Affordable. That’s pretty much the only difference between the Nokia C1 and everything else available in the market. With Made in China taking over a price sensitive markets and the demand for more at the best price, does Nokia’s new C1 smartphone have any hope? With a further dwindling market share this past year as a result of even cheaper phones, Nokia is struggling. Being launched in January 2020, the Nokia C1 is a low-cost, Android smartphone that is HMD Global’s most recent attempt to resuscitate its beloved brand. With 5G networks on the way and growing demand for more entertainment and streaming, how will the Nokia C1 fare in 2020? The TNS team takes a look at the big picture.
Colors
It looks good and it’s durable. After all, you seriously want to judge a phone and its owner by its cover. Little else matters. For the introductory price of Rs.8,500, the black and red metallic finish is worth it. Black is always classic while the red competes with the popular iPhone Red.
Great Camera
Who doesn’t want to look better than they can in a selfie? A 5MP rear camera promises to get you sharper, brighter images even in low light. The standard auto focus helps, but if we get our hands on a demo set, we will happily do the tests to prove it to you. Native photo apps help with easier, faster editing and a more seamless, streamlined integration with the gallery.
Battery Life and Storage
Open up the cover to get access to the battery. Unlike the premium phones, if need be, just replace the battery. The phone boasts to have 64Gigs of internal storage to accommodate 3,000 songs or 24 hours worth of videos, with a micro SD card of upto 64Gb.
Verdict
The Nokia C1 is the low-budget smartphone you want for the low-to-middle income bracket in Pakistan. It is 3G enabled and runs Android 9 Pie (Go) with fewer built-in apps and access to YouTube Go. How well it will do will only be a determined by how aggressively Nokia markets to the middle income bracket. With competition in that demographic growing fiercely by QMobile, Oppo and Xiaomi, it’s a matter of brand recall that will make the market buy the phones.
Granted, the price point with Nokia C1 is its strong selling point, a phone means more than just a phone to the end user. No matter who the user is, the phone is a means to a better life – if HMD Global can emphasize and align itself to that significance, there is a chance. Judging from the Nokia 8 review we ran on this website 2 years ago, the quality of the device is certainly not something we recommend. Once the phone has been used a bit, it isn’t sturdy and more problematic in its hardware – and that was a phone three times the cost of the C1.
Will C1 rekindle life back into the Nokia brand? Marketing to influence these sales will certainly help, but the Rs.8500 price is tricky. It’s too low to really promote and too high for a brandname to make an impression. This is the demographic that purchases a smartphone that gets them through the day. Margins are so low at this price point it will be difficult for the product line to really impact Nokia’s bottom line. It will be a lot more attractive for the online markets to offer this phone than physical stores, but does this particular audience really shop online for something this expensive?
Nokia C1 is due to be available in shops across Pakistan in January 2020.
