HMD has worked to make what it says are the most common smartphone repairs – replacing a cracked screen, charging port or dead battery – a simpler process on its new Nokia G22, and is partnering with the iFixit repair specialists to provide customers with the necessary replacement. parts, tools and guides. The Nokia G22 will be available on March 8 in the UK for £149.99 (€179 / around $180) and will be sold in select global markets like Europe, but not the US.
The company joins a growing list of smartphone manufacturers that are making replacement parts more readily available to end-customers. In the past two years, we’ve seen Samsung and Google partner with iFixit to sell replacement parts, while Apple launched its own self-service repair program. These companies are making it easy to buy parts, but the actual ease with which you can repair your devices is more unpredictable.
That’s why it’s significant that HMD boasts about how quickly it can replace the G22’s battery or screen. To emphasize the ease of repair, Adam Ferguson, HMD’s head of product, successfully replaced the Nokia G22’s battery during a press conference about the phone. This wasn’t as easy as swapping out a removable battery: Ferguson had to pry open the phone with a guitar-pick-style piece of plastic and disconnect a dainty-looking cable to remove the battery, but the whole process took around five minutes. A similar battery change in a previous generation HMD phone or many competing phones would take about 90 minutes, he says.
For a screen repair “you’re probably looking at 20 minutes” for the Nokia G22, he says. Prices for Nokia G22 replacement parts from iFixit range from £18.99 (around $23) for a new charging port to £44.99 (around $54) for a replacement screen.
It may be an improvement compared to its competitors, but HMD still has some work to do if it wants to catch up with Fairphone, which is currently on its fourth generation of sustainable repairable phones. While the Nokia G22’s battery is easier to remove from the phone, it still requires tools – the Fairphone 4’s battery can be removed entirely by hand.
When I asked HMD why it didn’t equip the Nokia G22 with a removable battery, it said that doing so (at this price point, at least) would either limit the battery’s overall capacity or its maximum charging speed, or result in a thicker battery. phone. The Nokia G22 has a 5050mAh battery that can fast charge up to 20W and is 8.48mm thick, while the Fairphone 4 is thicker at 10.5mm, has a smaller 3905mAh removable battery. , but it can also be quickly charged at the same 20W.
Although HMD expects the user-repairability to extend the life of the Nokia G22 with spare parts stocked for five years, it will stop offering software support before Samsung and Google. The Nokia G22 will receive two years of Android updates and three years of security updates. And in another unfortunate twist, it will ship with 2021 Android 12. Meanwhile, Google and Samsung offer up to five years of security updates (and three and four years of Android updates, respectively), while Fairphone will have supported its Fairphone 2 of 2015 for more than seven years when your latest software updates released in March 2023.
In a briefing, HMD’s Ferguson argues that this support duration is good considering the G22’s relatively affordable €179 price tag. “I know there are larger numbers flying at the super premium level,” he said. “Yes, it would be absolutely fantastic to be able to do that, but all these things come at a cost.”
Beyond its repairability, the Nokia G22’s specs are less remarkable. It has a 6.52-inch, 90Hz, 720p display with a teardrop notch for its eight-megapixel selfie camera and a trio of rear cameras, including a 50-megapixel main one, a two-megapixel depth sensor, and a two megapixel macro. Internally, it’s powered by a Unisoc T606 processor and starts with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Unlocking is handled via a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and it’s rated IP52 for dust and water resistance.
HMD is announcing the Nokia G22 alongside a couple of even more affordable C-series phones: the €109 (about $115) Nokia C22 and the €129 (about $137) Nokia C32. The C22 ships with Android 13 Go edition, which is the version of Android optimized for low-power devices, while the C32 runs regular Android 13. Both are equipped with 5000 mAh batteries, which HMD says should be good for three days of use before needing to recharge. Again, don’t expect US releases for these phones.
HMD’s final announcement today, which comes on the eve of this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is that it is taking the “first steps” to start manufacturing select phones in Europe in a move it says will help with the safety and sustainability of your devices. . However, the company was not willing to share specific details of the initiative, including the specific models that will be affected or in which European country it would be produced. Historically, HMD’s Nokia devices have been made through a partnership with Taiwan-based Foxconn.
