Level up : Nokia 5.1 : Review

Almost two years from inception, HMD Global with their phoenix brand “Nokia” has upped their game with every new offering. Markets in almost 80 countries are being reintroduced to the Nokia brand and with Andoid power, the phones find themselves readily acceptable.

Nokia 5.1 as the name suggests is an upgrade to the existing Nokia 5 smartphone. Nokia 5 was launched during February 2017 and after more than a year, the upgrade has many new things to offer. Starting from mild increase in dimensions, screen ration has gone up from 16:9 to 18:9 (keeping up with the 2018 trend). Pixel density for the continuing IPS LCD touchscreen has gone up from ~282 ppi   to ~439 ppi lashing out a superior 1080 x 2160 pixels display resolution over the last year’s 720 x 1280 pixels resolution. Top speed of Octa-core processors has gone up from 1.4 GHz to 2.0 GHz, somehow the RAM remains the same. Rear camera upgrade from 13 MP to 16 MP while keeping the secondary camera weak at 8 MP. Even as the overall body size has increased, battery has marginally decreased, yet the Standby and Talk-times remain unaffected due to better OS.

BODY: The dimensions of 151.1 x 70.7 x 8.2 mm are slightly bigger than its predecessor, the phone has carried on the front glass and sports Aluminium Body. It can house Dual SIMs. The finger-print stays at the rear under the camera setup. No notch and thick lower chin does not allow the screen size to go beyond 5.5 inches.

DISPLAY: A major upgrade in terms of better resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels and improved aspect ration of 18:9 keeps the Nokia 5.1 in sync to the 2018 spec trends. And it tends to catch OnePlus 6 in this department which has a display resolution of 1080 x 2280 pixels yet has lesser pixel density than the Nokia 5.1. OnePlus 6 scores with Optic AMOLED, but that isn’t a spec Nokia 5.1 would be eyeing for in its price segment. For Nokia 5.1 FullHD+  resolution fits the bill.

UNDER THE HOOD: The Nokia 5.1 runs on Octa-core (4×2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4×1.2 GHz Cortex-A53) CPU, which is fitted on a MediaTek Helio P18 chipset with Mali-T860MP2 GPU. Given the depth in display, this phone is definitely a Challenger in its segment with Octa-Core power.

As the HMD Nokia 5.1 is a part of the Android One program it will be getting OS updates for atleast 2 years and security patches upto next 3 years.

MEMORY: The phone has 2 GB RAM in its 16 GB internal memory model and 3 GB RAM in its 32 GB internal memory model. And it may at times complain to be running low on resources whenever multitasking is tried between resource hungry Apps.

CAMERA: The 16 MP phase detection autofocus Camera is reliable enough for daily captures. Moreover, dual-LED dual-tone flash supports pretty well for low light shots. unlimited Google Photos storage for the user is a big Add-on as the phone does not contain any memory expansion slots and the given internal memory is bound to run out rather quickly. the camera App does have the features like Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection,HDR, panorama and it captures Videos at 1080p @ 30 frames per second. The secondary 8 MP camera allows decent image quality while making video calls, and selfies can be enhanced using Camera software.

BATTERY: The Non-removable Li-Ion 2970 mAh battery is  aslight downgrade from last year’s Nokia 5 which had 3000 mAh battery, but the loss is easily made up with combination of efficient processor cores and Android 8 OS. The phone battery lasts a day or  slightly less with frequent peak usages during the day. The phone does not have wireless charging, probably due to the Aluminium body.

The phone is available in three color choices : Copper, Tempered Blue, Black.

The OnePlus 6 is arguably the best in class Android phone you can buy without compromising on high-end features and performance and ergonomics.

Despite of late re-entry into the smartphone market, Nokia, thanks to its brand recall (Still exists after so many years) has been able to come up the curve rather early and continues to make strides across the globe. Nokia 5.1 is expected to tighten HMD Global’s grip in the market.

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