Nokia 5 review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

Nokia's mid-range Android handset might be the best of the bunch, but it's fighting in a very crowded budget space.

HMD Global made quite the splash at Mobile World Congress 2017, relaunching the Nokia brand with a range of four mobile handsets produced by Foxconn in China. The most surprising of those was the reborn Nokia 3310, though it had to be altered to support 3G before coming to Australia thanks to the death of 2G services.

The other three Nokia phones which launched at MWC, namely the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6, launched in Australia in July 2017. We've already put the somewhat disappointing Nokia 3 through its review paces, but what about the next phone up the rung: the Nokia 5?

Middle children in a series often have a tough time of it because they're not the absolute budget option, but equally, they often lack the features of the "hero" phone of the series. Against that context, how does the $329 Nokia 5 actually fare?

Design

• Aluminium body gives the Nokia 5 the look of a far more expensive handset.
• Comfortably shaped and easy to hold.

• Read more on the Nokia 5's design

  

  HMD Global has clearly taken the Nokia branding in mind when designing the Nokia 5 because classically, Nokia was known for producing phones with distinctive design notes. That led to the rather plastic but eye-catching Nokia 3, but for the Nokia 5 you instead get a phone carved out of a single block of aluminium. Aluminium body phones are nothing new in a real sense, but it's quite unusual to see them at this kind of price point, and that does make the Nokia 5 stand out. It looks like a much more expensive phone than it actually is, and that's a big plus.

  At 149.7x72.5x8.05mm with a carrying weight of 160g, the Nokia 5 is also quite a comfortable phone to hold in the hand, thanks to rounded corners and all that polished aluminium, although this does mean that it is somewhat slippery too. The right-hand side volume and power buttons only just jut out from the side of the phone, and while this is aesthetically pleasant, it can make them a little hard to accurately hit in a hurry.

  Like the Nokia 3's camera, Nokia has taken a less-is-more approach with the Nokia 5's camera bump. It does extrude just a little, but not so much as to make the Nokia 5 notably unstable if placed down on a table. While the Nokia 5 is produced globally in a range of colours, in Australia we'll only see the Matte Black and Silver variants.

Camera

• Better than the lacklustre Nokia 3.
• Photo quality is still average at best.

• Read more on the Nokia 5's camera

  

  The Nokia 5 features a rear 13MP f/2.0 camera, with a 8MP f/2.0 selfie camera around the front. That's mostly par for the course in the budget space that the Nokia 5 occupies.

  Like the Nokia 3, the Nokia 5's camera app is a very generic experience and one that isn't notably quick to launch, although it was a little faster to actually take shots than the woeful performance of the Nokia 3.

  That being said, the Nokia 5 still struggled with anything more complex than a well lit, static shot. If you're a frequent smartphone photographer wanting anything fast, or in less than ideal lighting conditions, the Nokia 5 is likely to frustrate with uneven exposure, wobbly focus and average photos at best. Here's some sample photos taken with the Nokia 5:

  

Performance

• Middle-of-the-road performance for a budget smartphone.
• HMD's promise of upgrade support for two years will help the Nokia 5 remain viable over the long term.

• Read more on the Nokia 5's performance

  The Nokia 5 comes with a 5.2 inch 720p display that's adequate but (again) unexciting for this price range. Predictably very bright sunlight isn't its friend, but for most mobile apps it's adequate.

  Underneath the display lurks Qualcomm's Snapdragon 430, alongside 2GB of RAM. The low-cost Snapdragon 430 really hasn't been seen on too many phones in the Australian market, although it's quite common for a range of Chinese-produced phones sold elsewhere worldwide. It's definitely a step up from the MediaTek 6737 found in the Nokia 3, and when you consider that there's only a $30 price difference between the two, that marks the Nokia 5 out from its lesser sibling. Interestingly, it's the same essential configuration found in the $399 Nokia 6, although that phone also has 3GB of RAM.

  HMD has stated that it expects to offer two years worth of upgrades across the new Nokia lines. That's playing out faster on the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6, both of which were running on Android 7.1.1 during our test period, while the Nokia 3 was still using Android 7.0.

  The Nokia 5 does feature a reasonably adept fingerprint sensor for unlocking purposes, although it is a little thin, making rapid unlocks a sometimes frustrating experience.

  The Nokia 5's anecdotal performance was much what you'd expect out of a budget phone. HMD Global has made a lot of noise around its choice to bundle essentially pure Android with few specified "Nokia" apps, and that does mean that the Nokia 5 isn't notably cluttered up with apps that could hit its basic performance.

  Still, basic is the word to describe the Nokia 5's overall performance, because it doesn't exist in a vacuum against other budget and mid-range competitors. Here's how it compared using Geekbench 4's CPU test:

  Handset	Geekbench 4 CPU Single Core (higher is better)	Geekbench 4 CPU Multi Core (higher is better)
  Moto G5 Plus	842	4,180
  Motorola Moto X Force	1,352	3,581
  Huawei GR5 2017	814	3,398
  Huawei Nova Plus	843	2,985
  Nokia 5	662	2,833
  Nokia 6	664	2,832
  Moto G5	630	2,605
  Nokia 3	552	1,527

  It is interesting to note that the Nokia 5 ever so slightly pipped the Nokia 6 in pure benchmark terms, even given the extra GB of RAM on the larger handset. Benchmarks don't tell the entire story though, with both phones very much relying on what are ultimately low-end processors.

  In the 3D space, the same story played out. Here's how the Nokia 5 compared using 3DMark's Ice Storm Unlimited test:

  Handset	3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Result
  Huawei Nova Plus	13,969
  Moto G5 Plus	13,753
  Huawei GR5 2017	11,859
  Moto G5	9,532
  Nokia 5	9,483
  Nokia 6	9,435
  Nokia 3	3,676

Battery life

• Doesn't deliver the longevity we expected from its 3,000mAh battery and low-power processor.
• You may struggle to get a full day of use on a single charge.

• Read more on the Nokia 5's battery life

  One of the benefits of using a low-spec processor should be improved battery life, because you're simply not churning as many bits all at once. Nokia provides a 3,000mAh battery in the Nokia 5, which is a reasonable size at this price point, and a good match to run a display of this size.

  In day to day use, single day recharges are workable, but only just, with the battery often hovering into perilous territory if I was too busy with the Nokia 5 on a given day. That's borne out by the Nokia 5's battery life figures using the older Geekbench 3 battery test, where it very much sat low in the pack:

  Handset	Geekbench 3 Battery Test Duration	Geekbench 3 Battery Score
  LG X Power	14:50:30	5,714
  Huawei Nova Plus	13:21:20	8,013
  Huawei GR5 2017	11:33:50	6,938
  Motorola Moto G5 Plus	11:15:40	6,756
  Motorola Moto X Force	9:46:50	3,914
  Nokia 5	8:42:30	5,044
  Nokia 6	8:19:10	4,833
  Nokia 3	7:34:10	3,028
  Motorola Moto G5	6:32:50	3,833

  Again, that smaller display makes the Nokia 5 the standout in the Nokia pack if you're very brand-conscious, but there are many other budget options with better overall battery performance.

Verdict

• Beyond its sleek design, the Nokia 5 just doesn't have a whole lot going for it.

• Read our full Nokia 5 verdict

  The Nokia 5 is a very nice looking phone at its price point, and that's easily its best selling point. If your budget is limited but you don't want to be stuck with a phone that appears to share its DNA with at least half a brick, it's a solid enough proposition, but not a truly exciting one.

  In some ways, Nokia's use of essentially stock Android mirrors the approach that Google itself used to have with its Nexus phones. Google has shifted over to the premium space for Pixel, leaving a gap in the market that's being filled with phones like the Nokia 5.

  The most obvious competitor products that largely do the same thing would be Motorola's Moto G5 or Moto G5 Plus, but there are also options from Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei or Oppo if the prospect of "clean" Android doesn't appeal to you. The Nokia 5 is reasonable value for money, but outside the design, there's not much here to get overly excited about.

Pricing and availability

Nokia 5

A stylish smartphone for those on a budget

Look good and save money with the sleek and affordable Nokia 5.

Buy Now

• The Nokia 5 retails for $329, but you can currently pick it up for around $250 from retailers like Catch, Officeworks and Harvey Norman.