HMD Global has officially made available in the Kenyan market the Nokia C12, an entry-level smartphone it announced last month.
With it, the company is promising the same resilience that its devices are known for accompanied by various additions to make its usability better. It has a “sculpted rear with metallic finish” to boost its toughness credentials: HMD says that it should handle accidental drops better than your average smartphone.
The Nokia C12 packs a 6.3-inch HD+ display, a Unisoc SC9863A1 chipset (from a 28nanometer process – which means that it’s not the fastest of the bunch even though there are eight cores to spread out the demands of power from it).
There is a choice of 2 and 3GB memory options even though here in Kenya we are getting the 2GB RAM variant. That amount of memory is too little for this day and age – and for the money that HMD Global is asking for for this device, Kshs 11,000.
Anyway, if it is any consolation, users of the Nokia C12 get virtual memory expansion. That is to say, when need arises (as it most certainly will given what you are working with in the first place), 2GB is slashed from the onboard storage (64GB) to provide the virtual boost to the existing RAM to keep up with the demand. The 64GB is expandable up to four times using a microSD.
The device has an 8-megapixel camera at the back and on its front, its misery is compounded by a 5-megapixel shooter that can do 720p selfie videos, if those are a thing.
It has a 3,000mAh battery and, all the performance boosts we got in 2021 with the debut of the Go edition of Android 12 like 30% faster app launches should help put it out of its misery. Given that it may never get the next version of Android, the consolation here is that there will be security updates from HMD Global’s side for 2 years, guaranteed.
Oh, and there’s a microUSB port for charging and data transfer.
The device comes in Dark Cyan, Charcoal and Light Mint colour options.
