Nokia 5.4 Review | Worth it for under £200? By Tech Spurt

Now, I'm definitely a big fan of that Nokia 5.3, which is one of the best sub 200 pound budget smartphones to pop out in 2020, especially if you love yourself a bit of stock android action. So, unsurprisingly, my nipples went all tingly when HMD unleashed the fun successor this fresh new Nokia 5.4, which you can have yourself for just 159 quid here in blight now, admittedly, quite a lot of the specs and features on the Nokia 5.4 are similar, if not quite the same as the Nokia 5.3, but HMD global has upgraded that rear camera tech slapping a fresh new 48 megapixel sensor on the ass end. So the question is: is the Nokia 5.4 a worthy successor to the 5.3, and should you be spending your hard-earned money on it? Well, I've had my sims slapped in here for the best part of the week and here's my in-depth Nokia 5.4 review and for the latest greatest tech. Please do poke subscribe and ding that notifications bell cheers now when comparing with the older Nokia 5.3, this new handset is actually shrunk, a little in size down from 6.55 inches to 6.39, but the Nokia 5.4 is far from compact. It's still a proper wide boy, thanks to those chunky, bezels and there's even enough space for the Nokia logo down below, which is a rare sight these days and definitely not in a good way so yeah using the Nokia 5.4. One handed in particularly easy.

That's for damn sure, especially when you're trying to like type a message. Something like that. There's no dedicated one-handed mode on here, because it's basically stock android, but you can at least drag that notifications bar down from anywhere on screen, which definitely helps or by using that rear, mounted fingerprint sensor as well. However, I did actually quickly deactivate that fingerprint sensor gesture support, because I thought I was constantly brushing the sensor by accident, just when generally using the phone, which quickly became rather tiresome. That shiny ass end is a piece of smooth plastic that flexes slightly under pressure, and we have got some light.

Scratching down towards that bottom end as well as you might want to slap a protective case on it. Sadly, unlike a lot of other budget blowers, the Nokia 5.4 does not come with a bundled condom case, so you're going to have to spunk out some extra cash. If you want to get a case, gotta say, though, I'm liking the two color options. This right here is the Moody title dusk model, and I reckon it looks pretty bloody snazzy, or you can also do the Nokia 5.4 in polar knight, which is just as lovely or at least it looks it in the marketing picks. As far as the software goes on the Nokia 5.4 to get some good news and bad news, the good news to start with is that it's a beautifully stock version of android on here, because it is actually an android one handset. So it's completely unencumbered with any clunky launchers.

However, the bad news is that this is old, android, 10 still, so you're missing out some tiny little updates, like the much improved notifications bar manufacturer HMD, is keen to point out that the Nokia 5.4 is android 11 ready uh. So I don't know whether that means it's Boris Johnson style, oven, ready, in which case it might be coming in a few months time or if it's actually ready, which means it might be here next week, hopefully sooner rather than later, and you will actually be getting an android 12 updates on the Nokia 5.4 as well. HMD has already confirmed that, as well as monthly security updates for the following three years. Although right now the Nokia 5.4 is still sat on that December security update uh, not the latest one, thankfully, beyond the whiff of that stale OS the everyday experience on the Nokia 5.4 is generally likable. I really like that need to clean stock presentation of android, even if it means you miss out on some bonus bits found on other budget blowers like a proper gaming mode, which definitely always comes in handy.

That said, you do get an android extra in the form of a face unlock option, which is sometimes handy if your fingers are covered in loop, although lop off my john Thomas and use it as a draft excluder, if that facial recognition isn't slower than an asthmatic tortoise, especially in more ambient light, I've got one man. I tend to just stick to that: rear mounted fingerprint sensor, which does the job nicely, although once again isn't particularly swift get there in the end, I do have to mourn about a few other things. Unfortunately, here on the Nokia 5.4, as is my god-given right as a grumpy British prick, and the first thing I've got to direct some IRA- is that edge-mounted assistant button. It's mostly pointless thanks to the many other ways of calling up the Google Assistant, and while you can't at least disable the thing there's no way to configure it to actually do something useful. It's basically the button equivalent of Mrs brown's boys just kill it just kill it with fire and over the last couple of days, I've also had some issues connecting to a mobile network, or rather specifically, I can connect to a network for calls and texts and things, but actually getting a data connection seems to be near on impossible at times and obviously right now, it's not really a major issue, because I'm pretty much stuck at home full time using my Wi-Fi, but obviously wants to start going out and about again.

If that's still going to be an issue, then that's when it turns into a huge problem and also this past week, the Nokia 5.4 handset has reset itself three times for bugger all reasons. Seemingly I reckon it's probably just given up on life as hard as the rest of us. The Nokia 5.4 matches most of the budget smartphones when it comes to other features, including NFC support. Here in the UK and a dual sim setup, you even get a separate micros slot to expand the 64 or 128 gigs of storage space when needed. That's something that a lot of flagship phones are doing away with these days, the cheeky buggers, but it's good to see a lot of budget smartphones still supporting it now.

The Nokia 5.4 display is very similar to that older 5.3 panel. Despite shrinking a wee bit, it's another IPS screen with HD plus resolution, not full HD. Sadly so yeah you do miss out on finer details when you're watching a bit of Netflix or checking out your photo collection. If you want a full HD display, then you'll have to check out some alternatives that likes the Poco x3 NFC or the Poco m3, for instance, but I still enjoyed waste in a morning or while in a way a sleepless night with some flicks or shores, but definitely don't expect any lush visuals here, no poppy colors or eye please and shenanigans to be had it's a functional screen that does the job just fine, no more! No less. The viewing angles are a little narrow.

So it's not ideal for watching something with the maid, but it's more than possible. As for the brightness levels, we'll bump it all the way up to that maximum level, if I see it all right in a sort of fairly overcast day, although when it gets to summer- and it gets really sunny and bright fingers crossed, you might be struggling a bit more on the sound front. That mono speaker is all right for watching some YouTube or whatever, but it is more of a last resort. You'll definitely want to plug in some headphones using the handy, jack or stream, some audio via Bluetooth, which worked just fine for me. This past week, I've experienced just a single judder when streaming audio via Bluetooth from the Nokia 5.4 to a wide variety of speakers. True wireless earbuds proper over ear headphones at the works, although be one that it is the older Bluetooth, 4.2 standards here on the Nokia 5.4 for some reason, rather than the fresher 5. So it does have a shorter range, not a fantastic range, but not too terrible, and also it offers fewer features as well as for the performance.

Well, HMD has slapped a snapdragon 662 chipsets, backed by either four or six gigs of ram inside this bad boy. This is the four gig of ram version, and I thought it works absolutely fine. It's a slight upgrade over the older snapdragon 665, which you found in the Nokia 5.3, though some new features of the 662 aren't supported in here like that fresher Bluetooth and the 662 is basically the exact same platform. You'll find in a lot of other budget-friendly rivals under 200 quid the likes of that Poco m3, the motor g9 series. Now I found that the everyday performance here on the Nokia 5.4 was about the same as those Motorola phones, but better than the Poco m3, probably helped along by the stock android vibes here. You've got that same ever dependable arena, 610 GPU in here, which means gaming on a budget is not a problem Call of Duty and other fast-paced online titles run perfectly with a smooth frame rate.

While the screen responsiveness is dependable enough for those split second frantic moments when you're trading gunfire with some weird gizmo, who just won't stop bouncing about the place, the only thing missing here is a dedicated gaming mode for blocking notifications, freeing up resources, yada. Now, when it comes to battery tech, you've got a four thousand William capacity cell crammed into the Nokia 5.4, which is considerably dinkier than a lot of rivals that likes the Poco m3, the border g9 power, which rock a mighty 6 000 William cell instead. But frankly, though, good luck killing this thing before you're all tucked up with teddy at night, because seriously I tried all kinds of stuff on this. I tried to skype in my family for like an hour playing with the camera tech loads playing games streaming far too much anime on the bloody thing, and I really could not get it below about 20 by the time I finally staggered into bed at night and yeah that 10 watt charging tech isn't exactly super niffy by any means, but it's pretty much standard for a budget blower. So, as you can see, there's a few little changes over that Nokia 5.3 here and there, but the main upgrade is that camera tech, or rather the primary sensor, which is bumped up from a basic 13 megapixel effort to a 48 megapixel affair. This is a quad pixel shooter, which captures 12 megapixel images and the results are a step-up.

If not a massive one. The Nokia 5.4 can handle strong light without shredding its skimpier, although sharp contrast can be a pain and the camera does still struggle indoors with soft grainy results, sometimes still in pretty good lighting. You'll enjoy respectable levels of detail, even when you blow photos right up as well as natural looking colors and even movement subjects are usually captured with only a little blur thanks to the fast shutter speed. You do also have the option of shooting at maximum 48 megapixel resolution here on the Nokia 5.4. If you want, but to be honest, this only really works well in perfect spot on light, and otherwise you get slightly weaker colors and some other issues creeping in so frankly, I'll just leave it on those default settings in low light.

The Nokia 5.4's night mode lends our hands capturing a brighter photo while tempering those lighter elements. As long as you've got a steady hand, that is, photos are noticeably warmer when using this mode. However, so it's not perfect and of course, HMD has also crammed three other lenses onto that ass and including a fairly basic five megapixel ultra-wide angle effort. This is fine for grabbing a pulled out view of proceedings, although you can expect a drop in detail and a darker overall image. Meanwhile, the depth sensor can help to produce some great looking portrait snaps, with accurate separation of the background from your subject, and you can tweak that Bucky effect after you've taken each snap to make it stronger, weaker or a bit more like psychedelic butterflies, just don't ask and yay verily.

There also be a macro lens on the back end here, bringing up the total two. Four woo, and indeed who, as usual, this is mostly just annoying to use. If you don't get the distance just right, your photo will end up being a bit blurry or fuzzy, so you're best off just using that primary lens and then cropping in for your video shenanigans, you can shoot at full HD resolution at either 30 or 60 frames per second, and unfortunately this is where the Nokia 5.4 starts to properly stumble. I noticed a lot of focus pop in my test videos, while the visuals were generally drab and grainy, especially when switching to the ultra-wide angle lens as with the photo mode, any indoor clips will look proper soft too, but at least the audio was clearly picked up with only the occasional bit of vocal distortion or random pop that I couldn't identify. You've also got a cinema mode which switches the aspect, ratio to 21x9 and drops the frame rate to 24fps, while serving up a variety of filters, some better than others.

You still get the same. Video issues, though so the value here is kind of questionable and HMD has also upgraded the selfie shooter on the Nokia 5.4 as well. So now you get a 16 megapixel effect instead of the 8 megapixel sensor found on the older one, and this can capture good, looking picks with optional portrait blur those portrait shots are actually my favorites offering stronger detail and more natural skin tones compared with the standard, auto mods. Although indoor shots are still soft as out and definitely do not even bother in low light. So that's what I think of the Nokia 5.4 after using it as my full-time smartphone for almost a week, and I've got to say not loving it quite as much as that Nokia 5.3, when I first got to grips with it, probably because there's such tough competition now in that budget realm the likes of realm Xiaomi Paco. All these great manufacturers are pumping out fantastic sub 200 pound budget smartphones these days.

So definitely the Nokia 5.4, with its handful of issues around like shooting video and the mobile connection, and all that kind of stuff makes me hesitant to recommend it. But if any of you guys also been using the Nokia 5.4 as your full-time handset, be great to hear your mini review down in the comments below please do poke subscribe. Digging that notifications bell and have yourselves a fantastic rest of the week, cheers everyone loves you. You.

Source : Tech Spurt