Nokia 5 goes on sale from tomorrow: should you buy it?

HMD Global had announced the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 Android devices in India back in June. The Nokia 3 went on sale soon after the announcement. Now, the company has announced that the Nokia 5 will be available from August 15.

While the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 were supposed to go on sale in July, the company later said that they will be available only from mid-August. The Nokia 6 will be available exclusively on Amazon India from August 23.

The pre-orders for the Nokia 5 began on July 7. Priced at Rs. 12,499, the phone will be sold offline and in selected cities only. HMD says that the list of cities will be expanded eventually.

Nokia 5 Availability – List of cities and retailers

Starting from tomorrow, the Nokia 5 will go on sale in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Calicut, Bhubaneshwar and Bhopal. The device will be available from Sangeetha Mobiles, Poorvika, Big C and Croma.

Nokia 5 Offers

1. Vodafone users can get 5GB data for Rs. 149 for 3 months.

2. Rs. 2,500 discount on makemytrip.com (Rs. 1,800 off on hotels and Rs. 700 off on domestic flights).

Should you buy the Nokia 5?

The Nokia 5 will compete with the likes of Redmi Note 4, Moto G5 and Honor 6X. The Redmi Note 4 is the most popular and successful of the three, and given the specs of the Nokia 5, it has a tough challenge ahead of itself.

Let’s look at some of the reasons to buy and reasons not to buy the Redmi Note 4.

Three reasons to buy the Nokia 5

Premium metal design

The Nokia 5 comes with 6000-series aluminium body. The build and design of the device is premium and it feels more expensive than it is. The device comes with curved edges which makes it easier to hold.

Stock Android and fast updates

The Nokia 5 comes with near stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The device will also receive an update for Android O. Unlike some other companies, Nokia has not added any bloatware to its device. This should make it that much easier for the company to roll out software updates.

Camera

The Nokia 5 comes with a 13MP primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF and dual-tone dual-LED flash. On the front, it comes with an 8MP secondary camera with f/20 aperture. In this price segment, Nokia is offering decent cameras on its device. 

Three reasons not to buy the Nokia 5

HD Display

The Nokia 5 comes with a 5.2-inch HD display. In this segment, most other devices come with a full HD device so it is a little disappointing to see Nokia compromise on this.

Memory

The Nokia 5 comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. Other devices usually offer 3GB RAM and 32 or 64GB of internal storage at this price. 16GB storage may be a big issue for many users even though the Nokia 5 supports microSD expansion.

Processor

The Nokia 5 comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor. The Snapdragon 430 is not suitable for heavy usage and may lag when playing heavy games.

While the Nokia 5 is not the most powerful device in this price range, it is a decent option. If you’re looking for a phone for simple tasks like telephony, messaging, web browsing etc., then the Nokia 5 should do just fine for those needs.