13.7.2020

The Nokia 1.3 is a great little phone if you're realistic about what it is.Basically you're paying £79.99 for a very good budget phone. If you think for that money you're going to get the same performance as as a top of the range Smartphone,or even a mid-range Smartphone you're going to be disappointed. If on the other hand you think at that price it's going to be a clunky ,useless ,piece of tat that will bend as if its made of cardboard when you put it in your back pocket you're going to be very pleasantly surprised.There's absolutely no point comparing this phone to more expensive higher spec ones, they'll be better in any number of ways,they cost a lot more money ,you get what you pay for.The first surprise on opening the box is discovering how light it is,the second surprise is realising that this is because there's also a battery in the box,yes in 2020 Nokia is selling a phone with a separate battery. Even with the battery the phone is very light.....once you've managed to fit it it that is.To fit the battery the instructions show how to simply pull the back off using a fingernail. In my case it was almost losing a fingernail and after a very painful episode that nearly had me hurling the thing against the wall I turned to Google ......yes,to find out how get the back off a phone. I felt a lot better about that after reading several adverse, and sometimes sweary, comments cursing Nokia for not moulding in a notch to make things easier,tales of broken fingernails and even broken or damaged phone backs. I found my answer,that I won't tell here as get it wrong and you could damage your phone. All I'll say is 2 things, if you struggle use Google and make your own choices AND, that's a pretty poor piece of design Nokia.Once the cover is off you slip the battery in and you'll also find spaces for not only your sim and an SD card but for a second sim as well if for some reason you want 2 numbers.Once charged I booted up the phone,which wasn't too painful,and was informed that there was an Android update,which took forever .One feature of this phone is that Nokia guarantee 2 years of Android updates....something not guarantee'd on flagship phones from many other manufacturers and you'll have bragging rights when you're the first kid on the block with Android 11.As the 1.3 is so low-powered it runs Android Go which is slimmed down version ,and one that after I'd got used to I really liked. There are lightweight "Go" versions of popular Apps and even with a "Go" equipped phone you can download anything from the Playstore, how well the "full fat" Apps will run is another matter but more of that later.The initial impression of the phone is that for such a cheap piece of kit it feels quite substantial. There's no flex (if there were it might be a lot easier to get the back off!) and everything works well. There are 3 buttons,on/off, volume and a dedicates Google Assistant button. I've become a great fan of Assistant,it's what Siri should have been but has never quite attained,I don't know anyone with an iPhone or iPad that hasn't turned the damn thing off as soon as they've got their new device out of the box. The 1.3 doesn't look like one of the cheapest phones on the market,it's an ideal first phone and your child won't be embarrassed using this in the playground.Being low-powered the phone isn't going to break any speed records and by today's standards it's no speed demon but it's not that bad either. The "Go" Apps work well but there can be a lag with "full" Apps, a news App I use turns the screen black for a good 2 seconds before composing itself and working perfectly well afterwards. Having said that all of the Google suite of default Apps are here in "Go" form and work very well . A very pleasant surprise is the sound and I've spent hours watching YouTube (Go version of that as well) music videos on it at full volume with no distortion and unexpected quality.Nokia proclaim the greatness of the camera,I'd describe it as adequate ,for some reason I found setting the camera on HDR made for much quicker and better pictures whatever the situation but if a good camera is a priority for you in a phone,this isn't the one for you. Nokia claim it's great for pictures in low light.....it's awful,to be fair so are most phone cameras but still a misleading claim.The Pro's: It's cheap,very cheap. For it's price the quality is quite amazing. Android Go is great and offers all kinds of customisation from a night mode,dark mode ,translation tool, torch, web page reader and plenty more. you can do all the basics,texts,calls etc are fine. sound is surprisingly good when playing music. Android Go Apps work very well.There's even a face unlock,which isn't totally reliable it has to be said. There's also no fingerprint scanner so it's either be patient with the face unlock or do what I did ,turn it off and just use a pin number.The Con's: It's not fast. I had the occasional glitch, twice it's told me incorrectly I wan't connected to the internet and once the keyboard appeared on my screen for no particular reason. The camera is average as is the screen. some non-Go Apps make the phone struggle. Getting the back off is stupidly difficult and with a separate battery can't be avoided.Conclusion: This is the ideal phone for someone who just wants the basics,something to make calls,text ,email etc. It has the full Google suite so you can sync your Calendar and Gmail etc. It's well-made, light and doesn't feel flimsy.Also a great choice for a child's phone or if you want something cheap but usable for work , festivals or travel where you don't want to risk your expensive top of the range phone.As I said at the beginning of this review if you compare this to the average mid-range phone it's going to come second every time, consider it on it merits and taking the budget price into consideration it's quite a neat little device that if you just want a phone that works and get by without being outstanding will do you very nicely. I was quite impressed.

15.7.2020

This is, as people say, an entry-level phone. It's light, the screen is smaller than high-end phones, and it doesn't have a lot of memory. However, the Android Go operating system does a pretty good job of optimising the power that it does have.There are inbuilt "Go" versions, e.g. lite versions of YouTube, Maps, Gallery, Facebook and the camera app. There's also the Google Go app, which is a pretty ingenious idea: it's a way to get access to plenty of apps and widgets through a browser-type interface, thereby avoiding having each app take up more storage space on the phone. Unfortunately this doesn't always work: for example, there is a Spotify widget, but when you access it,it simply tells you to that you need to download the Spotify app. But in general it's pretty good, with inbuilt games, weather, news and other tools. The Google Go app also has video tutorials to help you work out the features on the phone.Security is built right into this phone in a way that I haven't seen before: when you first set up the phone it prompts you to create a pin, so the default is to be secure and you have to go out of your way to turn that security off. Every time you download a new app, it asks what access you want that app to have to your personal information and to your mobile data. Again, the default is more security and less mobile data.Bluetooth connectivity was a little bit tricky and is not as intuitive as other aspects of this phone, as you have to search in the settings rather than it being available in the pull-down taskbar. However I was able to connect to a Bluetooth speaker and share files with another phone, and the connection strength was fine.The camera is not amazing if you keep it on the starter setting. But if you make sure that you take all your photos using HDR, the pictures are not too bad. I have attached two photos of my messy desk to show the difference that HDR makes. Also built into the camera are a couple of basic features like selfie skin blurring and portrait mode which blurs the background when you're taking a picture of a person. Finally, the camera includes a translate function if you take a picture of any words in a language that you don't understand. I found this worked pretty well.I downloaded Spotify, Netflix, and a couple of games. I found I was able to run them fine, although a new phone always runs faster than one that you've had for a while. So I don't know if it will slow down. The screen is bright and clear. Keep in mind you will need to use a memory card because even on initial setup, 36% of the memory is used by the inbuilt apps. However you can delete several of these. There's not too much in the way of bloatware.There's a digital wellbeing and parental controls section, which helps you check how much the phone has been used and set limits. This is of course also useful to grownups who feel they use their phones too much.The battery seems fine for general needs. I charged it a couple of days ago and have been been using it on and off ever since, and there is still 46% left. By default the phone doesn't run apps in the background, to save your mobile data. This also saves battery life. I didn't notice any issues with the phone getting warm.The build quality is OK. It was really tricky getting the back off initially and I ended up having to stick the end of a spoon into the charging port to pry off the tight plastic casing. That's not sustainable, as I'm sure doing that too often would cause damage. I really wish it had a notch. But so long as you put in your single or dual SIMs, your memory card and your battery in straight away, and don't fiddle with it too much afterwards, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. As previously mentioned it is small and light so I would recommend getting a case for it.In conclusion this is a perfectly fine basic smartphone, and I can see see the thought that's been put into making sure that it does as much as possible. No it's not a super whizzbang experience, but it makes sure that you can do all the essential things you need to remain connected to other people and find out news and information about the world around you. I can see what they're trying to do with this phone, and I think they succeeded.

14.7.2020

Nokia 1.3 5.71 Inch AndroidI have owned a few Nokia phones in the past, all of which I had been happy with. I have always regarded Nokia as a company that provided quality phones. When I was offered this phone, I was more than interested in taking a look at it. My previous Nokia phones were non smart phones so I was curious to see how this phone turned out. As this is essentially a budget model at £79.99 I wasn't really expecting too much from it.When this arrived I was quite pleased with the phones appearance, it didn't look like a budget phone, in fact it appears to be quite well made. In the box was the phone, battery, UK charger and USB charging cable. I was surprised to find that the battery has to be fitted by the user.

6.8.2020

My father in law has had to enter the smartphone world and we did not want to spend a fortune but needed something reliable and well built without breaking the bank. Enter the Nokia 1.3.Weighting in at just below £80, it almost sounds too good to be true. Which it almost is.Out of the (rather basic looking) box, is the phone, separate battery, charging lead and plug (the plug is very compact and has a clever sliding third pin which makes it idea for travel). It charges from a normal android Micro-USB charger so nothing new there. It came 60% charged so it needed a bit of a topup but hat was fine.Swiching it on and confirguring was easy.

27.8.2020

Purchased as a spare phone but thought i would use it as my main device for a week to see how it performs.I love how compact the device is and the screen quality is good, surprising at this price. it may not have quite as good internals as some of the chinese branded phones but in return comes with the promise of 3 years software and security updates, unheard of at this price point from most brands, so you can keep this as a spare for a few years, and it will still be secure and upto date!performance is ok, not amazing, but then i would not expect it for the cost, i was happy with the amount of free space this device has, due to being Android go,

24.7.2020

I guess how you view this phone depends on really your expectation. It is under £100 and our daughter is using it as her first smartphone. There’s a bit of setting up with fitting the battery, SIM card and OS upgrade. Things like the low memory would be a big issue for me but for someone like her it is less of an issue. By the time you include the OS and existing apps a fair chunk of that 16mb is used up already. However, 16mb should do her for a while as it’s mainly photos she stored on it. There’s always the option of adding extra through the SD slot in future. She’s been happy with the camera and the quality of the photos it takes. For me they’re not amazing but again for some with her relatively low expectations they are fine,

13.9.2020

Read poor reviews and was skeptical but needed a cheap backup so picked one up in Argos. Had to YouTube how to get it open to begin with it - you have to open it to insert battery and SIM - it's surprisingly difficult to open. Panicked I couldn't get SIM back out too but there's a tiny little slider to pull SIM back out. Setting up was super slow too and I was starting to believe the 1* reviews. However, it's up and running now and doing the job. WhatsApp, Google Music, Bluetooth all working fine. Slight lag sometimes but I do mean slight. I'm not planning to use this for much more than what I've listed. Screen and camera aren't much either.

23.7.2020

I found that the Nokia 1.3 5.71 Inch Android UK Sim-Free Smartphone with 1 GB RAM and 16 GB Storage (Dual Sim) is a decent phone and well worththe money.I say decent because it cannot touch the high end top spec phones but then again you are not paying the eye watering prices that they try to get away with.#The phone works well. The camera is good- you can read the features for yourself.The phone was easy to set up and you have two full years of Android updates included.Plus it is a Nokia so that gives you an alternative to all the Chinese brands.

21.6.2020

LOOKS GREAT, WORKS GREAT (NOKIA KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING) BUT IT'S A SHAME YOU HAVE TO BEND THE BACK TO REMOVE IT (TO PUT BATTERY IN); WHY COULDN'T NOKIA STICK TO SLIP OFF BACKS LIKE THIER ORIGINAL MOBILES? NICE THOUGH THAT YOU CAN GET TO BATTERY AS WITH SOME PHONES YOU CAN'T. DON'T BUY THIS PHONE IF YOU LIKE ELABORATE APPS (OR LOTS OF APPS AND WIDGETS) AS ANDROID GO EDITION HAS SMALL MEMORY CAPACITY AND SOME APPS WON'T LOAD. HOME SCREEN IS LIMITED. IDEALLY SUITED TO SCHOOL KID OR BASIC USER.

16.6.2020

Basic smart phone but excellent quality. Battery life lasts 2.5 days with WiFi & Bluetooth on. Charges quite slow so do overnight. Loud ringtone, 2 sim & 1 SD slot. Some functions limited to allow for budget like cant like/dislike YT vids. Great for 2nd/work phone needing internet access/WhatsApp. Dropped it alot, never broke. Has most smart phone functions or capabilities. Pic quality great but vid recording can be jumpy during but ok after. Phone can be slow if battery low so keep charged

16.6.2020

Bought this for my gran so that she can use video call to keep in touch with us, I set it up for her and I was really impressed with it. It really is amazing for the price, nice clear screen with good cameras and storage space for apps ect. Only slight nag with this was trying to get the cover off, it took over ten minutes, there's no grove to put your fingernail into. Apart from that it is the best budget phone for its price! Thank you Argos for another great product and fast collection!

6.8.2020

This is an entry level Android phone from Nokia. It runs Android Go, the slimmed down version of the operating system for low powered handsets. This means you get a decent performance and a good battery life, without having to splash out on a high end phone. I use this as a second phone for work, so I'm not going to be using very demanding apps. If you just need to be able to check your mail, take some pictures and do a bit of social media updating - this will happily do all of that.

5.8.2020

This is a perfectly good phone as long as you realise that at this price bracket there are compromises.Despite having a small footprint OS (android 10 go) it is still a very slow phone.Good:It has a decent sized screenbattery life is goodhas a micro sd card slot to expand storageBad:No quick charging and a micro USB charging portonly 16GB of internal storageIf you are on a very tight budget this phone is worth looking at as long as your eyes are open to the compromises.

24.6.2020

Ordered this as an inexpensive emergency replacement for a broken phone, but I may just keep this. The specs aren't mind blowing but it uses Android Go, which is specifically designed for low end phones, and as such it's surprisingly fast given how little RAM this device has. It arrived same day, too, which was very much appreciated. Good little phone, and it doesn't weigh much either. All in all quite pleased with it.

7.7.2020

This is a really simple phone running a bare-bones version of android.I would only really recommend this for older people or people who want a no fuss cheap phone capible of running things like WhatsApp. It can be laggy at times and I wouldn't expect to be able to play any serious games or anythingSupports dual sim and micro sd expansion so great for those who need an international sim or similar.

Nokia 1.3 - Reviews

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