Nokia 5.3 Review

HMD Global’s Nokia 5.Three is among the many only a few new telephones which are a part of the Android One programme. It begins at Rs. 13,999 in India and runs inventory Android. That’s not all, it comes with a promise of two years of main Android model updates and three years of safety updates, which smartphones within the funds section do not normally get. Is the inventory Android expertise the one factor on supply with the Nokia 5.3? I assessment it to seek out out.

Nokia 5.Three design: Built to final

Budget smartphones have to chop corners, and the primary place that occurs is normally the supplies and building high quality. Smartphones at this value level are normally made out of plastic, and the Nokia 5.Three isn’t any exception right here. However, it doesn’t really feel low cost in any means. It appears as if the Nokia 5.Three ought to be capable to take a number of knocks and nonetheless hold going.

There is Corning Gorilla Glass Three on the show which ought to assist hold it from getting scratched. I like the large 6.55-inch show on the Nokia 5.3, and realizing that it has some type of safety is reassuring. It’s crisp sufficient with its HD+ decision although this is not the best decision you may get at this value level. HMD Global has gone for a 20:9 panel which is nice for viewing movies in panorama mode, however reaching the highest of it when utilizing this telephone in a single hand is not simple. There is a dewdrop notch on the prime which homes an 8-megapixel selfie digital camera.

HMD Global has packed a 4,000mAh battery within the Nokia 5.Three and managed to restrict the system’s thickness to eight.5mm. As a end result, the Nokia 5.Three doesn’t really feel cumbersome within the hand. At the again, it has a quad-camera setup in a ring-shaped module. This stands out, because the competitors both makes use of pill-shaped or squarish digital camera modules.

The energy button has an built-in notification gentle 

The Nokia 5.Three additionally has a devoted Google Assistant button. You can disable it, however there isn’t any official choice to remap it to another operate. There are apps on the Play Store that ought to allow you to remap it if you want. I additionally discovered the notification gentle within the energy button to be a neat contact. It pulses when you might have pending notifications.

In the field, you get a pair of earphones, which is not bundled with most funds telephones nowadays. You’ll additionally get a case and a 10W charger. I might advocate that you simply use the case as a result of the Charcoal color unit that I had picked up smudges very simply. Nokia additionally gives two different color choices, Cyan and Sand.

Nokia 5.Three specs and software program: Android One

When you take a look at the specs there may be nothing out of the atypical that’ll catch your consideration. HMD Global has picked the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC to energy the Nokia 5.3. This is a recognized processor and has been powering different smartphones such because the Redmi Note 8 (Review). There are two variants of the Nokia 5.Three on sale. The base variant gives 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, whereas the upper one gives 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. These are priced at Rs. 13,999 and Rs. 15,499 respectively. I had the 4GB RAM variant for this assessment.

In phrases of software program, you get inventory Android 10. The Android One programme implies that the Nokia 5.Three doesn’t have any preinstalled bloatware and the UI is similar to what you may discover on Google Pixel smartphones. I just like the clear inventory expertise however if you happen to want extra options then this telephone won’t impress you immediately. Since there are not any customisations, it took me no time to get used to the interface. Gesture navigation is enabled by default however you do get the choice to modify again to the normal three-button navigation format.

The tall show on the Nokia 5.Three has a dewdrop notch on the prime

When I unboxed the smartphone it was working the May Android safety patch, however it bought three updates, bringing it to the present August Security patch. This is an effective signal and if HMD Global maintains this method then you possibly can anticipate the Nokia 5.Three to be updated with safety patches for 3 years.

There are a number of primary gestures on the Nokia 5.3. You can swipe on the rear fingerprint scanner to tug the notification shade down, and double-press the facility button to launch the digital camera app. Overall, if you happen to want inventory Android, you’ll just like the Nokia 5.3.

Nokia 5.Three efficiency: Decent performer

After utilizing the Nokia 5.Three for a number of days I can say that it handles common day-to-day utilization with ease. Calling, messaging, and social media apps usually are not a problem, and you’ll multitask between them fairly simply. I didn’t discover any slowdowns whereas utilizing the smartphone. The tall show has first rate viewing angles and it does get brilliant sufficient outdoor. I discovered the speaker to be pretty loud as effectively.

I ran our set of benchmarks to see the place the Nokia 5.Three stands in comparison with among the different smartphones at this value level. In AnTuTu, the Nokia 5.Three managed to attain 167,750 factors. It additionally bought 312 and 1,399 factors respectively in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core checks. As for graphics benchmark GFXBench, the telephone managed 50fps and 13fps within the T-Rex and Car Chase checks respectively.

The Nokia 5.Three feels well-built

I performed PUBG Mobile on the Nokia 5.3, and it defaulted to “Smooth” graphics and “Medium” body price. I might bump the graphics setting as much as “Balanced” however the HD possibility wasn’t accessible. Playing on the larger setting I noticed occasional stutter however the sport ran effectively on the decrease settings. If you play for longer durations, the again of the telephone does get heat to the contact.

The 4,000mAh battery capability of the Nokia 5.Three is barely decrease than common for the competitors. You will get a full day of battery life out of it however it’ll have to be plugged within the subsequent day. In our HD video loop take a look at, the smartphone managed 11 hours and 50 minutes which is first rate given the battery measurement. You get a 10W charger within the field, so charging is not very quick by at present’s requirements. It bought the telephone to 30 p.c in half an hour and 56 p.c in an hour. Charging the telephone fully took shut to 2 hours. I might have appreciated faster charging.

Nokia 5.Three cameras: Average cameras

The Nokia 5.Three has a quad-camera setup very like most different smartphones at this value available in the market. It has a 13-megapixel major digital camera sensor with an f/1.Eight aperture, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide angle digital camera, a 2-megapixel macro digital camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The digital camera app could be very easy and straightforward to make use of. It has scene detection which is fast to find out what the digital camera is pointed in direction of.

In the picture mode the Nokia 5.Three takes 13-megapixel pictures. In daylight, photographs lacked dynamic vary and tremendous grain was seen within the output on zooming in. Shots taken with the wide-angle digital camera have been of a decrease decision, and these too have been grainy.

Nokia 5.Three daylight digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Nokia 5.Three daylight wide-angle digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

The Nokia 5.Three managed close-up pictures higher, with good particulars and a mushy depth impact for the background. Portrait pictures taken with the Nokia 5.Three had good edge detection, and the digital camera app does allow you to set the extent of blur earlier than taking a shot. I discovered the macro digital camera to be strictly common, and a topic must be effectively lit for pictures to come back out trying first rate.

Nokia 5.Three close-up digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Nokia 5.Three portrait digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Nokia 5.Three macro digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Low-light pictures have been under common, and didn’t have good element. There was grain within the output right here as effectively, which was seen on zooming in. Just a few photographs additionally lacked sharpness. Switching on Night mode improved brightness and sharpness, however photographs have been nonetheless grainy.

Nokia 5.Three low-light digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Nokia 5.3 Night mode digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Selfies taken with the Nokia 5.Three have been first rate in daylight and it does provide the choice to take portraits. In low gentle, there’s a slight dip in high quality however it’s considerably acceptable.

Nokia 5.Three selfie digital camera pattern (faucet to see full-size picture)

Video recording tops out at 4K for the first digital camera and 1080p for the selfie digital camera. Footage shot with the Nokia 5.Three is not stabilised at both decision, and finally ends up being shaky. Video high quality can also be not pretty much as good in low gentle.

The digital camera efficiency of the Nokia 5.Three is not superb total, and you may get higher outcomes from different telephones at this value stage.

Verdict

The Nokia 5.Three is aimed on the sub-Rs. 15,000 value section, with the primary attraction being inventory Android and the promise of software program updates. This system ought to keep updated longer than the competitors, so it’ll go well with the wants of people that do not want to change their telephone fairly often. However, it is not the strongest performer proper now, and can fall additional behind as different firms launch newer fashions.

Camera efficiency is not the most effective, and hopefully some software program tweaks can enhance that. If you’re a heavy person or need to play loads of video games, you may need to take into account extra highly effective and equally priced options such because the Realme 6i (Review) and the Redmi Note 9 Pro (Review).