Nokia 5.3 Review - Blitz Review.

Introduction

Launched in 2020, the Nokia 5.3 seems to be a mid-ranger that has a complete feature list. But a year has passed, so is it really worth spending 13k INR?

Build And Design

Similar to most budget smartphones, the Nokia 5.3 is a phone built almost exclusively with Plastic. Though it feels cheap, I really love the gradient pattern on the back. The phone comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which might prevent from getting scratches.

The phone is a fingerprint magnet, but on the charcoal black colour variant it's not that visible. The phone weighs 180 grams which is perfectly average(you will hear this later). It feels compact in hand.

Nokia 5.3 comes with a 6.55- inch LCD HD+ resolution which isn't the best panel at this price range. The panel isn't crisp enough for consuming media. It is perfectly average. So overall, while the phone is built well, the display is a big disappointment!

Performance

The phone is powered by Snapdragon 665 processor which isn't the best SoC for this price point. For average consumers like me, it does it's job well. When heavier workloads are considered, I've noticed a lot of frame drops and stutters and after playing for almost a hour, the phone heats up significantly.

The fingerprint sensor and the Face unlock are again, a big failure. They don't work at all! It takes years to unlock the phone with fingerprint and the Face unlock is just indescribable. If you're someone who multitasks often, this phone is not for you, as it heats up considerably when you try to run multiple apps at once.

Cameras

The Nokia 5.3 comes with a Quad Camera setup consisting of,

• 13 MP Primary Camera

• 5 MP Ultra-Wide Angle Camera

• 2 MP Macro Camera

• 2 MP Depth Camera

If the specifications seem impressive, you'd be fooled into thinking this is a good camera phone. The phone actually captures pretty average photos. The daylight pictures taken from primary sensor are good and detailed. The quality does suffer while using the ultra-wide-angle sensor. But the images are much better when clicked in the bokeh mode and even in close-up shots. The shots taken during nights are way too noisy. The phone houses an 8MP front camera. The selfie shots are decent, although in the selfie portrait mode the edge detection is not the most accurate. The phone also lets you record 4k videos at 30fps!

Software

When it comes to software, I'm completely happy. The phone comes with stock Android 10, which in my opinion is clean. There is no bloatware or any ads. The UI is neat. Nokia has claimed that the phone will get regular security updates for up to three years, which is another plus for the handset.

Battery

Nokia 5.3 is paired with 4000 Mah battery which is absolutely fine for this price range. The phone ships with a 10W charger, which is way too slow. This means the phone takes hours to charge and due to this, the phone heats up a lot while charging. However, as of what I've tested, the phone can last up to 22 hours if you don't push it.

Conclusion

For 13,000 INR, this phone is completely not worth it. This phone misses out on a lot of basic features and is simply not good enough to compete in that very competitive price range. It does have a good Software and Build, but the low resolution display and slow charging speeds are a huge disappointment.