In September last year, HMD Global officially announced two of its new entry-level smartphones with large screens, big batteries, and Android 10, the Nokia 2.4 and Nokia 3.4. But today, we’ll be checking out the bigger Nokia 3.4, so if you’re interested in finding out our initial impressions, then read on.
As you can already tell, the Nokia 3.4 is a reasonably large phone but lightweight one. Despite its size, it has a thin profile, which makes it comfortable to hold. Our unit comes in Fjord colorway, but you can also get it in Charcoal and Dusk colorway.
The phone does feel kind of “cheap” due to its plastic body but what we like about it is that it’s less prone to fingerprints and smudges with its embossed plastic design. Luckily, it also comes with a free jelly case in the box.
Here at the back, we can find its protruding circular camera module, circular fingerprint scanner, and the Nokia branding.
Upfront, the device sports a large 6.3-inch HD+ display that is perfect for watching videos and playing games. Color reproduction is good, and it can get bright enough when used outdoors. We can also find the punch hole notch, the call speaker, and another Nokia branding on its chin.
Found on the right side of the device are the power/lock button and the volume rocker.
While on the left side, we have its dual nano-SIM card slot with a dedicated MicroSD slot and a dedicated Google Assistant button that you can also disable in the settings. It’s pretty handy, but we almost always mistook it for the power button.
Up top, we got the 3.5mm audio port alongside the secondary noise-canceling microphone.
Down at the bottom resides its primary microphone, USB Type-C port, and speaker grilles. As for the audio quality, it’s pretty decent. Nothing much to expect.
Running the device is Android 10, and it’s stock Android, so we don’t get any bloatware in here, and we like it. We get the usual Google apps, and that’s pretty much it. It’s also worth noting that this device is guaranteed to upgrade to Android 11, which is good.
Performance-wise, the device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 chip, 4GB RAM, 4,000mAh battery with 10W charging, and 64GB internal storage. The initial test is pretty decent; however, we noticed slowness in performance when multitasking, as we already expected. The fingerprint scanner and face unlock also take a little slower to unlock.
The cameras come with a triple rear camera setup consisting of a 13MP primary camera, 5MP ultra-wide, and 2MP depth. We get an 8MP one for selfies. Check out some sample photos below.
For PHP 7,990, we honestly think that the Nokia 3.4 sits in a dangerous spot in a cramped place full of better-specced entry-level smartphones with the same price range. There’s the POCO M3, the Redmi Note 9, and the realme Narzo 20, to name a few.
However, if you fancy a Nokia phone with a large screen and battery capacity, and runs on stock Android, then the Nokia 3.4 is also worth considering.
Nokia 3.4 specs:
6.3-inch HD+ display
Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 CPU
3GB, 4GB RAM
32GB, 64GB storage
microSD up to 512GB
Triple-rear cameras:
• 13MP primary
• 5MP ultra-wide
• 2MP depth
8MP front camera
Dual-SIM (nano)
4G LTE
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.2
Qualcomm aptX audio adaptive
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
NFC (select markets)
USB Type-C
Fingerprint scanner
Face Unlock
3.5mm headphone jack
Google Assistant button
Android 10 (Android 11 ready)
4,000mAh battery w/ 10W charging
160.97 x 75.99 x 8.7 mm
180 g
Fjord, Dusk, Charcoal
If they priced this better, it would’ve made a fighting chance, unfortunately, having stock android is really nice, but again, there are so many options in this price range.