Nokia C21 and C21 Plus Announced at MWC 2022; Ultra Affordable and Durable

HMD Global announced two new entry-level phones at the big MWC 2022 event: the Nokia C21 and Nokia C21 Plus. It’s an ultra-affordable duo with bare-bones features. So many technical specs will feel out of place in 2022. 

Nokia C21

The Nokia C21 follows HMD Global’s old design language. We find an 8MP rear camera and an LED flash in its round housing. An instant fingerprint scanner rests next to the camera. And the textured plastic casing is chamfered along the edges, painted in silver or dark blue colors.  

The screen has a big chin and a V-shaped notch around it. It’s an unremarkable 6.5” panel with a 720P resolution. The notch cutout contains a 5MP front camera.

Everything runs on a small 3000 mAh battery, powered over a dated micro USB port without any rapid charging. MD Global ships the C21 in two storage variants — 2GB+32GB and 3GB+64GB.

Storage expansion is offered with both options. And the trimmed Android 11 Go Edition runs on this hardware. Customers are promised two years of OS updates and security patches.

Nokia C21 Plus 

The Plus edition packs a bigger battery (or rather batteries.) Oddly enough, HMD offers the Nokia C21 Plus in two battery variants. The baseline version has a 4000 mAh capacity — advertised to last two-day use. And the fully specced-out variant features a 5,050 mAh cell, enough for three-day life. Unfortunately, the charging interface is the phased-out micro USB.

The C21 Plus screen is identical in size and specs, but it’s toughened with protective glass. HMD also secured an IP52 rating against dust and water for the phone to make it more durable. 

Two lenses (13MP wide-angle and 2MP portrait) and an LED flash occupy its off-center camera rectangle. The front camera of the C21 Plus also has a 5MP sensor behind it.

One can pick from 2GB, 3GB, and 4 gigabytes memory variants, paired with 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. The availability and pricing details for the Nokia C21 Plus or the standard C21 variant haven’t been published yet.