All you need to know about the Nokia 5.4

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Published: Thu 25 Mar 2021, 6:28 PM

HMD Global continues to concentrate on its value-for-money strategy with the Nokia 5.4 being a budget-friendly, can-do-it-all smartphone.

By Alvin R. Cabral

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FORM


We have the usual brick-style device here, that can be described as: quite thick and heavy, along with some thick-ish bezels surrounding its

standard 6.39-inch screen. Volume and power keys on the right, and card tray and a dedicated Google Assistant button on the left. Your USB-C port is, as usual, below, and you still get that 3.5mm audio port, but on top. Right below the camera ring is a fingerprint sensor and there is a facial recognition unlock option, too.


CAMERA

The Nokia 5.4’s camera ring features four lenses, led by a sturdy 48MP wide sensor, with ultra-wide, macro and depth, thrown in for a good measure. In bright lights, images are good, but in not-so-bright indoor situations, the images seem to be a bit darker than what the scene actually looks like. Ditto for night shots, and things can also get a bit mushy. The macro lens also tends to struggle to find its subject. The selfie camera, meanwhile, is good, resulting in a nice blend of lighting and natural colour.

THE GOOD STUFF

This is a Dh699 smartphone. But don’t let that price tag fool you because it’s still stuffed with goodies. The Nokia 5.4 holds up pretty well in the performance charts, but you may notice that, while there aren’t any apparent lags, transitions between screens isn’t the smoothest. Meanwhile, in continuing HMD Global’s strong partnership with Google, the Nokia 5.4 is guaranteed with three years of security updates. And, of course, its Snapdragon 662 chip comes with the latest AI tech, meaning it is guaranteed to give that great mix of performance, security, reliability and intelligence on the Android 11 platform. The battery, meanwhile, holds up pretty well and can go until noon the next day. However, watching videos tends to shrink its life; our standard one-hour YouTube-at-full-brightness test yielded a loss of 14 per cent, which is a bit too much.

SNAPPY FACT

The Nokia 5.4’s main camera comes with a 48MP sensor — that’s about 160 times more than Nokia’s first camera phone, the Nokia 7650 way back in 2001, which donned a ‘whopping’ 0.3MP VGA sensor.

AND SO…

The Nokia 5.4 is a no-frills, straightforward device that does the essentials for you. With the features it offers, it’s essentially a mid-ranger disguised as an entry-level phone, given the price point.

alvin@khaleejtimes.com


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