The new king of budget smartphones?

It is built by Foxconn — the world’s largest phone manufacturer (they make phones for Apple too) and it runs on stock Android — the exact way Google intended it. Finally, it is currently retailing in Nigeria for N65,000 (depending on where you buy from).

Here is a full review of the Nokia 5:

Build

The Nokia 5 has a unibody frame carved from a single block of aluminium. It feels ridiculously sturdy and strong. You can also tell it is well-built, there are no sharp edges and everything flows into each other. A friend told me hers fell from a shelf and the screen did not even scratch, although the glass encasing the camera did scratch.

Software

I’ve heard great things about stock Android (shout-out to Google Pixel owners) but the Nokia 5 is my first experience using it. Long story short, I love it. The Nokia 5 comes out-of-the-box with the latest version of Android (Nougat 7.1.1) which is simple, easy to use and efficient. There are no skins or layers on it so there are almost no glitches/bugs.

Design

Nokia has always been known for their design prowess and HMD Global maintains that. From the press pictures, the Nokia 5 may not look particularly remarkable in pictures but in-person? Awesome. Simple, yet emotive design, especially in the temporal blue colour which my review unit came in.

The Nokia 5 does get a little slippery due to the rounded edges and tall form factor but with a case, that problem should be solved. One flaw in the design of the Nokia 5 is its very tall chin and forehead. Yes, it’s got really thin bezels on the sides of the screen but the large chin and forehead make the smartphone a little taller than most phones and just seems like a waste of space.

ALSO READ: Nokia is officially back in Nigeria for the third time with new devices

Camera

The 13MP rear camera has phase detection autofocus and it takes great photos. It does have a learning curve though — it won’t make up for your inability to be a decent mobile phone photographer just like that.

Like any smartphone, low-light photos are not as good but it still beats similar devices in its class. There is also a manual mode for greater control and the dual-tone flash is great too.

The front camera is an 8MP sensor with autofocus and you can tweak it just like you would the rear camera. Selfies will definitely not be a problem for this phone.

Battery

The Nokia 5 has great battery power for a device with 3,000mAh of juice. Probably thanks in part to stock Android which increases battery efficiency, the Nokia 5 will easily last you a day. I listened to music on it continuously for 6 hours and I still had 30% power left. Guess it's a Nokia after all.

Cost

Recommended retail price for the Nokia 5 is N65,000 — which makes it an almost perfect fit for most Nigerians. If you can get it, you’ll be getting good value for your money.

Pros

The Nokia 5 is a great phone, period. It runs stock Android — which is the best Android experience you can get, in my opinion; it got a great IPS LCD Full HD display with polarized Gorilla Glass (What?!) which means you get better visibility in sunlight; Great front and rear cameras basically out-shining everything in its category except for maybe the Tecno Camon CX; superb build which means it's a workhorse and the design is just about right.

Cons

The Nokia 5 only has a 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory. By the time you take memory for the OS, you don’t a lot of wiggle room left. Now, it does have microSD card support, but that 2GB RAM just makes it feel underpowered sometimes — sometimes apps take slightly more time to open up.

In my opinion, it would have also benefited from a slightly better-powered processor than the Snapdragon 430. Still, at this price point, that might be asking for too much.

Also, the Nokia 5 tends to heat up for no reason when you are charging it sometimes. The earpiece that comes with Nokia 5 is not anything to write home about and the USB cable for my review unit started touching about a week after I started using it.

RATING: 3.5/5.