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Nokia TV in India Review in 2024

By on January 4, 2022

Nokia is a brand that has a rich brand heritage in India. If you are a millennial belonging to a conventional family like me, you can relate to the feeling of getting nostalgic about the “Nokia” phone. It used to be the go-to brand before the advent of Android and Apple. When Nokia decided to launch its first-ever TV in India, we were excessively excited. So, does the Nokia TV live on its legacy of producing quality with durability? Well, let’s find out in this review.

Now, Nokia launched Android smart TV 55CAUHDN in December 2019, and it’s exclusively available on Flipkart. At the time of the launch, the company is offering three years of full-protection commitment at a nominal charge of Rs. 999. Presently, Nokia has launched TV in only 55′ screen size, but the company plans to come up with smart TVs in more size variants shortly.

Let’s now look at the latest features and technologies that Nokia TV comes with and then we’ll look into the pros and cons of this TV.

Beautiful Bezel-Less Design:

Nokia 55′ smart TV boast of sleek design which is almost bezel-free, giving you a distraction-free TV viewing experience. The TV comes in a shiny metallic frame. At the bottom, there is a front-firing powerful JBL speaker that provides stimulating aural experience. The TV uses ADS (advanced plane to line switching) panel, which is a variant of the IPS (in panel switching) technology and has similar characteristics. This type of panel gives better viewing angles than VA panels.

What we like about the appearance was the compact unique metallic base stand. Due to slim width—this TV can be mounted even on a 2.5 feet table—which is otherwise impossible for 55′ TVs which usually comes with a wide TV stand. Box also contains additional accessories for wall mount if you wish to mount it on the wall.

Stunning 4k resolution

Nokia smart 55′ TV offers stunning 4K entertainment by hosting a high 3840×2160 resolution. Visuals on the TV are bright, beautiful and lifelike, making TV viewing a palatial experience. Image clarity offered owing to its high resolution is exceedingly good with no apparent pixelization. So, when the user plays an adrenaline-charged action game or watches a sci-fi thriller, UHD 4K Nokia TV will allow them to see and enjoy the extraordinary depth and detailing of the pictures. It also offers a wide viewing angle of 178 degrees, so watching TV from sides or in a tilted position wouldn’t be an issue. The peak brightness of Nokia TV is 400 nits making visuals on TV reasonably bright.

Latest Android 9 TV OS

Nokia TV comes with the latest Android 9 and supports the host of apps. As it is Android TV, you can also sideload apps (i.e., way to install apps using APK files from an external drive or USB). A quad-core processor powers this TV with 2.25 GB of RAM. It comes with a dedicated Mali 450 processor that makes the gaming experience on the TV much more fluent. It comes with a couple of preinstalled apps like Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon Prime, SonyLiv, Voot and other usual Google apps like Youtube, Google Movies, Music and of course the Play Store. It has a built-in Chromecast which means you can cast your videos and other content from your app to the magnificent 55′ screen.

A host of Connectivity Options

When it comes to connectivity, there is no compromise on Nokia TV. The smart TV comes with three HDMI ports and two USB ports of which one is high-speed USB 3.0 port for faster playback of high-resolution content. Though the TV has built-in WiFi, there’s even an Ethernet port (RJ45) in case you prefer the wired option (LAN connectivity for the internet). Though the TV comes with JBL speakers with DTS decoding, still, if you want to connect to an external soundbar, you can do that using the audio component input. When it comes to wireless connectivity, the Nokia TV comes with the latest Bluetooth 5.0 and 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi running at 2.4 GHz frequency.

Function-Rich Remote

As opposed to compact minimal button remotes offered by brands like Xiaomi and TCL, Nokia has decided to provide very detailed remote and thus remote length seems protracted. This extended remote is more suitable for those who are accustomed to the traditional TV remote and want numeric keypad for channels. Nokia TV remote also has a dedicated button for the launching of crucial TV apps like Netflix, Youtube, Google Play—and of course, Google Assistant for controlling TV using voice commands. This remote like other smart TV remotes work on Bluetooth technology and therefore do not require precise pointing of remote towards TV for its functioning.

JBL Speakers with Dolby and DTS

One of the features that stands out in Nokia TV is the JBL speaker. It is the first time JBL has tied up with a TV manufacturer, and audio quality of the TV is euphonious. Besides two 12W JBL speakers, there is also Dolby Audio and DTS Surround Sound on the software side. Dolby Audio uses psychoacoustic principles (how our ears interact with sound in an enclosed space) to deliver correct discernible sound. DTS decoding, on the other hand, improves the bass and moderates high-frequency sounds for the proper hearing of audio. Combination of JBL, Dolby and DTS is certainly an audiophile’s delight.

MEMC Technology For Viewing Fast-Paced Scenes Without Blur

Nokia smart TV comes with MEMC (motion estimation and motion compensation) technology which is a motion smoothening technology. What it does is it adds more artificial frames in the video to reduce motion blur and make the movement appear smoother in general. It improves viewing sports content wherein it becomes difficult to spot and track moving ball. Similarly, MEMC also enhances watching experience while seeing the movie scene, which is action-packed and fast motion.

Dolby Vision HDR and WCG

One prominent factor that has helped the push of 4K TVs is the advent of HDR. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and it significantly expands the range of two crucial factors—contrast ratio and colour accuracy. Thus, the bright parts of the image get much more vivid, so it seems the image possesses more depth. The colour range expands to show more gorgeous blues, greens, reds and everything in between. Combining this with the mesmerizingly powerful 4k resolution, movies look nothing less than stunning.

Nokia TVs come with Dolby Vision HDR which is superior to HDR10 a generic HDR version found in other models. Dolby Vision HDR is preferred by movie and TV producers to render an amazing cinematic experience. So, watching movies like Daredevil in Netflix on a 4K TV with Dolby Vision support is a completely enthralling experience. Dolby Vision is a proprietary HDR format, which essentially is the video counterpart of Dolby’s Atmos sound systems. The processing and rendering capability of Dolby Vision are superior to HDR10 format because it supports 12 bits colour depth vs 10 bit in HDR10. It results in 68 billion colours as opposed to 1 billion in HDR10. Watching Netflix and other HDR content on this Nokia TV is a delightful experience.

To compliment HDR technology, Nokia TV also comes with WCG (wide colour gamut) technology which brings out even more realistic colours on the giant screen. WCG expands the colour spectrum in the TV, intensifies the shades and provides subtle tones in every picture frame. WCG technology results in a broader range of colours, giving life to the memorable scenes in the way that ordinary TVs can’t.

Intelligent Dimming For Clearer Viewing

Nokia Smart TV also comes with a feature called intelligent dimming. What this feature does is that it comprehends the picture played on screen and based on the understanding, optimizes the contrast to visually enhanced the scene. The best part is that this intelligent dimming works in real-time to process the image and improve the contrast. It results in darker blacks and whiter whites which makes the picture more vibrant.

Now that we covered vital features and technologies in the Nokia, let’s introspect its advantages and shortcomings.

Pros and Cons of Nokia TV

Starting with the things which we liked the most about Nokia TV was its design. With a bezel-free design, distinct glossy Nokia branding at bottom and a compact metal base stand would surely embellish the aesthetics of your house if you decide to place the TV on a table or shelf. Nokia TV offers the latest version of Android and thanks to Dolby Vision, and WCG technologies, colours on the TV appear vivid and lively. Watching Netflix and 4k movies would manifest the true potential of this TV. Also, at the time of the launch company is offering a 3-years warranty at just 999 Rs which is a steal deal as you will get official support for three years as opposed to the standard one year found in an ordinary smart TV. The company has tied up with Jeeves to provide customer support and service.

Talking about the cons, some people have reported screen bleeding on the edges of the TV. Although we didn’t face it, there are such complaints from other users. Bear in mind that Nokia is a new brand in the TV category. So, it would take some time to build a strong service network and provide robust customer support for quick resolution of customer’s complains and queries. Although the sound quality from JBL 24 watts speaker was excellent, we did feel some distortion on full volume. Now as the speakers are quite loud, we assume that you wouldn’t need to run TV at full volume often and thus wouldn’t quite notice this distortion. Finally, we didn’t quite like the location of connectivity ports. Once you wall mount the TV, it becomes quite challenging to access the ports.

Conclusion

After seeing smartphone behemoths like OnePlus and Motorola launching TV last year, Nokia too decided to foray into the smart TV market in India which is growing at a rapid pace. TVs have come the long way since its invention and have now transition itself from an idiot box to a ‘smart’ device.

Nokia has tried hard to get all the bases covered by proving 4k resolution with Dolby Vision HDR and WCG, enhancing sound by roping in the renowned sound specialist JBL and offering the latest version of Android. Pricing is also quite competitive, and Nokia TVs would probably ride on the brand value and recognition which it enjoys in India. We recommend you buy this TV if you are on a tight budget (around 40k) and feel that the company would stand to its reputation of the brand ‘Nokia’. Also, it is better that you table mount the TV if you repeatedly need to access HDMI or USB ports.

About the Author:
Hussain Kanchwala is an Electronics Engineer from University of Mumbai. As an Analyst at BijliBachao he keeps a tab on latest technologies in gadgets and appliances, tracks businesses of white goods companies and monitors the consumer behavior. With a background in engineering, penchant for detail, and flair for writing he regularly write reviews about brands and their products. .

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