Nokia has a long running history of making solid, zombie-apocalypse ready smartphones. Step forward the Nokia 5, a budget smartphone with a premium look, design and most importantly a strong metal body.
The Nokia 5 is a 5.2in HD smartphone, that has a fingerprint sensor, a 13-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front camera, 16GB internal storage with 128GB of expandable memory, an octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 processor running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, 2GB of RAM and, of course, Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
The Nokia 5 was announced at MWC on 26 February 2017. Nokia’s conference also showcased the Nokia 3, 6 and a revival of the 3310. The Nokia 5 was launched in Barcelona for €189, which translates to around £160 in the UK.
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Nokia 5: Key specifications and release date
The Nokia 5 is set to hit stores in Q2 2017, there’s no confirmation of UK availability or price, but we’d expect it to be released at around £160, given it has an official €189 price tag in the EU.
For connectivity, Nokia provides the option to purchase either a single-SIM or dual-SIM phone. It has NFC capabilities, Bluetooth 4.1 and is a 4G-enabled smartphone.
The budget smartphone isn’t made for gamers, but can handle light gaming through its octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 and Snapdragon 430 chipset. It has a mere 2GB of RAM available, meaning several apps running simultaneously will slow down your phone.
Out-the-box, the Nokia 5 ships with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, which is buttery smooth and provides a wide array of customizability through the software.
I’m a little disappointed to see a HD (1,280 x 720) screen on the Nokia 5. I can understand it being included in the more budget-friendly Nokia 3, but would have liked to see a Full HD display on the Nokia 5. This means that you won’t be able to watch 1080p Twitch streams or YouTube videos on this smartphone. If you want to do that, you’ll have to fork out a little bit more to get the Nokia 6. Also see: Nokia 6 price, release date and full details on the smartphone.
Its camera is highly respectable, with a 13-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front camera at an aperture of F2.0, the budget smartphone does a relatively good job at taking your every-day snaps. You’ll also be able to record video at 1080p, but will obviously have to view your video recordings on a computer if you want to view it in Full HD.
The phone has a microUSB charging port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a single downward-firing speaker, and a fingerprint sensor, which gives it a little bit of an edge over other sub-£200 smartphones.
Nokia 5 specs at a glance
| 5.2in, 720 x 1,280 IPS display |
| Octa-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 processor on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 |
| 2GB RAM |
| 16GB storage |
| 13-megapixel back and 8-megapixel front camera |
| £160 |
| Q2 2017 |
| Android 7.1.1 Nougat |
Nokia 5: Design and key features
Nokia didn’t hold back with the design of the Nokia 5. It’s beautiful to look at and due to having a full metal body construction, the phone feels like a flagship smartphone. The phone comes in four different colours: Tempered Blue, Silver, Matte Black and Copper.
With its rounded edges and metallic design, the smartphone is seemingly easy to hold and isn’t a fingerprint magnet, unlike other budget smartphones that inherently have a problem of storing all your fingerprints on their rear plate.
The phone comes with 16GB of internal storage, and if that’s not enough for you, can be expanded through its microSD card slot with an additional 128GB of storage. It also comes with a non-removable 3,000 mAh battery, which will be interesting to benchmark against some of the latest, most power efficient, smartphones in the market today.