The Nokia 5.3, launched a while back in March 2020 has finally started hitting the stores across India. Following a tepid year of sales due to the ongoing pandemic, HMD Global has deferred several launches and has remained tacit with respect to its marketing efforts.
Nevertheless, the company has managed to launch its new Nokia 5.3, a no-nonsense practical smartphone for those minimalistic millennials among the masses. For a starting price of ₹12990, it does cost a bit more than the Nokia 5.1 Plus that was launched last year. But does this smartphone have what it takes? Let’s find out!
Design and Display
The design philosophy followed by the Nokia 5.3 is more of the same as observed from the other launches by the company in recent times. The company assumes a very minimalistic feel with its sleek polycarbonate back offered in three distinct matte finishes. Although the colour looks decent it does makes it vulnerable to a fair amount of fingerprint smudges. Thankfully the company does provide a nice silicon case with the retail box to tackle this obsession.
Following this matte back is a responsive fingerprint sensor and a circular camera hump which accommodates the four-sensor unit with LED flash. The most impressive bit of the smartphone is its nicely tucked LED notification light that is housed inside the power button and an additional google assistant button that does come in handy at times.
Coming to the front, there is a large 6.55-inch display with a waterdrop notch and large chunky bezels which feels a tad bit intimidating. Moreover, this panel supports a 720p resolution with Gorilla Glass 3 which is a big disappointment for those hardcore pixel lovers among us. However, don’t get us wrong, seeing it from the considerable distance, the panel does look vivid and offers good viewing angles with the only downside being a slight degree of coolness to the colour saturation.
Performance
Powered by the age-old Snapdragon 665 processor, the Nokia 5.3 isn’t as competitive as the Snapdragon 720 offered by the competition. But if every use of basic social media apps, casual games, and streaming is considered the device with its basic setup of 6GB RAM and 256GB of expandable storage, serves well to give a comfortable flawless experience.
For the sake of testing, we did run some intensive games such as PUBG, Asphalt, COD Mobile and were pleased with the results as the games ran great once we dialled the graphic setting to moderate.
Software
The most enticing part of the Nokia 5.3 comes through its near-stock Android 10 experience which one might get on the Google Pixel, that cost way higher than this smartphone. The OS runs smoother with consistent feel and feedback and is one of the most important USP as far as this smartphone is considered. The OS is bloatware free and breezes through the apps due to the backend optimisation done across the entire system of apps. The icing on top comes though the promise of frequent updates as soon as they roll out which makes the Nokia 5.3 a forerunner in getting the Android 11 treatment.
Cameras
The camera setup on the Nokia 5.3 includes a 13MP primary shooter, a 5MP ultrawide shooter, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor on the back while an 8MP sensor on the front. Right off the bat, the images came out to be dull with a lack of contrast and depth we were expecting. The shots were overexposed with a hint of graininess to the edges of objects. Thankfully outdoor shots were vibrant and punchy which helped us capture some good-looking shots under sufficient sunlight. Talking about the 5MP ultrawide lens, the images tend to be over sharpened due to the excessive post-processing done by the smartphone camera app.
Similarly, the night mode failed to capture our imagination as it ended up capturing messy shots with a sufficient amount of blur around the background edges. We weren’t exactly excited for the 8MP selfie camera either, as the images came out to be artificial with a skin tone that looked quite unnatural. We hope Nokia could work out a way to fix these issues with a good software update or patches.
The Nokia 5.3 can shoot 4k footage at 30fps while the ultrawide lens and macro are limited to 720p. Overall footage was good as the device offers some digital stabilization to correct that wavering hand motions on the go. Quality was passable too with a rendering that was good for social media use. We even did a Timelapse video and the result was satisfactory.
Battery
The battery on the Nokia 5.3 is a 4000mAh brick that`s good for a full day of average use. Our test involved some casual gaming for 2-3 hours, followed by a 1 ½ hour Netflix session and 3 hours of social media, which left us with 10-15 per cent spare at the end of the day. The only bit we hated was the charging, capped at just 10W, the charger took anywhere between 2-3 hours to top up the battery which felt like a lifetime.
Gizmo Verdict
Getting down to the crux of the matter we do think that a smartphone is a good option for people that value brand name and seek a minimalistic look and feel. However, stacked against revered contenders like the Realme, Xiaomi, and Samsung, Nokia`s spec sheet does fall apart. The device is not a outperformer but does the job very well. So, for people who question whether a pure Android experience would serve as the only edge needed to pivot the scales in Nokia`s side? We say it depends!
