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Nokia by HMD, in its second avatar, has been making a mark in not just smartphones, but also budget tablets that are suited for home-office usage.
The latest Nokia T21 tablet, fairly similar in features and price to its sibling the T20, is here. Here’s a look at whether it makes a mark in the sea of budget tablets or not.
A good home-office usage tablet | Photo Credit: Siddharth MC
Build quality
Classic Nokia logo | Photo Credit: V Nivedita
The Nokia T21 features an aluminum body that has 60 per cent recycled plastic cover for the antenna. The body feels premium, makes for an easy grip, and also gets the form factor right in terms of size and feel. The Nokia T21 has a 10.36-inch 2K Display.
The screen can get quite bright indoors and delivers decent legibility while viewing in direct sunlight at max brightness. There were times that the auto-light sensor did dim the display a little faster than I’d like, but isn’t really a deal breaker of any sort.
Colours are lifelike and watching OTT content is a pleasure considering that the T21 has widevine L1 support which allows the playback of HD content on the tablet.
Performance
The tablet performs well for an entry-level device. It breezed through an hour of Call of Duty, Asphalt 9 and got only very slightly warm, right behind the front-facing selfie camera and the power button.
The tablet didn’t throttle under extreme use during gaming or video calls. Other than getting a bit laggy once in three days or so, the tablet was able to stand multiple-web page browsing, writing e-mails, and running Microsoft teams with ease.
On the LTE + Wi-Fi model unit I reviewed, the LTE speed was fast, and many consumers might appreciate the extra connectivity option while traveling.
Audio
The speaker notches are placed on the top and bottom corners of the tablet.
One good thing thanks to this design choice is that I didn’t end up covering the speaker grills when playing games, or watching videos on a tablet stand in landscape mode.
Music also streamed with much clarity without any distortion at the highest volume.
Camera
8 Megapixel rear camera | Photo Credit: Siddharth MC
One thing that I found performing below average is the cameras. The 8-MP rear camera renders rather bland images, which appear pretty pixelated when I zoom in.
The 8-MP front camera can be used to run basic Microsoft Teams meetings and Zoom calls in an instant. However, it has a white balance issue with changing lights and my image got a bit grainy.
Battery
The Nokia T21 features an 8,200 mAh battery and was easily able to get through 5-7 hours of gaming, watching YouTube videos and other content. There was only a 20 per cent drain in half an hour while gaming.
The tablet is rated to last three days on a single charge and it came close to that with mixed-use. The tablet supports up to 18-watt charging and took approximately three hours to charge from zero with the supplied charger.
Verdict
With a good form factor, decent performance for its price and long battery life, the Nokia T21 is a good tablet for work and home.
All of this makes the tablet close to an ideal budget multi-tasker.
- Price: ₹17,999.
- Pros: Size, form factor, performance and battery life.
- Cons: Below average camera, basic Wifi speeds.
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