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Nokia’s newest Android phone has an unbelievably cool feature

Andy Boxall
By
The Nokia G42 in purple.
HMD Global

HMD Global’s newest Nokia phone is one you can repair yourself if key parts of it get broken. The Nokia G42 is the second device from the company in its QuickFix lineup and the first with 5G connectivity, but the level of quick and easy repairability is the same as the 4G Nokia G22 announced earlier this year.

This means you can replace a cracked screen, a dead battery, a broken USB Type-C charging port, or a damaged rear cover yourself. There’s no need to throw the phone away, visit a repair center, or pay someone else to do the work. HMD Global has a partnership with iFixit, where you can order the replacement parts and follow the simple instructions to fit them at home. It’s something we rarely see in the smartphone world — even from the best smartphones from Apple, Samsung, and Google.

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It’s all straightforward too, and when the G22 launched, we watched a Nokia representative change the screen in about five minutes. Apparently, the 5G antennas make the job a tiny bit longer on the G42, but not by much. It’s all part of helping you maintain and keep your phone for longer, and iFixit will have parts for the G42 available for the next five years, while there’s also a three-year warranty on the phone in the U.K. from HMD Global.

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The Nokia G42 is made to last

The Nokia G42 in grey.
HMD Global

For the Nokia G42, a series of new durability and compression tests have been used to make sure it’s up to the job of surviving long-term, the battery is claimed to retain 80% of its capacity after 800 cycles — around four years of use — and the Android 13 software will receive two major operating system updates and three years of monthly security updates. There really is everything in place to make the G42 last for three years at a minimum.

But will you want the phone in the first place? HMD Global has made it in a bright purple color to entice fans of eye-catching phones, and a less vibrant grey too, plus it has made sure the specification is also suitably tempting. The 6.56-inch screen has a 90Hz refresh rate, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480+ processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space, plus a 5,000mAh battery, NFC, and even a MicroSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The 50-megapixel camera from the Nokia X30 is on the back, joined by a 2MP depth and 2MP macro camera, plus there’s an 8MP selfie camera on the front. The phone is 8.55mm thick and weighs 193 grams, has an IP52 water resistance rating, and is a two-piece unibody design with a rear panel made of 85% recycled materials, with a fingerprint sensor on the side of the chassis.

The Nokia G42 is available from June 28 in the U.K. from Nokia’s own website for 199 British pounds (around $252) and on its Circular subscription option too.

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Andy Boxall
Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
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