Nokia’s phones have long been among our top picks for budget and mid-tier smartphones, but things began to turn sour late last year with the Nokia 8 V 5G UW ($699.99). Originally scheduled to launch in early 2020, it was delayed by the pandemic, and HMD released it in November with a staggering price tag. At the time, we chalked this misfire up to bad luck, but the Nokia 5.4 ($249.99) is another overpriced flop. Had the 5.4 been released in the US last year, it would have ranked among our favorites in this price range. In 2021, however, capable performance and good build quality don’t make up for middling battery life, ho-hum cameras, and a lack of 5G. Skip it and go with the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G ($279.99), our Editors’ Choice among sub-$300 phones.
Bright Display
Save for a few minor tweaks, the Nokia 5.4 boasts the same aesthetic as last year’s Nokia 5.3 ($199.99). It measures 6.3 by 3.0 by 0.3 inches (HWD), weighs 6.4 ounces, and comes in blue or purple.
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The back and chassis are made of a thick polycarbonate; the display is strengthened glass. There’s no flex in the frame and HMD claims it can withstand over 70lb of pressure. We think the body would fare well through minor drops and dings, but the display is unlikely to be as forgiving. HMD says the phone is water-resistant, but a dunk in the pool will end in tears.
The Nokia 5.4 has a bright hole-punch LCD display.
(Photo: Steven Winkelman)
A 6.39-inch,1,560-by-720 LCD dominates the front of the 5.4. The teardrop notch on the 5.3 has been replaced with a hole punch for the camera, and the bezels are much smaller. With intense scrutiny, we could see minor pixelation, but it looks pretty crisp for a low-resolution panel. Colors skew cool and the screen is not nearly as vivid as the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G’s. However, it’s bright enough that you’ll have no problems using it outdoors.
On the back of the 5.4 you’ll find a glossy shell that attracts fingerprints and smudges. A circular camera module pokes out from the top of the backplate. A fingerprint sensor just below it is easy to reach and responsive.
On the right side of the phone, you’ll find the power button and the volume rocker, both of which are thin and feel spongy to the touch. The top is home to a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the bottom houses a USB-C charging port and speaker grille. A Google Assistant button and a dual SIM slot with a microSD port are on the left edge.
Middling Photos Even With 48 Megapixels
The 5.4’s camera stack includes a 48MP primary lens, a 5MP ultra-wide lens, and 2MP depth and macro sensors.
The primary lens does a fine job with good light. Our test shots were crisp and depth of field was well-represented. In Portrait mode, however, we noticed noise and foreground blur in all our shots.
Low-light performance with the primary lens is pretty good with or without Night mode. We saw edge noise and blooming in nearly all our test shots, but depth of field was excellent, and there was less blurring than we typically notice on budget-phone photos.
The round camera array has four sensors, none of which is great.
(Photo: Steven Winkelman)
The ultra-wide lens took some nice daylight test shots. Color accuracy was excellent, and objects in the foreground were crisp. Backgrounds were a little soft, and we observed minor distortion in a few of our test shots, but the photos were fine for sharing on social media. However, our low-light ultra-wide test shots were flat and mushy across the board. Since Night mode doesn’t work with the ultra-wide lens, your best bet is to use the primary lens if you want a good photo while out and about at night.
The macro lens, like nearly all smartphone macro lenses, was just bad. Our test shots were flat and fuzzy with fringing around the edges. A tripod or a very steady hand may yield a better shot, but probably not by much.
Daylight photos taken with the 16MP front-facing camera were sharp and showed good detail. Portrait mode works well with the selfie camera. The Beautification mode on past Nokia phones was a little too aggressive, but it’s barely noticeable on the 5.4, even when it’s cranked all the way up. A feature supposedly allows you to tweak the bokeh from a traditional blurred background to a variety of styles, but we could not get this to work at all.
Low-light photos with the selfie camera were poor. Noise crept in around the corners of our test shots and they were flat and muddy. Portrait mode only made things worse; blurring took over in the foreground, and the muddy backgrounds transformed into smears.
A Powerful Performer With Adequate Battery Life
The Nokia 5.4 packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chipset along with 4GB of RAM. There’s 128GB of internal storage, with about 111GB available out of the box. You can add up to an additional 512GB of storage with a microSD card.
The glossy back panel is durable but prone to fingerprints.
(Photo: Steven Winkelman)
Performance is good for the price. Apps open instantaneously and there’s no lag with screen transitions. Multitasking works like a charm as well. The boot-up process takes a beat longer than we’d expect, but you’re unlikely to notice it unless you’re staring at your phone waiting for it to start.
On Geekbench 5, a synthetic benchmark that quantifies raw performance, the Nokia 5.4 turned in scores of 309 single-core (SC) and 1,430 multi-core (MC). That’s a far cry from the Galaxy A32 5G’s scores of 501 SC and 1,678 MC. That said, benchmarks fail to tell the entire story. During our testing, our experience of the 5.4 is that its performance felt identical to the Galaxy A32 5G’s.
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We tested the Nokia 5.4 with the resource-hungry Genshin Impact. During an hour of gameplay, the app crashed twice, and we noticed intermittent frame-skipping. Gameplay on the less resource-intensive Alto’s Odyssey was excellent, save for a few skipped frames.
The Nokia 5.4 is powered by a 4,000mAh battery. During our battery drain test, which streams HD video over Wi-Fi at full brightness, it eked out 10 hours and 17 minutes of battery life. That’s far behind the Galaxy A32 5G’s 13 hours and 1 minutes, but it should get you through a day of moderate use.
Many lower-priced phones, including the Galaxy A32 5G and the OnePlus Nord N100 ($179.99), offer fast charging. The 5.4 does not, and its charging speed maxes out at a disappointing 10W.
Skimping on the Basics
The Nokia 5.4 ships unlocked and works on AT&T and T-Mobile’s 4G (LTE) networks. Unfortunately, there’s no band 71 support for T-Mobile, so rural customers may experience spotty coverage.
Data speeds on AT&T’s LTE network in downtown Chicago, using a Cricket SIM, averaged 6.9Mbps down and 3.2Mbps up. That’s exactly what we’d expect from Cricket, and isn’t an indictment of the phone. You’ll probably see faster speeds on a postpaid carrier.
The buttons on the right side of the Nokia 5.4 are thin and feel mushy.
(Photo: Steven Winkelman)
Call quality was strong and crisp in our tests, and noise cancellation worked perfectly. Maximum volume for the earpiece comes in at 83dB, and it was easy to hear on a busy street.
We were pleasantly surprised by the 5.4’s bottom-firing speaker. As with most smartphone speakers, the presentation is thin, but the mids are smooth and pushed forward. At the maximum volume of 88dB, we noticed a hint of sibilance.
Dual-band Wi-Fi is included, as is NFC for mobile payments. The 5.4 uses Bluetooth 4.2, which is a surprise, since the less-expensive Nokia G10 has Bluetooth 5.0. The lower version of Bluetooth means you’ll get about an eighth of the bandwidth and a quarter of the range that you’d get on the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G or any other phone with Bluetooth 5.0 or later.
Still Waiting on That Android 11 Upgrade
The Nokia 5.4 ships with a stock version of Android 10. You won’t find bloatware or branded productivity apps on it. As an Android One handset, it should receive snappy OS upgrades for two years, along with an additional year of security updates, but we’ve yet to see an Android 11 update on our test unit and we’re just months from the release of Android 12. On the bright side, HMD is sending regular security updates.
The camera bump is just prominent enough to tilt the phone.
(Photo: Steven Winkelman)
HMD has an Android 11 upgrade for the 5.4 on its Q2 roadmap for 2021. We’re disappointed to see the company moving so slowly on this front.
Nokia, Bring Back the Value
The Nokia 5.4 performs well, is durable, and has notably good audio for a budget phone, but the lackluster cameras, average battery life, and lack of 5G are hard to swallow at $250. Our Editors’ Choice, the Samsung Galaxy A32 5G, may cost a little more than the 5.4, but that extra $30 buys a bright and vivid display, better cameras, a battery that will definitely get you through the day, and 5G future-proofed with C-band compatibility. If you really need to stay under the $250 mark, the capable OnePlus Nord N200 5G ($239.99) is another 5G phone that’s well worth considering for its large 90Hz display, speedy connectivity, and long-lived battery.
If you’re not ready to jump on the 5G bandwagon just yet, the OnePlus Nord N100 is a better-value 4G phone. It offers similar performance, sports an incredible 90Hz display, and costs $70 less than the 5.4. With such excellent budget phones on the market, HMD’s Nokia line is going to have to try much harder to stay competitive.
Cons
The Bottom Line
The Nokia 5.4 performs well and comes with promises of multiple OS upgrades, but it doesn’t begin to live up to its price tag.
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