What happened? Nokia today announced a new initiative and a new phone with it: the Nokia G22 with QuickFix repairability. This is the first of a new line of phones designed from its conception to repair and have a long life.
Made with a recycled plastic shell and designed to be fixed by its owners on their desks, the Nokia G22 proclaims to be the most environmentally-friendly phone from a household name. It will launch in two weeks on March 8 in the UK, most of Europe, and other non-US markets. It is priced at £149.99 / €179 or roughly equivalent to $185 USD, including tax.
Nokia has partnered with iFixit to create repair guides and sell the tools and parts needed to replace the battery, charging port, and screen. Nokia has promised to keep the parts for the next five years. It also says that carrying out repairs in accordance with a guide and with official parts is considered an authorized repair, so it does not void the warranty.
Adam Ferguson, the head of product at HMD (the Finnish company that owns the rights to the Nokia brand) is ready to put his money where his mouth is in front of a live audience of journalists in last week
He separated and replaced the battery from a G22 in less than five minutes during his presentation, saying it would have taken an hour and a half to do the same on a previous-gen phone. When asked, he said it will take 20 minutes to change the screen.
Said screen is a 6.52″ 720p LCD with a 90 Hz refresh rate that costs £44.99 ($54 USD) to replace. A new battery costs £22.99 ($27 USD) and a new USB-C port assembly costs £18.99 ($23 USD) and all the tools needed should cost around £5.
The battery has a 5,050 mAh capacity — three days worth of battery life according to Nokia — and can be charged with 20 W fast charging via the aforementioned port.
Under the hood there is a Unisoc T606 SoC with two A75 cores and six A55 cores, 4 GB of RAM, and the choice between 64 GB or 128 GB of storage. Around the back is a 50 MP camera flanked by a 2 MP macro lens and a 2 MP depth sensor, and adorning the teardrop notch on the front is an 8 MP selfie cam. There is also an audio jack. Unfortunately, the Nokia G22 has not yet been updated to Android 13 and is still on version 12.
Nokia also announced a pair of budget phones with regular improvements; the C32, which is very similar to the G22; and the C22, which is more budget friendly. Nokia also commented on its ongoing plans to start making a portion of its devices in Europe: it doesn’t have an assembly line running yet but hopes to start making 5G phones there this year.