Unboxing of Nokia X30, Nokia G60 and Nokia PWS 2
Nothing can improve your hard day as the call of DHL delivery service. Nokia Mobile has sent us their latest smartphones Nokia X30 5G and Nokia G60 5G together with Nokia Portable Wireless Speaker 2. The trio was announced at IFA2022, which holds every year at the beginning of September. It took Noia Mobile some three weeks to make X30 and G60 available in numerous markets across the globe. Our Youtuber Abdulla Zaki had a chance to spend some time with pre-sale models and covered devices in numerous videos for the past few weeks, but now the retail version is here and let’s unbox them.
Nokia X30 5G
Nokia X30 5G is the first one to get unboxed although the good guys at customs opened up the boxes, probably thinking some suspicious goods are being smuggled. This phone, together with Portable Speaker 2 is coming in a newly designed box made of recycled cardboard covered with graphical representations of the products printed with vegetable ink. Nokia Mobile did emphasize during the announcements that new products are being made of recycled materials which are marking their new circular manufacturing model that had sustainability written all around. For the first time, the devices and cables are wrapped in fine paper which can be easily recycled. Also, the box can be recycled too if you are not one of those persons that keep then stored forever. I just can’t discard boxes of Nokia devices and keep every one of them in the basement probably using valuable space for something way useful like Christmas decorations.
The box looks quite nice and it is much thinner than the box of the Nokia G60 which still has a similar shape to the box of Nokia X20 or G21. I must say I like the new design and it is as fresh as the box of Nokia Lumia 800 or 920 once was.
Inside you are still getting a ton of manuals and quick start guides printed in many languages which is something that should also be reduced to simple iconography or at least a QR code that will lead to online instructions. Besides the phoney, the only thing left is a SIM door key and USB-c cable. A new 30W charger isn’t coming in the box but you can use the fast charger of 8.3 or some other.
The phone looks nicely built and quite premium in hand. It is compact when compared to XR20 or 8.3 5G, and slim like Nokia 3.4. I am not the biggest fan of the rectangular camera module since it means that the phone will move when leaned on the back to type, but the overall impression of the build and design is excellent. Also, that useless Google Assistant button is now finally gone which means that the left side is clean as in old Nokia phones.
Nokia Mobile has also sent us a protective cover which looks fine and it should keep the camera and screen protected since the corners are well lifted.
I’ll be hanging with X30 5G for the next 10 days after which I’ll have more to say, but so far this phone is a needed refreshment. The camera looks greatly improved, especially the night shot. I need more time to test it properly, but here are the first shots I took right after the unboxing, without any tampering. I used plain and simple point-and-shoot technique 🙂
First camera shots are below. I also did a quick test of the new night shot introduced with Camera 2.0
Just to show you how big an improvement is the Nokia Camera 2.0 app, check three photos shot with Nokia XR20, Nokia X30 5G and Nokia 8.3 5G and let me know what do you think in the comments. The photos are downscaled since I took them from the Phone Link app, but you can see the differences clearly. The colours of XR20 and 8.3 are pale although X30 is over saturating them. However, this was plain point-and-shoot with all three phones.
Nokia G60 5G
Nokia G60 5G is the continuation of last year’s G50 and the phone is bringing that rectangle camera module that we will need time to get used to and some nice patterns in the back polycarbonate cover. The phone is lighter than X30 since less aluminium is used in its frame, and it looks and feels cheaper. However, the build quality is nice and the phone finally has a proper Gorilla glass protecting the display which means that you won’t be seeing that pre-applied screen protector.
The box is similarly looking as the box of the G21 and it also brings a SIM door pin, a bunch of manuals printed in various EU languages and a USB-C cable. The phone itself is wrapped in a thin sheet of paper, just like X30, and the charging cable is also tightly wrapped with cardboard paper which is commendable.
The phone is slimmer than the G50 and the camera seems improved. Well, G60 is coming with Camera 2.0 which is also the main camera app of Nokia X30 and the same pixel binning algorithms are being used to improve low light imagery. This phone will be in test after X30, but if you have any questions, fire away. (I haven’t had time to fully set G60 so no camera samples yet.)
Nokia Portable Wireless Speaker 2
My old and trusty Nokia Play 360 died on me and I replaced it with JBL Flip 6 which has the same or better audio quality. However, I never gave up on Nokia audio accessories and hoped that one day I’ll be able to test some Nokia speakers. I was super excited when I saw Nokia Portable Wireless Speaker 2 (PWS2 further in the text) being announced at IFA2022. However, I wasn’t sure if Nokia Mobile will be able to create an audio product as good as some past Nokia speakers. But, PWS2 looks interesting since it has three ways to get music (3.5 mm jack, micro SD slot and BT), it is water resistant and environmentally friendly since it is made of recycled materials.
The box is made of the same recycled cardboard as the box of X30 and the graphics are the same too. Inside the box, you are getting the speaker, some user manuals and a short USB-C charging cable which you’ll rarely use since PWS2 can last up to 22 hours on a single charge.
I like the design of the speaker, although the Nokia logo could be better positioned, or at least symmetrically positioned. The audio quality could be better tuned, especially the bass tones since this speaker is coming with an active subwoofer. However, I was able to improve the sound with an app (Deezer in my case) equalizer but I need more time to test it properly before giving the final judgement.
Abdulla covered almost all of the devices in video and text (Nokia X30, Nokia G60) but do fire away all that you’d like to know about them. This unboxing is the usual start of the test which I’ll be doing in the following days and weeks. So far I can say that X30 is a rather interesting device with a nice camera, G60 looks like an excellent budget smartphone and PWS2 could be great fun.
