 is the best Nokia phone you can buy in 2023 and is a huge improvement over the already-pretty-good X20. For a competitive £399/€499, it’s well worth a look thanks to impressive cameras, a sturdy design and three-year warranty.

HMD has leant into making the cameras the focus (ha) of the X series and it really shows here. The X30 punches well about its price bracket when it comes to photography, particularly in low light where it truly excels.

That’s largely thanks to a solid 50Mp main camera sensor and some clever software such as a good night mode and what HMD brands ‘Capture Fusion’, where both the main and ultra-wide lenses take a shot of the scene and fuse them together to make one hopefully better image.

The phone comfortably lasts all day and has 33W fast charging, though there’s no charger in the box. HMD has done this to save on e-waste, an outlook which is reflected in the company’s Circular scheme where you can effectively rent the X30 (and other phones) on a pay monthly basis.

The Nokia 8.3 5G’s large 6.81in FHD+ display, clean build of Android and Zeiss camera setup are standout inclusions, alongside its signature wide 5G band support.

The main 64Mp Zeiss-engineered snapper is a big improvement on other recent implementations within the Nokia family and a dedicated Cinema video mode allows you to shoot video in up to 4K@30fps in 21:9, with optional H-Log capabilities.

Couple that with two years of Android OS updates and all-day battery life, and you’ve got a great Nokia experience on your hands.

The Nokia XR20 hopes to embody the brand’s legendary reputation for build quality, with a reinforced exterior that comes backed up by a year’s free screen replacement and an extended three-year warranty, for extra peace of mind.

Beneath that well-protected exterior, it offers similar internal hardware to the Nokia X10; with a Snapdragon 480 chipset and a 48Mp primary camera. Battery life is some of the best around, however, which, for some, may be enough of a reason to buy a phone in its own right.

Other standout features include 5G, a headphone jack and Nokia’s characteristically easy-to-use Android user experience.

Not unlike the XR20 at its core, the Nokia X20 instead opts for more elegant aesthetics and superior cameras to set itself apart.

As you might expect, the phone comes with stock Android, three years of OS updates and superb battery life; topped off with a three-year warranty.

Performance is the X20’s biggest shortcoming, however.

This is the first Nokia phone to take a leaf out of Fairphone’s book and release a truly repairable modern smartphone in the 2020s. The Nokia G22 has replaceable parts and a full repair kit and components are available to buy should you need a new screen, battery, or camera, amongst other bits.

It’s a very affordable phone, which adds to the attraction. It looks more expensive than its price tag suggests, has great battery life, and a nice and simple version of Android without too much changed for the sake of it.

But at this price there is a deal of compromise with a subpar screen and bad performance, but worst of all only two years of guaranteed software support. For a phone that’s sold with a promise of physical repairability, Nokia has shot itself in the foot by not supporting the phone past Android 14 or security updates beyond 2024. It’s an annoying contradiction because the world needs more repairable phones. This one is not bad, but it could have been better.

There’s no getting around the fact that the Nokia 3310 is a play for nostalgia, and how much you care will depend on how much affection you have for the Nokia bricks of old.

It’s not going to replace your smartphone (nor does it try to) but it can serve as a cheap supplement (although the SIM size is annoying). And yeah, you can already buy other feature phones for cheaper, but between the epic battery life and the sheer Nokia factor (including Snake!) we know where our loyalties lie.

The Nokia 7.2 is an affordable phone focused on design, offering a rather unique build when compared to most of the smooth, rounded smartphones on the market.

With much more prominent angles, the Nokia 7.2 stands out, and the light refracting glass on the rear does a good job at providing a premium look.

The internals are fairly standard for the price; boasting a Snapdragon 660 alongside either 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and the performance reflects this.

Nokia wanted the Zeiss-manufactured lenses to be the star of the show but we’ve found the camera setup to be hit-and-miss, with great performance from the 48Mp sensor but disappointing results from the ultrawide camera by comparison.

Like all of Nokia’s affordable offerings, buy the G20 for the easy-to-use software and long-term update support, as well as some worthwhile build quality.

Beyond that, the G20 is nothing to write home about, with underwhelming processing and camera performance that, for the price, we didn’t expect.

The Nokia 5.3 offers a lot for a phone at its price point. The main camera produces clear and sharp images, with very vivid colours, plus the 4000mAh battery doesn’t disappoint, with around a day and a half’s worth of usage per charge. 

But at this price, compromises have to be made. The downsides of 5.3 include poor-quality speakers, a relatively low-resolution screen and the secondary cameras downgrade the quality of images significantly. 

If you use your phone for watching lots of videos, the Nokia 5.3 probably isn’t for you. If, however, you’re looking for a cheaper phone that does the basics well, then there’s no harm in keeping the 5.3 in mind.

The Nokia 3.4’s affordability is best felt in its surprisingly-capable camera setup, its decent 6.39in screen and the fact that Android One makes for an enjoyable user experience.

Much like the Nokia 1.3 and 2.4, performance is the 3.4’s undoing; with too many inconsistencies to make this an easy budget recommendation.