Build, Design and Display
Nokia 5 Build and Design
No wonder, Nokia 3 has a nice looking design mostly matching to the Lumia family with aluminium frame and polycarbonate back panel.
Nokia 5 goes ahead and wears a total aluminium design unlike any lower mid-range device we have seen. It’s sturdy and tough in matte finish, however it still sometimes makes its way to slip out of the hands – probably due to the plastic stripes on the corners which are smooth and perfectly merges into the metal. You can see the shoulders-like plastic stripes on top and bottom.
Nokia 5 weighs only 160 grams and it’s thick only a little over 8mm. The phone is pretty much handy in size, curved edges and rounded corners but as told above the polished plastic stripes on the corners can create troubles if you are involved into something else while holding the phone unconsciously.
Perfectly fit in average sized hands, the phone gives premium feel from all around its corners on the back as well as 2.5D curved glass on the front. It’s a Gorilla Glass but company hasn’t disclosed the version – however throughout our experience with Nokia 5, it’s literally good at dealing with scratches. It’s nice and smooth.
Non-Removable Battery
You won’t be able to remove the battery from this lower mid-range smartphone due to its unibody design. Well many prefer to have remove able battery in their smartphones, but in current days, it’s believed that a non-removable battery gives its own impression of premium feel to any smartphone. So does it, with the Nokia 5.
If you noticed, Nokia 5’s frame is fully rounded from back to front where it meets directly into the front glass. There’s no thin middle plastic bezel between the aluminium frame and the front glass. That’s something important in comparison within this class. It indeed gives premium look, and why not? Even the starter Nokia 3 didn’t have those interrupting plastic bezels.
Controls and Components
Audio and Connectivity
Nokia 5 comes with all common components and controls on board including the 3.5mm audio jack on top and a micro USB port on bottom along side the a loud speaker. There are to speaker outlets however but a single speaker behind the bars has got support with a smart amplifier, TFA9891 – the one Google Pixel XL was shipped with.
Primary mic or mouthpiece is located at the bottom as well on the other side of of micro USB port.
Power/Volume and SIM/Memory Slots
Power button and the volume rocker are hosted on the right hand side of the phone to ease your thumb reach. While on the left side of the phone, there are the dedicated slots for both the dual-SIM cards and microSD card for storage expansion.
That’s always a plus point to have all three options usable unlike the hybrid slot which only lets you use one SIM if you wanted to use a microSD card.
Antenna and Rear Profile
Antenna stripes occupy the top and bottom sides edges of the phone. Shoulder-like design of the plastic stripes stay at the boundary of the frame and slightly join on the front glass for better signal reception. Secondary mic is also there on the back of the phone for noise cancellation and stereo audio recording.
Looking over at the rear side of Nokia 5, we get long vertical bump with the camera module that adds 0.5mm to the thickness of the phone. It didn’t need to be that long as only half of it could contain the camera lens and the LED flash – like Nokia 3. Not sure if it was required by the design from inside or HMD just made it to distinct each of the three devices 3, 5 and 6 from each other. Else we have the “Nokia” branding and product labels on the back.
Front Profile
On the front, you can see that the upper portion of the screen is printing the brand name “Nokia” on the corner more like the late Lumia designs.In the middle we have an earpiece and on the side there’s front-facing 8MP camera with 84-degrees field of view – it seems larger than usual on the front. Front-camera features screen-flash to brighten up the nearer subject for some better selfies.
On the lower portion of the screen, Nokia 5 has capacitive home button in the middle which also has a fingerprint sensor underneath. Besides, there are “overview” and “back” keys to view open apps and to go to previous app or task respectively. Better to have them as back-lit.
Nokia 5 Display
Nokia 5 features a 5.2-inch IPS display with HD resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Many would reject the 720p display today, but you must consider the most important factor – the density of the display. Nokia 5 has a pixel density of 282ppi which is still decent for your eyes.
Within the class and price range, Nokia 5 has a an excellent display. It’s very bright at its maximum setting as well as colors are also pleasant. Automatic brightness control also works well to manage with the ambient light. Company rated this phone to have 500 nits, however when set to maximum manually, it goes beyond that. Black levels are not that impressive, hence contrast ratio is not that great.
Additionally, you can turn on the sunlight readability option in Nokia 5 that also boosts the viewing experience on the phone when you are outdoors. The screen has polarizer to help reduce reflections and Nokia 5 manages it really well. Checkout the following display comparison with Huawei Y7 Prime and Nokia 6. Nokia 3 is also included.
Nokia 5 vs Huawei Y7 Prime, Nokia 6, Nokia 3
You can see how Nokia 5’s display is more visible in shadows highlights than any of the partner smartphones – Huawei Y7 Prime, Nokia 6. Leave Nokia 3 out of competition here as it’s the same class. It’s yet unclear why would Nokia 5’s display be any better than Nokia 6 as both has the similar display according to specs. There could still be a difference in a specific unit of Nokia 5 or Nokia 6 – may be.
