Nokia T10 Review: The Best Cheap 8-Inch Android Tablet?

The Nokia T10 could be the best affordable 8-inch Android tablet of this year. Starting at just 170 Dollars, it promises 3 years of software updates, a solid HD screen, and twice the storage including 4G at just 20 Dollars more. So, is it a tablet for you? That’s what you’ll learn in this Nokia T10 review.

Display & Speakers

The Nokia T10 is interesting mostly because of its 8-inch display. I like this screen size a lot but if you prefer a bigger tablet, you’ll get much better 10-inch devices for the same price. What’s cool about an 8-inch tablet is the small size which allows you to fit it into most jacket pockets.

Its 8-inch display has an aspect ratio of 16:10 and it’s a standard and fully laminated LCD. At 1280 x 800 pixels, the resolution is quite low so that the pixel density of most cheap smartphones is much higher. However, in this price range, I think an HD resolution on 8 inches is okay and the pixel density is similar to a 10-inch full HD tablet.

Read: The Best 8-Inch Tablets Tested

Most aspects of the screen are pretty good. Contrast and color reproduction are fine and viewing angles are wide enough. The screen is bright enough for most environments except for direct sunlight. It’s a little bit darker than the iPad Mini so I’m guessing it’s around 400 nits.

Since it has a Widevine Level of L1, you can watch Netflix and other streaming services with HD resolution. That wasn’t possible with the bigger Nokia T20. It’s not a perfect media tablet, however, because the speakers can be a bit scratchy at maximum volume. The sound is okay though, once you turn it down a bit. Then it’s fine for YouTube and a bit of music to relax to.

By the way, the tablet does not support an active stylus. That’s normal in this price class.

Hardware & Performance

Let’s check out its inner values. Inside the Nokia T10 sits a Unisoc T606 chipset that can access 3GB or 4GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. You can get it with integrated LTE as well. I like that the highest-end version costs just 20 Dollars more than the cheapest one.

In my Geekbench 5 benchmark comparison, you can see that the performance is much better than the Amazon Fire HD 8 and Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite. The realme Pad mini is a little bit faster, however. More expensive competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3 are much faster. The latter one is the fastest 8-inch Android tablet in most countries.

The Nokia T10 sits a bit below the realme Pad mini in the 3D Mark Wild Life test as well. Here you can tell that it’s more of an entry-level tablet. The Apple iPad Mini is much, much faster.

In my gaming test, it performs as the benchmarks suggest. Most games don’t need that much performance because many like to buy cheaper devices and most developers want to get these customers as well. And that’s why games like PUBG Mobile are playable quite well with HD graphics. But you can’t even select higher graphic settings.

That’s what Asphalt 9 shows as well. With the lowest graphics settings that game runs very well and makes a lot of fun. Except when you care about good graphics because you will see quite a lot of pixelation here.

Simpler games like Race The Sun run fantastically. I can’t recommend it as a gaming tablet because I think for games the iPad Mini offers the best value. But if you’re looking for something to play simpler games with, it’s good enough.

Besides that, the performance is fine for simple apps. I used the Nokia T10 to surf the web in Chrome, watch some YouTube, read with the Kindle app, and scroll through Instagram. This smartphone app looks usable on an 8-inch screen. I also connected a Bluetooth keyboard and wrote a bit in Microsoft Word. That works fine.

It can always happen, however, that you have to wait a couple of seconds until an app is loaded. Overall, the performance is okay but it’s certainly not suited for intensive multitasking. When I use it as fast with tons of apps after another as I do with my smartphone, it can stutter. I also can’t recommend it as a tablet to edit videos or photos with. I like 8-inch tablets for photo editing because they’re so portable, but an iPad Mini is much better suited for that. But as I said, it’s fine for simple apps.

Software: Android 12 with Updates

The Nokia T10 is running Android 12 out of the box and they did not change the interface much. It’s pretty much vanilla Android and that’s great. Some ads are pre-installed like Spotify, ExpressVPN, and Amazon Shopping but you can deinstall them easily.

I feel like almost every app from Google is pre-installed and I think that’s good with Android devices. Among them are Google Kids Space and Entertainment Space. The latter one is deeply integrated into the home screen. Usually, you can deactivate it easily, but in this case, the setting doesn’t work. I guess it’s a bug.

You should also be able to use the T10 as a second screen for your Windows devices. There’s an app pre-installed for that and Windows does recognize it. However, every time I tried to connect it to my laptop, it failed. I guess that’s another bug.

Nokia will have chances to fix those bugs because they’re promising three years of security updates and two years of big Android updates. So after Android 12, it should get Android 13 and Android 14. That’s fantastic because usually, cheap tablets like this get one at most and often no updates at all. Among these will be the realme Pad mini, so future updates are a big advantage of the Nokia T10.

Design & Build Quality

The Nokia T10 looks like an old tablet because, on the top and bottom, it has thick screen bezels. It’s also quite thick at 9mm and heavy at 375g.

It has a polycarbonate body which is plastic and it’s available in the color Deep Ocean which is turquoise. With that being said, the plastic body does not feel cheap because it has a nice texture on the back. It feels better built than the Amazon Fire HD 8, for instance, but worse than the realme Pad mini which has a metal body.

We get a power button, a volume rocker, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB C 2.0 port. You can extend the storage using a microSD card and if you get the LTE version, that’s also where you put the SIM card. A fingerprint scanner is missing.

You can unlock the tablet using facial recognition with works very fast and well. Nokia is using the 2-megapixel webcam alone for that, so it’s not as secure as Apple’s FaceID. The front-facing camera is lacking detail since the resolution is so low. But the quality is usable for video chats. I certainly would not use it for Instagram selfies though.

The 8-megapixel main camera on the back is a bit better and is supported by an LED flash. It’s lacking some detail too but the quality is fine for occasional snapshots.

LTE & Phone Capabilities

I bought the LTE version of the Nokia T10 and that’s why I used it outside with my SIM card for a while. The internet connection was stable for the most part but in speed tests, it performed a bit worse than my smartphone. It can always be with cheaper tablets that the connection is not as good in the countryside. But since I was in a big city the whole time, I couldn’t test it.

Sadly you can not make phone calls with this tablet and sending SMS text messages is not possible either. That’s very disappointing because, with most Android tablets that support 4G or 5G, that is possible. Sure, an earpiece is missing, but I often replaced my phone with an 8-inch tablet in the past. You can just use a headset or ignore all phone calls which I like to do anyways.

Read: The Best LTE Tablets With SIM Card Slots

Well, the phone app is missing here and if you open the messaging app, it asks you to connect your smartphone. You cannot turn on a phone feature in the settings either.

I also played a bit with Google Maps and as far as I can tell, it shows my position quite accurately. However, a compass is missing so it does not make much sense as a navigation device.

Battery Life

In my battery test, the Nokia T10 got a runtime of 7.25 hours. For this, I’m always looping an HD YouTube video at maximum brightness.

Nokia T10 Review: Final Verdict

Let’s get to my final verdict of this Nokia T10 review. I think it is the best 8-inch entry-level tablet you can buy right now. That’s mostly because of the two big Android updates that Nokia is promising. That’s very rare at this price point. Considering its price, it also offers a solid screen, the performance is good enough, and I like that at just 20 Dollars more you can double the storage and get LTE.

It’s not a premium tablet for sure. But if you’re looking for something small to surf the web with, to watch some YouTube and read books, or to play simpler games, it’s certainly good enough.

Sadly, you cannot make phone calls with the 4G version. And the design is not as high-end. But I can live with that.

What’s even sadder is that in some countries, the Nokia T10 is the best 8-inch Android tablet available. That’s mostly because of lacking alternatives. In most countries, there was no high-end 8-inch Android tablet being released this year. Except for China where you can buy the pretty cool Lenovo Legion Y700. Let’s check out some alternatives.

A direct competitor is the realme Pad mini which also has an 8-inch screen and very similar features. Prices are very similar but the realme offers a bit better performance and a metal body that feels much higher-end. However, it probably won’t get any big software updates and that’s why I think for many the Nokia T10 is the better choice.

If you’re looking for an 8-inch premium tablet, then the Apple iPad Mini is the much better choice. It’s better than the Nokia T10 regarding everything. It’s more powerful, has a more premium design, works with the Apple Pencil 2, and will also get longer updates. The selection of apps that are optimized for tablets is larger as well. However, it costs around three times as much.

Now, if you need a higher-end 8-inch Android tablet, you can check out the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3. It’s over a year old now but it’s more powerful than the Nokia T10, has a better screen, supports the S Pen, and is better in most aspects. But since it’s aimed at business customers, it looks a bit old but has a very rugged design.

From China, you can import the Lenovo Legion Y700 as well. This is a premium 8-inch Android tablet. But since it’s quite expensive and you won’t get any local support, well unless you’re living in China, I can’t recommend it for most. I think most are better of with the iPad Mini.