Nokia T20 Review: A decent mid-range tablet


HMD Global launched T20, the company’s first tablet, in India last month. This has a large 10.36-inch 2K display, comes with metal body, has stereo speakers, features IP52 ratings for water resistance, packs a 8200mAh battery, and also comes in an LTE model. This this a good tablet for the price? Let us dive into the review to find out.

Box Contents

  • Nokia T20 4GB + 64GB Wi-Fi in Ocean blue colour
  • 10W charger
  • USB Type-C Cable
  • SIM Ejector tool

Display, Hardware and Design

Starting with the display, the tablet has a 10.36-inch (2000×1200 pixels) WUXGA+ (Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array Plus) with a pixel density of 224 PPI. The display is bright to view indoors since it has 400 nits brightness. The viewing angles are good as well, but the screen is glossy and is prone to fingerprints, and it is hardly visible in bright outdoors even when the auto brightness mode is enabled or when brightness is set to full. There is night light that cuts out the blue light. The company says that it has used toughened glass for protection.

There is a 5-megapixel camera on the front, on the bezel. You can see a huge bezel around the tablet, which is needed to hold it.

Coming to the button placements, the power button is on the left along with the speaker grill, and the volume rockers are on the top, if you are holding the tablet in the landscape mode. You can also see dual microphones on the top along with a microSD slot. The USB type-C port and the second speaker grill is present on the right side, along with the 3.5mm audio jack, on the edge. The tablet is just 7.8mm thick and weighs just 465 grams, even though it packs a huge 8200mAh battery and has a large 10.4-inch screen.

The Nokia T20 tablet has a Nordic design, sandblasted aluminium body and comes with IP52 ratings for dust and splash resistance. There is an 8-megapixel camera on the back. It feels solid and good to hold in hand.

Camera

Coming to the camera, the tablet has an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera on the back with flash. There is an 5-megapixel camera on the front. Both the cameras can record videos in up to 1080p 30 fps which is decent. The front camera decent, but it could be better. Wish the company had added an ultra-wide camera on the front for video calls.

The camera UI, even though looks basic, has a lot of features such as with option to take images and video up to 4X, toggle to front and back, video mode, portrait, filters, beauty mode and more.

Check out the camera samples.

Software, UI and Apps

Coming to the software, the tablet runs Android 11 with almost stock Android experience. It has the  Android security for August 2021. The company has promised 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates for the tablet, but the frequency of the updates is not mentioned, so it still has August security patch. It only has Netflix app and doesn’t have any other bloatware. You get Google Kids Space that has a range of applications, videos, and books suitable for children. Parents can set a screen usage limit and select which applications their children can use.

The tablet has a new “Entertainment Space” that when you swipe to the left. Introduced back in May, this is a one-stop, personalized home for all your favorite movies, shows, videos, games and books, says Google.  In the Watch Tab, you can sign in to subscription streaming apps and surf through content all in one place. It has Google TV integrated, which will show users movies and TV shows that they can watch, rent or buy.

In the Games tab, you can see all their installed games, resume playing them through continue playing row and also explore new games in the recommended row.  The Read tab is where all the books and audiobooks from Google Play Books can be found.

Out of 4GB LPDDR4x RAM, you get 3.7GB of usable RAM, and about 1.6GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. Out of 64GB, you get about 51.4GB of free storage. The phone uses eMMC 5.1 storage, which is common in most tablets in the budget. We got sequential read speeds of about 250 MB/s.

Face unlock

The tablet doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner, so you have to rely on face unlock, which is quick to unlock the device.

Multimedia

YouTube Music is the default Music Player. It has FM Radio support that you rarely see in a tablet. Audio through the stereo speakers is brilliant without any distortion even in full volume. Audio through earphones is decent, but it is not the best when you compare it with phones.

This doesn’t have Widevine L1 support, and only has Widevine L3 support, so that you can’t play HD content on Netflix and other streaming apps. There is no HDR support, which you can’t expect in a tablet in the price range. Since this has 5:3 aspect ratio, you get a tiny black bar on the top and the bottom, but this is hardly noticeable.

Connectivity

The Nokia T20 tablet comes in both Wi-Fi and 4G LTE models, and we only have the Wi-Fi model, so there is no SIM slot. The LTE model comes with a single nano SIM, but it doesn’t let you make calls . There is Dual-Band Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth and A-GPS.

Performance

Powering the tablet is the UniSoC T610 Octa-Core SoC that is built on the 12nm architecture. There are Dual 1.8GHz Cortex-A75 + Hexa 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 CPUs paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. The UniSoC T610 is a good mid-range SoC for phones, and it does a decent job in tablet as well. It is on par with the Helio G80 SoC present in the realme Pad, but the gaming is slightly better in the the Helio G80.

Coming to the performance, the T20 handles casual tasks such as browsing, social media, streaming on Netflix and casual games with ease with no lags. With intensive tasks like video rendering, Photo Editing, it is fairly decent. For casual games like Temple Run and Ludo King and graphic-intensive games like Asphalt 8, BGMI and Call of Duty Mobile, etc. it is decent, but not the best. It gets a bit warm on intensive gaming for long since it has a metal body, but it doesn’t get too hot.

Battery life

Coming to the battery life, the tablet packs a huge 8200mAh (typical) battery that promises up to 10 hours of video playback or up to 15 hours of surfing the web on a single charge. Based on my use, I got close to 12 hours of streaming videos on Netflix and YouTube. This might vary if you set the brightness to high. Even though the tablet has support for USB-PD 15W fast charging. We used a USB-PD 18W charger, and it took 1 and half hours to charge up to 50% and 0 to 100% took 3 and half hours, which is long. If you use the bundled 10W charger, it will take more than that.

Conclusion

Overall, the Nokia T20 tablet is a good tablet for multimedia consumption, and casual gaming thanks to the large high-resolution display and stereo speakers. The performance is decent as well, but considering the price, the company could have gone with Unisoc T700 or Helio G90 series processor.

The LTE model at a slightly higher cost is not a good option only for data usage, while there are better models at even cheaper rate with calling capabilities as well. Even though the display is good for indoors, the glossy finish is prone to smudges and the brightness makes viewing hard outdoors.

Pricing and availability

The Nokia T20 is priced at Rs. 15,499 for the 3GB + 32GB Wi-Fi version, 4GB + 64GB Wi-Fi version is priced at Rs. 16,499 and the top-end 4GB + 64GB LTE version costs Rs. 18,499. It is available from Nokia.com and Flipkart online.

Pros

  • Large high-resolution display
  • Stereo speakers, FM Radio
  • No bloatware
  • Decent performance
  • Ultra-sleek design with metal body
  • 8200mAh battery offers good battery life

Cons

  • Outdoor display visibility is not the best
  • LTE model doesn’t have calling support
  • Widevine L1 support for HD playback in streaming apps
  • Only 10W charger in the box

Author: Srivatsan Sridhar

Srivatsan Sridhar is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast who is passionate about Mobile phones and Mobile apps. He uses the phones he reviews as his main phone. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram