Almost two years Previously, I reviewed the $200 Nokia 5.3, which promised two years of Android OS upgrades and three years of security updates. How is HMD Global, the company that licenses the Nokia brand? This alone only deployed Android 12 on that device, which is a year old version of Google’s operating system.
That’s a big delay, but at least that The budget phone will get six more months of security updates before its support officially ends. Unfortunately, things are getting worse. Now I have the new $270 Nokia G400 5G, which only gets two years of security updates and zero commitment to Android OS upgrades. It might get Android 13, but who’s to say, since HMD hasn’t made any promises? It feels like a strong character shift from a company that prided itself on delivering fast updates and high-end software support back in 2016.
Today, most Android phone makers offer a software commitment policy so you have a clear picture of how long the device will be supported. The $250 Samsung Galaxy A13 5G, for example, gets two OS upgrades and four years of security updates. That’s awesome, and it means you can hold onto the device without worrying about it turning into a buggy, insecure mess after two years. This allows you to keep your device as long as everything is in working order, reducing the need to spend on another phone. It’s hard to recommend a smartphone in 2022 if you don’t know if it will get the latest version of its operating system.
Nice Hardware
Photo: Nokia
The sad thing is the Nokia G400 is a pretty respectable phone. It looks bad and pathetic, comes in a dark gray, and does not look like a “Nokia” phone. But the 6.58-inch LCD screen is sharp, colorful, and even has a 120-Hz screen refresh rate, so it feels smooth and responsive when you interact with it.
The performance is good. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 480+ chipset inside reliably runs all the apps you want, even if you have to wait here and there for things to load. (It’s limited to 4 GB of RAM.) But after two weeks, I was able to use it well to answer emails and messages, browse Reddit and Twitter, make phone calls, and even play casual games like Alto’s Odyssey. The software is stock Android 12, which is nice, so you get very little bloatware (anything can be removed), and the interface looks slick.
The 5,000-mAh battery cell gave me a day and a half of average use, and you get all the features you want in any 2022 phone, like sub-6 5G connectivity with all major US carriers (yes , including Verizon , which many unlocked Nokia devices traditionally aren’t compatible), a headphone jack, fingerprint sensor, and a MicroSD card slot to expand up to 64 GB of internal storage. I use the NFC sensor to tap and pay at the subway turnstiles here in New York City, and you even get a charger in the box.
