Nokia 1.3 review

Where to buy

HMD Global's Nokia-branded phones have all generally played in the value space, and its 1 series phones have always been the cheapest in its smartphone range. The Nokia 1.3 continues the Finnish maker's journey in phones using the low-impact Android Go edition of Android, promising better performance despite its low-power internals.

The Nokia 1.3 isn't a fast phone, and it's not particularly flashy either. However, HMD Global/Nokia really does make the most of what it's got, delivering a phone that's surprisingly nippy despite its technical limitations.

Design

Design

• 5.71-inch display isn't great
• Range of colours
• Removable battery is hard to fit

• Read more about the Nokia 1.3's design

  From the front, the Nokia 1.3 rather looks like any other Nokia phone, with a simple 5.71-inch display topped by a "dewdrop" notch at the centre that houses the front-facing camera. However, pick it up and you'll immediately notice that this is a cheaper Nokia phone thanks to the plastic back of the phone. Measuring in at 147.3x71.2x9.35 mm, it fits nicely into your hand, and you might not notice at first that it's one of a very rare breed of smartphones still being sold with a removable battery.

  This presented a problem I hadn't anticipated because getting the removable back off the Nokia 1.3 was far more of a chore than I expected. In theory, it should be just a standard fingernail-under-the-back job, but the resistance on my review model was considerable. It took a lot more force than I was comfortable with to get it off so I could add power and a SIM card. Given that the microSD storage expansion is also hidden behind this plastic prison wall, it would be a smart idea to set it up once and then leave it forever.

  In the sub-$200 space, we still see plenty of phones with pretty ordinary screens, and that's exactly what you get with the Nokia 1.3. It's a 720x1520 IPS LCD that very quickly washes out its colour unless you're looking at it dead straight on.

  The Nokia 1.3 is technically available in three colours, although that's only a colour that's applied to the rear plastic shell. In Australia, the model being sold (and the one I tested with) was the charcoal colour, but there are also cyan and sand models sold in other markets. At this price point, it seems unlikely that any of the direct importers would ship in too many of those colours if you're keen.

  One addition on the Nokia 1.3 that you won't find on too many phones at this price point is a dedicated Google Assistant button. The flip side of that is that the Nokia 1.3 doesn't feature a dedicated fingerprint sensor, although it would have a hard time placing one given its removable back. You can set a face-unlock function, but that's just using a simple still image recognition algorithm and isn't particularly secure.

Camera

Camera

• Simple rear 8MP camera
• Camera Go app adds portrait effects

• See sample photos and read more about the Nokia 1.3's camera

  Previous Nokia 1 series phones have had very ordinary cameras, and that's a story that very much continues with the Nokia 1.3. At the rear, you'll find a single 8MP lens, while that front notch houses a 5MP selfie camera.

  It's a somewhat weak arrangement when you consider that many phones that sit just above the $200 mark tend to offer at least dual rear cameras, even if one of those lenses is typically a low megapixel portrait depth sensor.

  Where the Nokia 1.3 gets interesting in a camera sense is the inclusion of Google's Camera Go application. Android Go phones have long had low-intensity "Go" versions of key apps to make the most of their lower resources, and in the case of Camera Go, it should enable a faster app with a few more features.

  The actual Camera Go app is fairly simple, with options for photo, portrait and video modes as well as a "translate" option that's essentially a portal to Google Lens and its own inbuilt translation function. Testing with some printed Japanese returned good results, but that's more a quality check of Google's servers than anything inherent in the Nokia 1.3 itself.

  Actual camera performance was within what you'd expect for a sub-$200 phone. Focus wasn't noticeably quick, and you don't have to push the Nokia 1.3 all that hard before the cracks show in terms of action shots or anything where the light is less than perfect. The Nokia 1.3's cameras, both front and back aren't exceptional – but, at this price point, that's to be expected.

  One feature you do get from the Camera Go app is a portrait mode, even though there's no secondary lens for depth sensing on either side. It's all computational focus blurring, and rather obviously so with limited depth and a tendency for digital artefacts around faces, as in this selfie:

  

  The practical upshot here is that the Nokia 1.3's camera isn't anything special, but its software does give it a slight extra kick. It is possible to get acceptable if not great shots with the Nokia 1.3, but you'll need a fair amount of patience to do so.

  Nokia 1.3 sample photos

  

  

  

  

  

Performance

Performance

• Snapdragon 215 plus 1GB of RAM works thanks to Android Go
• Update guaranteed to Android 11

• View test results and read more about the Nokia 1.3's performance

  Sitting as it does at the very bottom of Nokia's smartphone family – as distinct from its feature phones such as the Nokia 800 Tough – the Nokia 1.3 isn't a powerful phone. It runs from a low-end Qualcomm processor, the Snapdragon 215 specifically, and has only 1GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage.

  It's a recipe that's so low end that it can't actually install and run our general performance benchmarks, and you might think as a result that it's something of a disaster area when it comes to actual phone performance.

  I'd never call the Nokia 1.3 "fast", or even "quick", but for a phone with such meagre resources at hand, it's surprisingly responsive compared to similarly priced handsets that beat it on the specification sheet. That's down to the fact that while this is an Android 10 phone, it's one that uses the optimised "Go" edition of Android.

  Android Go is Google's low-performance, heavily optimised Android variant that includes specific "Go" editions of specific Android apps on board as part of the standard install. Instead of Google Maps, you get Google Maps Go. It's the same story with Mail, Photos (which in the Go world is actually Google Gallery) and even the camera app. There's even a lite version of Facebook pre-installed on the Nokia 1.3.

  You can in theory install any Android app onto the Nokia 1.3 as long as the developer of that app hasn't flagged a screen size, memory limitation or other technical specification that it can't meet. That's the same for any Android phone, and naturally when you do so, expect to hit a performance wall pretty quickly. Still, this is clearly a basic phone for folks who just need the basics, and they're already present in highly optimised forms.

  What that means is that the biggest technical limitation on the Nokia 1.3 if you want to add a lot of apps is the 16GB of onboard storage. Investing in a microSD card would be a wise idea. Entertainingly, it can take up to a 400GB microSD card if you were super keen – but then the card inside the phone would be worth about as much as the phone it's wrapped around!

  The other advantage that the Nokia 1.3 has over its contemporaries at this price point is that it's part of HMD Global's general commitment to Android updates. While its Android One phones get multiple years of guaranteed updates, the Nokia 1.3 is only committed to just the one, with notes that it's "ready for Android 11 (Go Edition)" when that lands. Still, that's a big step up from most true budget phones that rarely if ever even see Android security updates, let alone full Android version updates.

Battery life

Battery life

• 3,000mAh battery slightly underperforms
• MicroUSB charging

• View test results and read more about the Nokia 1.3's battery life

  The Nokia 1.3 is one of very few smartphones in the market today with a removable battery if that appeals to you, although the difficulty with removing that back shell means that you're not likely to want to flip it out all that often. It's a 3,000mAh battery, which is decent at this price point and size.

  Moderate daily usage can see the Nokia 1.3 through a working day without too much fuss, but I ran it through our standard battery test – the one benchmark it could run – just to see what a heavier load did to its battery capacity. That involves streaming a YouTube video at maximum brightness and moderate volume for an hour from 100% battery to check battery drain status. Here's how the Nokia 1.3 compared to similar budget phones:

  The reality for budget smartphones is that they're not often great at conserving power, and many of the phones in that list do sell for more than you'll pay for the Nokia 1.3.

  Charging is via microUSB only, with a charger and cable provided in the box.

Verdict

Verdict

• Not fast, but good value

Should you buy it?

Any phone that costs you under 200 notes is going to come with compromises, and it's always a question of balancing out what those compromises are.

The Nokia 1.3 isn't as pretty as Nokia's other phones, and its rear shell is a pain to remove. The camera is pretty ordinary as is the battery life. Onboard storage is low. These are all compromises that HMD Global has accepted to meet a specific price point.

Balanced against that is the fact that it performs better than it has any right to given its moderate specifications. It isn't weighed down with a confusing launcher on top of Android, and it's guaranteed at least one full Android update down the track.

The Nokia 1.3 won't suit every user, but if you want a no-fuss clean Android experience at a very good price point, it could be the ideal phone for you.

Pricing and availability

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Alternatives

You may still be able to find the Nokia 1 Plus at retail, and it may be worth considering if you want Android Go, but you'd want to get it at a sub-$100 price, given its even smaller storage and battery capacity.

Stepping up in Nokia's Android family would score you the slightly more expensive Nokia 2.3, which comes with more battery capacity and better cameras as well as full Android One updates down the track.

For just a little more than that, consider the realme 2.3, which packs a lot of power into a phone at its price point.

Specifications