Nokia XR20 6+ Months Review (Video)
|You might have liked the Nokia XR20 but thought it was expensive at launch. You might have also had reservations about long-term performance, durability, or how it would fare after receiving Android 12. The Good news is, I’ve been using this tank as my daily driver for the past 6 months, without a case of course, and you can see my full thoughts in the video below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGoX6YPn8d0&w=560&h=315]
What could have been improved?
For a successor, assuming the device stays exactly within the same price category as the Nokia XR20 or pretty close, I would have liked to see 3 things improved
- Higher Refresh Rate Display (Adaptive 90Hz might be the sweet spot between smoothness and added battery life consumption) It would help elevate the perception of speed on the device, reducing the gap against more mainstream devices.
- Better tuned fingerprint scanner. Sometimes the FP scanner integrated into the power button is too sensitive, causing accidental unlocks right after locking the device. I think the ability to disable the FP when the screen is off would have been really useful here. It could also benefit from being more clearly regressed into the body.
- 4K Video recording. I have no qualms about the day-to-day performance of the SD480. Even put next to the 8.3’s SD765G in a speed test, it’s a 50/50 toss between them outside of gaming of course. But the XR20 only shoots 1080p video, and when adding software stabilization, which also crops from the frame to work, it results in video that is too soft for my liking. The XR20 is a device that would work perfectly for someone into the spirit of adventure, and being able to capture top notch video to remember such moments would have added a new dimension to the device.
Nokia XR20 Owners, let’s hear from you
What aspects of the Nokia XR20 do you enjoy the most? What aspects do you wish were better? And if you’re a potential buyer of such a device, what aspects stopped you from getting one? Share your thoughts with us below.