Nokia 5.4 price in India starts at Rs 13,999. The budget smartphone under Rs 15,000 competes against the likes of Poco M2 Pro, Redmi Note 9 Pro, Realme 7, Poco M3, etc. While the competition offers maximum value in terms of hardware, the Nokia 5.4 bets on its clean software experience.
Is the Nokia 5.4 the best smartphone under Rs 15,000 in India? Should you buy the stock Android smartphone? We have used the device for a week to help you decide.
Before you begin reading our Nokia 5.4 Review, let’s take a look at the specifications.
Nokia 5.4 specifications
Display: 6.39-inch HD+ screen with 60Hz refresh rate
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC
RAM/ Storage: 4GB + 64GB, 6GB + 64GB
Battery: 4,000 mAh with 10W fast charging
Rear camera: 48MP + 5MP Ultrawide + 2MP macro + 2MP depth sensor
Front camera: 16MP
OS: Android 10
Weight: 181 grams
Price: Rs 13,999 for 4GB + 64GB, Rs 15,499 for 6GB + 64GB
Now that the specifications are out of the way, let’s get started with our Nokia 5.4 review.
Nokia 5.4 Review
Design and Display
The Nokia 5.4 features a 6.39-inch screen with fairly narrow bezels. Nokia perhaps has decided to keep the chin thick on all its smartphone to slap the branding. The screen has a peak brightness of 400 nits, which is reasonably bright for indoor use. However, we struggled to read the text on the screen under direct sunlight.
The colour temperature leans towards the warmer side. While that is doable as you can tweak the display settings, what’s not acceptable is an HD+ display. For a phone priced at Rs 13,999, Nokia should have offered a Full HD+ display at least. There is no WideVine L1 certificate and you are limited to streaming content in 720p.
The rear panel is made up of plastic. It comes in Polar Night - which is a shade of Dark Blue - and Dusk - which offers a shade of Purple. Your judgement on colours might vary on your preference. I personally liked the Polar Night colour, which was our Nokia 5.4 review unit. However, you might want to slap a case on as the glossy rear panel is a fingerprint magnet.
The device with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio offers a good in-hand feel, thanks to the curved rear panel. The power and volume keys are easily reachable and should not be a problem even for small hands.
The rear panel also makes room for a fingerprint scanner between the circular camera module and the vertical Nokia branding. While we are at it, let’s get to the camera performance.
Nokia 5.4 camera
The Nokia 5.4 camera module at the back houses four camera sensors and the LED flash. The 48MP primary sensor clicks 12MP pixel-binned shots. Colours are close to real and you get a good amount of detail. We found the edges to be slightly soft though. The dynamic range is pretty average, just like the lowlight performance. We noticed some noise in the shadows in shots clicked during the dusk hours.
Same is the case with the 5MP ultrawide camera. While it does offer decent colours, the ultrawide sensor lacks detail and has a slightly different colour temperature compared to the wide lens. Most users are unlikely to notice this as the average consumer usually does not click or compare images shot on two sensors. The macro camera is fairly usable if you can get the focusing right. Night mode does bump up the exposure but fails to remove the noise in the darker regions of the image.
Portrait mode on the Nokia 5.4 is good enough for the price. There were a couple of instances wherein the software blurred out the edges of the ear, but overall for the price, I am quite happy with the portrait mode performance.
The 16MP front camera clicks decent selfies with close to real skin tone. One complaint though, the Portrait mode overexposed the face and made it look bright. This wasn’t the case with the regular selfie clicked using the Photo mode. Click on the Flickr slideshow below to check the Nokia 5.4 camera samples.
The Nokia also features ‘Cinema’ mode that captures 24fps and allows users to shoot content in 21:9 cinematic format. Once finished, the colour grading options gives a cinematic feel to videos.
To get smoother motion shots, one can dial it up to 60fps video recording. So if you want to record videos on your smartphone and are on a budget, the Nokia 5.4 could be a good device.
Nokia 5.4 Performance
The Nokia 5.4 draws power from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC. The 11nm octa-core chip can perform basic tasks quite easily. This means that you will not face issues like listening to music, scrolling through social media, attending those zoom calls, etc. Gaming is not the processor’s strongest suite. However, you can play Lite games like Subway Surf. We tried Call of Duty on the device and the performance was quite okay.
RAM management is smooth on our 6GB RAM variant. Apps opened from where we left them and even the load time was pretty impressive. Battery life is excellent on the device. You get a day’s worth of juice easily from the 4,000 mAh battery. This could be due to the combination of the efficient processor and clean software. A bummer here though is the 10W charger. You might want to charge the device overnight as it takes close to two hours to charge the phone.
The device runs on stock Android, which is not as resource hungry as several competitor devices. It's clean and comes with no bloatware. Plus, the device is promised to get two years of software upgrade and three years of security updates. However, it runs on Android 10. For a brand like Nokia that used to be the fastest in rolling out software updates, it is kind of disappointing to see its latest smartphone launch with Android 10. HMD Global told us that the pandemic affected the Android 11 rollout and the device will get an update soon.
The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner is quick to detect and unlock the device. You also get face unlock as an option, which is faster but less secure than the physical scanner.
Audio quality is quite basic. The bottom-firing single speaker is loud enough for indoor use. You can rely on the in-box earphones that can be connected via the 3.5mm jack.
Verdict
Coming to the main question - Should you buy the Nokia 5.4?
Priced at Rs 13,999, the Nokia 5.4 joins the crowded space of budget smartphones under Rs 15,000. The likes of Poco M3 (Review), Poco X3 (Review), Realme 7, Redmi Note 9 Pro series currently have an edge over the Nokia 5.4 in terms of hardware. The competition offers more performance for the same or even a lesser price tag in some cases.
Compared to the competition, the Nokia 5.4 comes with good enough specifications but excels in the clean software experience. However, terms and conditions apply.
The display is bright enough but not the best. The performance unit is good enough but when you compare it with the competition, the device doesn’t offer the best value. The camera performance is above average in proper daylight and also the cinema mode adds some points but it struggles in lowlight. Battery life is decent but the charging speed is disappointing to say the least. The software is smooth enough but still a generation old.
For a smartphone launched in 2021, the Nokia 5.4 is quite a basic device. If you want a budget smartphone that gets the basics right, the Nokia 5.4 could be your option.
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