Another new Nokia has arrived and you can fix this one, too. Just, maybe, don’t break it in the first place. It’s not exactly an expensive phone.
If you’re the sort of person who prefers DIY to letting someone else do it, the world is gradually changing in a way you might want. The right to repair movement is growing, and your next phone could be one of the few areas where the technology is made that much more accessible to do so.
Apple has gradually opened its devices up to the do-it-yourself market, while HMD Global’s Nokia brand has been actively encouraging fixing with specific repair kits for new devices. There was one budget device to kick things off earlier in the year, and now there’s another, as Nokia focuses on the mid-range in the G42, a phone you can repair yourself that also happens to come in a purple colour.
The phone sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480+ chip which supports 5G, 6GB RAM, and 128GB storage, with this combination firmly setting the phone in mid-range territory. It’s always nice to see 5G and a decent amount of storage in the mid-range, and the Nokia G42 continues that.
Three cameras can be found on the back, though only one of those is likely to be genuinely useful, with a 50 megapixel main F1.8 wide camera accompanied by a two 2 megapixel cameras for macro and depth.
Your regular assortment of connections can be found here, covering 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5, GPS, and the trusty Type C connection, though to make things different, there’s a 3.5mm headset jack, handy because you might have headphones that still use one.
And it all sits under a 6.56 inch 90Hz screen, which is big and fast, though comes with the caveat of being low res, adopting the 1612×720 HD+ resolution, down from the Full HD phones typically come with these days.
A sizeable 5000mAh battery sits inside, something Nokia says can get up to three days battery life, which based on the screen resolution we’d believe is possible, though the main star mightn’t be the battery, but the repairable nature of the handset.
Simply put, you’ll be able to fix parts if the phone breaks down, potentially extending the $449 cost of the Nokia G42, depending on just what breaks. As an example, fix kits will include instructions and parts for different aspects, costing $89.99 for a new display, $42.99 for a new Type C charging port, and $49.99 for a replacement battery, all available from iFixit.
You won’t be able to go in and actually replace the camera with a better one later on, HMD Global confirmed, but you will be able to fix elements if need be.
“I’m thrilled to see how our partnership with HMD Global is turning the tide in favour of self-repairs,” said Kyle Wines, CEO of iFixit.
“This is not just about providing parts,” he said, “it’s about seeding the DIY ethos among consumers and signalling that the era of self-service repairs is truly upon us.”
The Nokia G42 with 5G is available in Australia now for $449 online and in retail stores.
