Nokia 5.3 review

Where to buy

Nokia’s run of good quality phones continues with the Nokia 5.3, although it’s getting increasingly hard to differentiate with so many HMD Global produced, Nokia branded phones to pick from. The Nokia 5.3 stands out thanks to its quad camera array and slightly differentiated design, although its best feature remains HMD Global’s focus on sticking to a clean and simple Android One path.

Design

Design

• 6.5 inch FHD+ display
• Fingerprint sensor isn't great

• Read our full review of the Nokia 5.3's design

  Most of HMD Global’s designs have rested heavily on the classic design notes laid down in Nokia handsets, whether that’s their classic retro phones or their smartphone designs.

  There are elements of that in the Nokia 5.3, with pleasant rounded corners that make even this large handset pretty easy to hold, but there’s also a few new design ideas.

  At the rear of the Nokia 5.3 rests a quad camera array, but where other manufacturers have tended to opt for rectangular designs, HMD Global has instead opted for a circular array with the LED flash – which of course also doubles as a torch in a pinch – at the centre. In design terms, it rather looks more like one of Motorola’s modular Z series phones than one of Nokia’s, although the presence of the Nokia logo just below does dispel that idea pretty quickly.

  The rear of the Nokia 5.3 is also where you’ll find its fingerprint sensor. It’s well placed to stay away from the lens, but in a rarity for physical fingerprint sensors, I hit some serious problems getting the Nokia 5.3 to actually recognise my enrolled digit for unlocking purposes. I’m somewhat used to in-display readers having issues, especially on cheaper phones. It’s been a long while since I’ve had a physical sensor do the same thing, but time and time again I had to resort to an unlock code to access the Nokia 5.3 where a simple finger tap should have sufficed.

  The left hand side of the Nokia 5.3 houses a dedicated Google Assistant button if you’re not a fan of voice activation, while the right hand side is where you’ll find standard volume controls and the power button, which also acts as a notification alert thanks to an inbuilt pulsing LED. It’s one of those features you’ll either love if you don’t spend much time looking at your phone, or hate as it distracts you all the time. You can disable it if you find it too distracting.

  At the front, HMD Global pitches the Nokia 5.3 as having a “huge” 6.55 inch display. That’s not an entirely uncommon size at this price point, however, and the fact that it’s only a 720×1600 pixel LCD is also a little bit disappointing. Other manufacturers can manage 1080p at this price point.

  I’m also not a big fan of the bezel design, which incorporates a bulky teardrop notch at the top and a Nokia logo embedded in the bottom bezel. The Nokia 5.3 comes in a range of colours. We tested the Charcoal finish, which is a fancy name for dark grey. (There’s also gold and blue toned versions.)

  One welcome touch is that the Nokia 5.3 comes with a simple protective case in the box. HMD Global is rather catching up with its Chinese-built contemporaries here, but it’s still always a good idea to protect your phone anyway.

Camera

Camera

• Quad cameras are fine in their price range
• Slow lens switching

• See sample photos and read our full review of the Nokia 5.3's camera

  We’re seeing a whole raft of “quad lens” cameras in the price range of the Nokia 5.3, although it’s worth realising that in almost every case they’re really triple lens cameras with a fourth lens dedicated to depth sensing and nothing else. In the case of the Nokia 5.3, you’re given access to a primary 13MP f/1.8 lens, an ultrawide 5MP lens and a 2MP macro lens, as well as a 2MP depth sensor.

  That’s a moderate recipe in the mid-range, but it’s one that does let you take a reasonable variety of shots. It seems that every mid-range budget phone maker is dropping zoom in favour of wide angles, so it’ll suit you slightly better if you prefer landscapes over better views of subjects far away.

  Nokia’s camera app is fairly simply laid out, which no doubt suits its target market pretty well. From the rear camera you can access portrait, photo, video or night shooting modes, and you get the same choice at the front, although if you do try to take a night selfie it simply switches to the rear cameras anyway.

  Nokia provides direct access to the ultrawide and macro cameras from within the primary photo app, but there’s a noticeable pause as it switches to those other lenses from the primary one, so it’s less useful if you’re trying to capture a fast moving subject.

  As is common for many cameras in this kind of price range, colour accuracy is generally only OK rather than being particularly good, with a noticeable tendency to oversaturate colours and blow out highlights if you’re not careful. This is very much par for the course.

  As with the other quad lens budget models, there’s a few sacrifices in quality relative to what you might see on an actual premium phone, but for most users they’ll be only minor issues. Night mode performance isn’t great, but it beats not having it, and the same is true of shooting in macro mode, where you’ll need a little patience to get acceptable results.

  Around the front, the 8MP f/2.0 sensor does a fair job of capturing headshots, although predictably its AI-assisted portrait focus mode often ends up with unnatural looking bokeh.

  Nokia 5.3sample photos

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Performance

Performance

• Snapdragon 665 plus Android One works well
• Guaranteed updates is a big plus point

• View test results and read our full review of the Nokia 5.3's performance

  The Nokia 5.3 uses what is fast becoming one of the default processors for phones in this price space, utilising Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 665 processor alongside 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, expandable via microSD. The Nokia 5.3 utilises a triple card tray, so you can go dual SIM and add up to 512GB of storage to it if you wanted to.

  That 4GB of RAM isn’t all that impressive, however, and I did worry early on that the Nokia 5.3 might be a tad sluggish as a result. However, the fact that HMD Global has stuck to its plan of providing Android One phones with essentially no bloatware and a clean Android interface pays off when actually using it. The Snapdragon 665 isn’t a fast processor, but it’s an entirely capable one within its class, and the Nokia 5.3 really makes the most of it. In anecdotal app usage slowdown was a rare occurrence, and this was reflected in the Nokia 5.3’s benchmark results too.

  Here’s how the Nokia 5.3 compares to a range of similarly priced phones using Geekbench 5’s CPU test:

  And here’s how it stacks up for 3D performance using 3DMark’s Slingshot Extreme test:

  The lack of a complex launcher really pays off here, with the Nokia 5.3 performing very well. The flipside of that equation, however is that outside Google’s core apps, you’ve got to install just about everything you might want on the Nokia 5.3, because almost nothing is pre-installed.

  Android One goes beyond the fact that you get a clean Android 10 UI to play with. They’re also guaranteed for at least two years of Android OS upgrades, meaning that the Nokia 5.3 will see both Android 11 and Android 12 within its lifespan. HMD Global also promises 3 years of security updates, which is extremely pleasing in the budget space where many phones get left behind entirely. It’s still one of the best reasons to buy a Nokia smartphone if you’re looking in this price bracket, but it’s not exclusive to just the Nokia 5.3.

Battery life

Battery life

• 4,000mAh battery
• USB C charging

• View test results and read our full review of the Nokia 5.3's battery life

  Nokia’s claim for the Nokia 5.3 is that its 4,000mAh battery can let you say “goodbye to battery anxiety” with a claimed two-day battery range. As with any battery life claim that’s going to depend entirely on how you actually use it. If you’re a light user, then sure, 4,000mAh is more than enough, but it is possible to drain the Nokia 5.3 if you’re more focused on it more of the time.

  I put the Nokia 5.3 through our standard battery test, running a full-screen, full brightness YouTube video at moderate brightness to guage likely battery rundown statistics. Typically speaking, phones that manage above 90% in this test can sail through two day usage without issues, while those that drop below can struggle to do so under moderate workloads. Here’s how the Nokia 5.3 compared against a range of affordable handsets:

  There’s no sign of wireless charging – and you wouldn’t expect it at this price point – but the Nokia 5.3 does at least make the jump to USB C for recharging purposes.

Verdict

Verdict

• A quality phone for the money

Should you buy it?

The Nokia 5.3 joins a vast array of HMD Global phones that sell primarily on that Android One promise. If that’s all that interests you you’re spoilt for choice, and it’s true also if you look around the alternatives at this price range from makers such as Oppo, realme, Motorola and Alcatel to name just a few. However, those brands do a lot more to the stock Android launcher than Nokia/HMD Global, and while that does sometimes open up new functions, it’s generally at the cost of performance, and definitely at the cost of speedy updates. Within its price class, while it’s a busy old time in the lower-end of the mobile market, the Nokia 5.3 impresses.

Pricing and availability

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Specifications

Images: Alex Kidman

Note: We tested the Australian version of this product which is identical to the global model.