Nokia has released the X30 5G smartphone with a frame made from 100% recycled aluminum and a back cover made from 65% recycled plastic – making it one of the most sustainable and eco-friendly phones yet.
The sustainability factor goes right down to the box the phone comes in – Nokia has used a 100% FSC-certified and 94% recycled paper box. The smartphone also comes in a reduced packaging size which saves on transportation CO2 emissions. This was made possible by removing the charger to tackle e-waste.
So, is this the most eco-friendly smartphone yet? Quite possibly although a number of the major smartphone companies, including Apple, are very supportive of sustainability and are working towards being carbon neutral – see here. But Nokia has taken this a step further and thrown a challenge out to the other companies with the Nokia X30.
For detailed information on all the recycled products used for the X30, you can visit here.
But apart from sustainability, how does the Nokia X30 stack up?
Many have already said the Nokia X30 brings some welcome specs to the X series. The aluminium frame gives the smartphone a nice feel and the recycled plastic back gives it a soft satin finish. The X30 comes in cloudy blue or ice white version, so you can take your pick.
Priced at around AU$740 and US$599, it looks like a phone which could cost twice as much – so we need to give the Nokia design team some credit for this. The aluminium frame might scratch a bit more but it feels more durable than glass or ceramic frames. Plus, Nokia has used Gorilla Glass Victus on the front so it will be far more likely to stay intact if you drop it.
And no problem if it falls in the water – the X30 comes with an IP67 water and dust resistance rating.
What’s the camera like?
The Nokia X30 has all the right ingredients to become a stellar camera phone. Its main sensor is a large 1/1.56” Samsung GN5 sensor, the same sensor found on the Galaxy S22 and S22+ which do cost significantly more. The aperture ratio is set at f/1.88 and it comes with Optical Image Stabilisation and a slew of software tricks including:
- Dark vision which captures images even in very dimly lit situations.
- Capture fusion which combines between the main camera and the 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera’s picture for much better details in the center of ultra wide shots.
- Super portrait which enhances sharpness and details in faces.
How’s the display?
The X30 comes with a 6.43” AMOLED display, with a Full HD+ resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, and PureDisplay technology for HDR support. It’s a really nice display which doesn’t skimp out on any fancy features you might require. It’s a great canvas for watching content and can get to up to 700 nits of max brightness, so you shouldn’t have to worry about it being unusable under the sun.
And the power?
The X30 is powered by the snapdragon 695 5G processor, clocked at 2.2 Ghz and is built on 6nm architecture. It has up to 8 gigs of RAM, and up to 256 gigs of built-in, UFS 2.2 storage. Inside is a 4200 mAh battery with a charging speed of 33 watts and it’s said to be good for up to 800 recharging cycles before losing any significant chunk of its battery health.
When you take both the CPU and battery capacity separately, they won’t top charts by any means. There are plenty of devices which offer better performance on paper than X30, and will probably be larger and therefore fit a bigger battery capacity.
But based on the average person’s usage, the X30 has all the performance you need. Battery life on the other hand, while not amazing, does manage to last about a day and a half of usage with about 7 hours of screen on time.
Additional info
The Nokia X30 doesn’t have a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a micro SD card slot to expand the built in memory. As well, it doesn’t support 4k video recording.
So, while the X30 is a great smartphone for the price, it shouldn’t be perceived as a successor to the Nokia 8.3 5G – we may still need to wait for that one. The X30 slots above last year’s X20 and somewhere below the 8.3. The Nokia X30 is a stylish, compact, premium-looking, camera-centric device and it will be a great Nokia midranger – with one of the smallest eco-footprints yet – and this is important.
For more information about the Nokia X30, visit here.
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