By Toby Shapshak

Dropping your phone is not an “if” but a “when”.

HMD the home of Nokia phones knows this and has built its new Nokia C22 to be tougher and more durable.

It’s “an affordable smartphone with exceptional durability, outperforming the competition with improved drop protection” they say.

We don’t drop test phones ourselves at Stuff but you can immediately see this phone is built for it.

Its so-called unibody design, made from polycarbonate, with a rigid inner metal chassis, while it features toughened 2.5D glass. This gives it IP52 protection, so it has better protected against drops, dust, and spills.

It has a 13MP dual rear camera and flash in a compact array on the back; and a good 8MP selfie camera.

The Nokia C22 has advanced imaging algorithms for good images at day or night as well as Portrait mode with blurred backgrounds. It has a specific Night mode algorithm and has what’s called Auto HDR support for extra clarity.

The 6.5-inch HD+ display is clear and bright – and tough.

With a streamlined operating system – Android 13 (Go edition) – there is less bloatware, giving more storage space. “Memory extension turns unused storage space into additional 2GB of short-term memory (RAM), making multitasking simple and smooth,” HMD says.

It’s a dual-sim phone with an extra slot for a microSD card (up to 256GB) and has 64GB of built-in storage.

It’s also built for its battery to last for three days, with a big 5,000 mAh battery. That will come in handy as load shedding returns with the warm weather.

Another good feature is its affordable R1,800 price tag.

No phones were harmed in the writing of this review.

Toby Shapshak is the editor-in-chief of Stuff Studios.