Nokia 8110 4G review

Performance

There's really not much benchmarking we can do on the Nokia 8110 4G. Plus, even if we could, most metrics wouldn't really make sense on a featurephone. That being said, we can provide some observations, after actually using the phone.

KaiOS games

First off, the Qualcomm MSM8905 Snapdragon 205 only has a pair of 1.1 GHz Cortex-A7 at its disposal. And as optimized as KaiOS may be, you need to adjust your expectations accordingly. For most basic, every-day tasks, like calls, texting, email or Googling the occasional address or working hours of a business, the Nokia 8110 4G does just fine.

You can, however, choke the web-app platform with a number of tasks. Most notably, switching quickly between apps, leads to some notable navigation stutters and slow-downs in rendering the UI. You can't realistically expect desktop levels of Javascript support and performance out of the built-in browser either. Some websites just refuse to work altogether. Like the Skype web messenger, we were hoping to use, in place of a native app. Visiting some of these can easily choke the little Nokia as well.

On the flip side, video playback seems to work surprisingly well. Our battery test video is roughly 640 x 352 px in resolution, in h.264 and it played just fine in the video app. We can only imagine all the YouTube videos get delivered at 360p. Even so, we didn't find a single clip on the platform that managed to trip up the Nokia 8110 4G.

Gaming, however, is not really something you want to delve too deep into. The pre-loaded snake game works great. And so do most of the free downloadable titles on the store. These, however, are extremely simple. The three Gameloft paid titles, as we mentioned earlier, all barely run. After trying out the demo version, we really didn't feel compelled to buy any one of them.

Camera

Having to deal with budget devices on the very low-end of the smartphone price spectrum on a regular basis, we really like to think that the industry has finally reached a point where "potato cameras" are a thing of the past. Even a sub-$100 Android device nowadays does a decent enough job for social media purposes, most of the time.

If we decide to technically regard the $100+ Nokia 8110 4G as a smarthpone, we might just have to reconsider our position. The banana phone has a camera - singular, with a whopping 2MP count and fixed focus.

Nokia 8110 4G camera samples

Technically, it does capture photos. Which you could potentially transfer off the device, quite easily, thanks to its many connectivity options. Or even, upload them directly online. In that regard, they might be considered useful.

Nokia 8110 4G camera samples

Since we don't really want to bash the Nokia 8110 4G too hard, we'll just let you make up your mind on the general quality of the shots. The shortcomings are pretty apparent. On a positive note, we will mention that we've definitely seen less fine detail from a 2MP camera.

Just in case you were wondering, there is no HDR mode, or any other fancy camera improvements, for that matter. In fact, the camera app UI is as simple as they come. There is no resolution selector for still and no auto flash mode either.

Video recording is available. Clips are captured with a pretty standard MPEG-4 AVC stream and rather surprisingly - stereo AAC audio. The container, however, is the archaic 3gp. Maximum resolution is equally old-school and roughly follows the Sony D-1 standard (NTSC 3:2). That is 720 pixels horizontal and 480 pixels vertical.

We don't really have any good comments on quality to provide here. Nor can we physically alight the shots for the sample posters. That goes for the picture compare tool as well. We are uploading a short clip to YouTube though. Bear in mind, we did have to rotate it before uploading, since the Nokia 8110 lacks any gyroscope to determine its orientation and simply shoots in vertical all the time. We had to do the same with the photos.

Frankly, the only positive we find with this video setup, is that you can, at least, fit plenty of footage on the internal memory. Oh, and the frame rate was pretty steady around the 30 fps mark.

Alternatives

Choosing alternatives to the Nokia 8110 4G is a rather daunting task, for more than a few reasons. At current MSPR, it is a bit pricey for a feature phone, at around $100, or EUR 85 on most Western markets. You can get it for a bit less elsewhere.

If you are after a featurephone with a numpad, there are arguably better value options out there, like the Nokia 216. You might be sacrificing a slight bit of internal hardware, but like we mentioned earlier, the Series 30 OS has a much richer app collection. Plus, there is the matter of cost.

Nokia 216 • Nokia 3310 4G

However, it should also be noted that the Nokia 216 lacks LTE. The 2018 4G variant of the Nokia 3310 has that covered, in case you can't get away with 3G, where you live. Plus, you won't really be losing any hipster points over the Nokia 8110 4G. The Alcatel Go Flip might also be worth looking at. As well as any featurephone your carrier might have on offer. These often get tailor-made and are subsidized, so you might just find a good deal.

On the flip side, if you're not shopping for a less tech-inclined relative, who absolutely insists on a numerical pad and budget is the only concern, there is arguably more value to be had at the low end of the Android market. Not to mention a lot more functionality.

Hunting for sub EUR 100 Android phones in the past has solidified one pretty simple general guideline - do your best to get an octa-core chipset. Keeping that in mind, the Meizu M6T looks like a prime candidate. It's a recent model, with a spacious display and even a dual camera setup. Still, in some markets, it might be a little over budget, so the regular Meizu M6 is also a good choice.

Meizu M6 • alcatel Pop 4S • Meizu M5 Note • Xiaomi Redmi 6A • Nokia 1

Then there is the Alcatel Pop 4S. Navigating the confusing Alcatel lineup is no easy task, but if you do your research correctly, you could end up with a 5.5-inch, FullHD panel, even if on a slightly older 2016 device. Shopping on a budget means finding the right balance of compromises. And if you are not necessarily the kind of person to always go after the latest Android releases, there is also the Meizu M5 Note. Another FullHD device, with a pretty potent Helio P10 chipset, comparatively speaking and a beefy 4,000 mAh battery.

And if you value current trends and OS updates more than performance, there is also the option to deviate from the 8-core rule, for the right kind of device, like the Xiaomi Redmi 6A with its 18:9 display. Last, but definitely not least, there is HMD's own entry-level Nokia 1 - a quad-core device, but also a very recent one and rocking Android 8.1 Oreo (Go edition). The GO part means an optimized lite app package, without really missing out on any current goodies within Google's Android ecosystem.

Verdict

The above list of competitors naturally leads us to the conclusion here. Namely, that the Nokia 8110 4G is hard to recommend as a value option. Sure, it's different and KaiOS has some untapped future potential - one that could lead to a new and interesting class of smarter faeturephones at some point. However, in its current state, it's a bit limiting, even for a featurephone. Cheaper and more functional alternatives do exist.

Pros

• Sturdy construction
• Plenty of up-to-date connectivity options, including VoLTE, GPS, and Wi-Fi
• Removable battery
• Efficient use of the small battery pack

Cons

• Surfaces are easily scratched. This goes for the display as well
• Buttons are mushy and unresponsive. Navigation keys are particularly bad and too small to use
• Slider is stiff and not easy to use
• Charging is painfully slow
• KaiOS has potential, but is very rough around the edges. Navigation is bad and functionality is diminished, compared to what Jio is doing with the platform and compared to some other featurephones
• The UI doesn't always run smoothly
• The camera experience is pretty bad

On the flip side of things, there is the current Nokia 8110 4G pricing, which seems to largely play on the nostalgia factor more than anything else. Prices seem to vary greatly from market to market and especially with some third-party sellers, looking to ride the nostalgia train. But even at its cheapest, the Nokia 8110 4G seems to creep within entry-level smartphone territory.

And, frankly, we have a hard time recommending it over the Nokia 1 (or even the Nokia 2, if you find a good deal) or one of the other budget Android options we mentioned earlier. For now, the Nokia 8110 4G seems like a viable purchase only for its coolness factor and hipster points, if you're into that kind of thing. And definitely not as a daily driver.