Meet Nokia 3.4 - Feature-packed under PHP 8K?

The Finnish mobile company continues to bring consumers bang-for-buck devices and one of these is the Nokia 3.4.

Meet Nokia 3.4

To recall, this was officially launched along with the more premium and first Nokia 5G smartphone the 8.3, and its more affordable brother, the 2.4. in September of 2020. 

But how does this under PHP 8K smartphone perform? Let's check it out!

Meet Nokia 3.4

The box

The smartphone arrives in a clean white box printed with the actual look of the device. Inside are the following: Nokia 3.4, silicone clear case, SIM ejector tool, wall charger, USB-A to USB-C cable, basic earphones, and paper documents.

Nokia simply packed everything that we need inside the box.

What's inside?

The device that was loaned to us is the fjord colorway. To give you an interesting trivia Fjord is a word used in Norway and Iceland referring to a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. It's pronounced as "fyord", in case you're having a bad time figuring out how to say the word. 

Nokia 3.4 in Fjord colorway

Nokia 3.4 is lightweight, weighing only 180 grams. It has a textured, matte build with a nice grip. What we love about its build is that it's not prone to fingerprint smudge and hairline scratches. But if you want an added protection, Nokia has provided a clear, silicone case that you can use.

Unique design that is not prone to fingerprint smudges

On top, you can find the 3.5mm headphone jack slot alongside the microphone. Meanwhile, the grille speaker, USB-C charging port and secondary mic are placed at the bottom of the device.

Top

Bottom

The power button is placed at the right side of the smartphone along with the volume rockers. On the other side, you can find the trademark dedicated Google Assistant button just below the triple slot (dual SIM and microSD card) tray.

Left

Right

The Nokia 3.4 features a 6.39-inch 2.5D curved LCD HD+ screen with 1560 x 720 resolution at 269 ppi. It has thin bezels on the side and a kind of thicker chin bezel where the "Nokia" branding is placed. 

6.39-inch display

 

Notably, under PHP 8K, Nokia 3.4 has a punch-hole selfie camera placed at the leftmost of the screen.

Since it's at HD+, the display has vivid colors but not on the level of AMOLED screen, at this point of time, we should know how to manage our expectations. The display quality doesn't feel underwhelming, it's enough given the price.

I'm a smartphone user who leans on the warmer side of the display so Nokia 3.4's default warm screen favors me. But you can always modify it according to your preference by going to the "White Balance" settings.

Nice device to binge-watch your fave shows

Under direct sunlight, Nokia 3.4's display can only go farther. We wish it can get brighter, so I can still use it outdoors. But given the pandemic, we think Nokia's display is designed for people to stay indoors. (kidding)

As for the speakers, the loudness is just okay. We expected it to be a little louder, but do note that the sound coming out from the grille speaker is crisp and audible. The free earphones work decently with the device when plugged in it.

Triple rear cameras

Nokia 3.4 has a triple camera setup of 13MP + 5MP ultra-wide-angle + 2MP depth with LED flash is placed at the back. The design kind of reminds me the Huawei Mate 40 Pro's rear camera design.

Simple camera UI

The camera UI is simple, it only has four modes of portrait, photo, video, and night. It also has wide, HDR, and beautify features.

Rear Camera Samples

Indoor

Indoor wide

Indoor close-up

At under PHP 8K, Nokia 3.4's 13MP main camera managed to go beyond what I expected. It produces quality photos with nice color accuracy and sharpness. The photos are even better when taken with the HDR feature on.

The portrait mode is great as well. There will be times when the camera finds it hard to focus on the subject but the result is pretty comparable to the pricier devices.

Night mode on

We'd like to note that for this price, Nokia is doing a great job of putting a night mode feature. It may not be as good as the ones we have on flagship smartphones, but the photos taken using this feature are great for the price.

Punch-hole selfie camera

As mentioned above, the punch-hole selfie camera is placed on the upper leftmost part of the screen. It's a single 8MP front camera with functions limited to portrait, photo, video, and night. Just like the rear cameras, it has wide and beautify features as well.

Selfie Camera Samples

Indoor daylight selfie

The selfies I took on this smartphone in an outdoor setting are great but what I don't like about it is that I look even paler. It's normal for me to look pale since I'm an anemic person but Nokia just kind of emphasizes it even more and that's a downside of the selfie camera for me.

In case you need some beautification, there's a feature available on this device. You can adjust it according to your preference.

Overall, the selfie photos taken on this smartphone are just fine. I hope Nokia finds a way in the future to improve the quality even at this price point.

Performance

Aforementioned, Nokia 3.4 is powered with 2.0GHz 11nm Snapdragon 460 octa-core processor paired with Adreno 610 GPU. it has 4GB RAM and 64GB internal memory expandable up to 256GB via dedicated microSD slot.

There's nothing special with it. Nokia 3.4 scored 257 (single-core) with 12274 (multi-core) on Geekbench and 5721 at PCMark benchmark tests.

Nokia 3.4 benchmarks

In reality, Nokia 3.4 can handle the basic tasks a smartphone user needs. Texting, calling, surfing the web, playing music, and casual gaming can be a day's worth of usage in this device. What surprises me is that it only has occasional hiccups, good job, Nokia 3.4.

Respectable overall performance!

As a person who is not into gaming, Nokia 3.4 fits me well. But in case you need a reference, the device can handle Call of Duty, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Rules of Survival at the lowest to default settings.

In terms of battery, Nokia 3.4 is packed with 4,000mAh of battery only. In real life, it can last almost a day with moderate usage.  Charging is a little slow though.

The UI is clean with no bloatware. The look may not suit some people's preference but overall it's okay. 

For connectivity, it has WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, OTG, FM Radio, GPS, GLONASS, and dual SIM. The fingerprint scanner and face unlock are both responsive.

This budget device runs on Android 10.0. In case you missed it, Nokia is included in Google's Android One Program. This means that it is stock-like with timely updates.

Nokia 3.4 Specs

Display: 6.39-inch 2.5D curved LCD screen HD+ 1560 x 720 resolution at 269 ppi

CPU: 2.0GHz 11nm Snapdragon 460 octa-core processor

GPU: Adreno 610

RAM: 4GB

ROM: 64GB UFS 2.1 expandable via microSD card slot up to 256GB (dedicated)

Back Camera: 13MP + 5MP ultra-wide-angle + 2MP depth + LED flash

Selfie Camera: 8MP

Battery: 4,000mAh

OS: Android 10.0

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.2, OTG, FM Radio, GPS, GLONASS, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Fingerprint sensor, face unlock, Google Assistant key, USB-C, Colors: Fjord, Charcoal

Dimensions: 160.97 x 85.99 x 8.7 mm

Weight: 180 g

Price: PHP 7,990 (PHP 6,990 new SRP)

Quick thoughts

The budget smartphone packed with essential features

Nokia 3.4 is a budget smartphone packed with essential features a user needs. It would be safe for me to say that this can be a perfect device for those in online schooling now but don't have that much money to purchase a smartphone or tablet.

It may not have the speediest specs, but this PHP 8K (PHP 6,990 new SRP) smartphone has a not that common design and it does its job well. 

Do you guys agree?