Nokia 800 Tough review - The new indestructible Nokia - Android

The durability of Nokia feature phones is legendary. The classic Nokia 3310 is still responsible for some of the best indestructible phone memes around. That phone was re-released back at the start of 2017, although it wasn’t built like the tank its progenitor was. Enter the Nokia 800 Tough, a KaiOS feature phone that is built to survive. Encased in shock-absorbent rubber with MIL-STD-810G compliance and an IP68 rating, the Nokia 800 Tough is a brick. But it’s probably a much smarter brick than your last Nokia feature phone. This is the Nokia 800 Tough review.

What are the best things about the Nokia 800 Tough?

Battery life and durability. As you could probably guess, battery life on a feature phone with a tiny screen is epic. I’m not going to tell you how many hours of screen-on time I got, because, well, I still haven’t killed the 2,100mAh battery in the week and a half I’ve been using it. Standby time is reportedly a month and a half, and I don’t doubt it.

There’s even a battery-saving mode to extend the Nokia 800 Tough’s battery life further. You know, in case six weeks isn’t enough for you. GSM talk-time is around 12.5 hours. Given how little I speak on the phone these days, it wasn’t much of a concern for battery usage. 4G talk-time is nine and a half hours.

The other obvious benefit of a Nokia phone wrapped in durable rubber is that this thing is practically impossible to break. I dropped it out my second-story window onto concrete pavers a couple of times (for science) and, not surprisingly, it survived. Even the light scuffs on the rubber practically disappeared after a quick rub and it looked good as new. You can scratch the display glass if you’re unlucky or super-careless, but I suspect it would be near-impossible to drop this phone normally and actually break it.

The Nokia 800 Tough measures battery life in weeks, not hours.

The protection doesn’t stop at the rubber either. There are two water-resistant flaps over the micro-USB port and 3.5mm headphone port on the top edge. They’re right next to a 198-Lumen flashlight you can activate by long-pressing up on the navigation button. The phone’s screen needs to be on for this to work, though, so you’re not likely to accidentally activate it in your pocket.

What is the worst thing about it?

Navigation and the amount of time it takes to do things. The lack of a touchscreen means you’re stuck using the menu system and navigation key to get where you want to be. In simple menus, that’s not so bad, but when you’re trying to scroll through YouTube results or navigate the web browser it’s a pretty tedious process.

The same is obviously true for typing. If you’ve never typed with a multi-press or T9 keypad before, you’re guaranteed to hate it here. And even if you’re familiar with the joys of multi-press, you’ll still wonder how you ever managed to use it on the daily in the past. The upshot? You’ll find yourself sending much shorter text messages and not faffing about on social media as much because it’s not a fun experience.

Fortunately, T9 predictive text is available in the input method settings with next-word suggestions. Depending on whether you’ve used T9 before and consider yourself a grandmaster of the craft, you’ll either find it faster or slower than QWERTY or touchscreen typing. Just remember that to switch between initial capitalization, all-caps, numbers and predictive text you just need to double press the pound key. The asterisk key brings up your symbols shortcuts.

Which brings me to the point of the Nokia 800 Tough, at least from my perspective: who it for?

Who is the Nokia 800 Tough for?

There are a few potential “types” that would be interested in the Nokia 800 Tough. The first would be someone not interested in the pitfalls of full-blown smartphones — large size, poor battery life, too complex, etc. Perhaps your parents or someone who simply doesn’t want a small computer in their pocket. The Nokia 800 Tough is pretty easy to get your head around, but it still does a decent amount of what true smartphones can.

The Nokia 800 Tough is great for anyone that needs a phone that can take a few knocks.

The Nokia 800 Tough is also great for anyone who needs a phone that can take a few knocks. Think anyone who uses a phone at work in conditions that aren’t ideal for a glass sandwich (e.g., a workshop or construction site). Clumsy people will also like the Nokia 800 Tough because it really doesn’t matter how often you drop it. I have to confess I did treat it pretty recklessly during the Nokia 800 Tough review period. But hey, I was supposed to, right?

The other person the Nokia 800 Tough is good for is someone like me. Someone who already has a smartphone but also wants a super-durable, long-lasting backup phone. When I go camping or riding I don’t actually want to take my smartphone with me, lest I drop it or lose it. Having an indestructible phone that lasts forever and can do all the basics is a far better option for me. The best part is that KaiOS means you don’t have to miss out on much.

What is KaiOS and is it any good?

The Nokia 800 Tough is a sort of almost-smartphone, featuring Google Assistant, WhatsApp, Google Maps, YouTube, and more. It runs KaiOS, a super-lean operating system that’s one part feature phone, one part smartphone. If you’re looking for a cheap feature phone with a physical keyboard and you don’t care about specs, chances are KaiOS is what you want.

KaiOS still provides access to services like Google Assistant, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

Take my example above. I can pair my Huawei FreeBuds 3 with the Nokia 800 Tough, install a bunch of music on it, and jump on my bike. Google Maps navigation provides turn-by-turn instructions at a glance while I’m listening to some good riding music. I’ve got no concerns about the battery running out or the phone falling out of my pocket. I can ask the Google Assistant questions to avoid typing queries into the browser. And if I need to, I can stay in touch with everyone via WhatsApp voice messages. The list of benefits goes on and on.

Even if I have my smartphone in my bag, the Nokia 800 Tough still tends to be a better commuting device for me. Because its battery is much better than my Pixel 4 XL‘s, it makes more sense to rely on the Nokia 800 Tough for GPS navigation and music playback than my smartphone. The only catch is that my particular use-case here doesn’t rely on the screen — everything I use the Nokia 800 Tough for tends to be delivered via headphones rather than visually. So the only thing missing for me is turn-by-turn voice navigation. That feature alone would mean I never leave home without this phone.

How good is the screen?

Not great. It’s tiny and has about 16 pixels in it. It’s a 2.4-inch TFT display with 320 x 240-pixel resolution (167ppi) in a 4:3 aspect ratio. It’s obviously not meant to compete with smartphone displays but it’s still a pretty dismal experience. It feels too much like the feature phone screens I was using a decade ago. A slight bump in clarity would be nice, especially given that it’s so small.

The Nokia 800 Tough's tiny low-res screen means it's not a media consumption device, but it is still fine for audio.

The tiny size of the screen is the main reason I didn’t use the Nokia 800 Tough very much for visual things. It was fine for phone calls, voice searches, navigation, music, taking photos, and so on, but it’s about as far away from being a media consumption device as you can get.

That said, it does run YouTube just fine and its rear-mounted speaker is very loud (the two front-facing speaker grilles are for calls) and not at all terrible. YouTube music videos are definitely a better listening experience than a watching experience. Speaking of, there’s an FM radio if you’re into terrestrial radio, though you’ll need to plug some headphones in order for it to work.