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Nokia's modern smartphones span the entire breadth of the mobile market, from $1,000+ feature phones down to $100 budget handsets. This provides plenty of choice no matter what budget you're working with, but it can also present a challenge in determining which handset is right for you.
To help you wade through the sea of slick marketing and complex specifications, we've highlighted the main factors to focus on below. Keep these in mind as you compare Nokia smartphones, and you'll be better equipped to find a handset suited to your specific needs.
No matter how good a phone is, it will never be the unequivocal "best" for everyone everywhere. We all use our phones in slightly different ways, and we each value various aspects like screen size and battery life according to our own wants and needs.
So instead of declaring a single "best" Nokia handset, we've split our recommendations into various categories tailored for different types of phone users. These recommendations are built on the back of our years of experience reviewing smartphones in Australia, but always remember to consider them alongside your own preferences, rather than taking them as gospel.
For Nokia's first crack at a premium phone, the Nokia 8 is an impressive device. A dual-lens 13MP camera array provides aspiring photographers with the tools to take sharp snapshots and record 4K video. A capable Snapdragon 835 processor ensures responsive performance when browsing the web, using apps or playing games. And a 3090mAh battery bucks the Nokia trend by outlasting almost all competing handsets of similar specs.
Best of all, in the year since its launch, the Nokia 8 has dropped in price dramatically. Originally retailing for $899, you can now find it going for hundreds of dollars cheaper than that. This makes it a seriously solid value proposition and hands-down our pick of the Nokia smartphone family.
Read our full review of the Nokia 8 here
The Nokia 9 Pureview is one of Nokia's riskiest smartphones. While it might not appeal to everyone, it has a lot to offer photography pros thanks to its inclusion of five individual cameras on its back side. These are split into two 12MP RGB lenses and three monochrome lenses. When combined, the resulting shot condenses 240MP of detail into a single 12MP photo, making it possible to take some truly impressive shots.
The one caveat is that processing five cameras' worth of data takes a lot of time, so you'll need to be patient after tapping the shutter button as the phone crunches all those pixels. This makes snapping action shots decidedly tricky, so bear that in mind.
Read our full review of the Nokia 9 Pureview here
Once you drop into the sub-$200 smartphone range, you need to be prepared to accept considerable compromises. For the Nokia 1 Plus, this means dealing with a basic 8MP rear-facing camera and a battery that can take hours to charge to full.
In exchange for these sacrifices, though, you get a supremely affordable handset that performs better than it should thanks to the inclusion of Oreo Go, Android's budget-focused operating system. Oreo Go comes with custom versions of some of the most popular Android apps, each optimised specifically to run well on low-powered hardware like the Nokia 1 Plus. For day-to-day tasks, these optimised apps allow the Nokia 1 Plus to perform on par with smartphones packing significantly more power and significantly higher price tags.
Read our full review of the Nokia 1 Plus here
Buying a Nokia phone on a contract isn't as easy as grabbing an iPhone or Samsung handset. Only a handful of Australian telcos stock Nokia smartphones, and some models aren't available on contract at all – the Nokia 1, for instance, can only currently be purchased outright.
For a look at the Nokia handsets you can get on contract, check out the table below:
Nokia's latest super-affordable feature phone isn't fancy – but that's totally the point.
Read more…The Nokia 53 continues HMD Global's journey in providing solid Android experiences with the benefits of photographic flexibility.
Read more…The Nokia 1.3 is certainly cheap, but it makes the most of its meagre resources thanks to the use of Android Go.
Read more…The Nokia 3.4 is an affordable Android phone, and the inclusion of Android One means it has the potential to improve over the years. We hope it does, because at launch, the Nokia 3.4 is mediocre.
Nokia's latest super-affordable feature phone isn't fancy – but that's totally the point.
The Nokia 8.3 5G has been long delayed in Australia, but the wait was (mostly) worth it.
The Nokia 53 continues HMD Global's journey in providing solid Android experiences with the benefits of photographic flexibility.
The Nokia 1.3 is certainly cheap, but it makes the most of its meagre resources thanks to the use of Android Go.
The Nokia 2.3 is an inexpensive, perfectly acceptable smartphone for budget buyers.
Nokia's 800 Tough lives up to its billing, and while it's a simple feature phone, it's an easy recommendation to add to your tradie tools – or fishing tackle box.
In the busy mid-range space, the Nokia 7.2 is good but not best in class in any particular way.
Nokia's reimagined flip phone has a fun form factor but it's also a rather frustrating phone.
The Nokia 800 Tough is a highly durable feature phone for tradies – or the terminally clumsy.