Nokia 5.1 Plus (Nokia X5) Review

In crowded budget segment, smartphone manufacturers are trying to differentiate their offering in terms of design, features and hardware that they pack. HMD Global, company that revived Nokia, has been focusing on design and software offering on its smartphones, and now they've introduced Nokia 5.1 Plus from its budget portfolio in India this August. Phone shares near identical design with glass surface as with Nokia 6.1 plus and run Android One-powered Android 8.1 Oreo. While previous Nokia smartphones came with thick bezel display, HMD Global made cosmetic changes on their new budget phone, Nokia 5.1 Plus. Phone flaunts a modern glass design, notch display, dual cameras and is first device from company's shelf to embrace a notch. Question remains, is this a recipe for success? Nokia hasn't been able to sell a lot of their flagship and midrange devices so is the budget segment an area where Nokia can dominate and beat competition? Let's find out!

Being a budget phone, Nokia 5.1 Plus looks better than what most people expect budget phones to look like. It is encased in a 2.5D glass body with a polycarbonate chassis sandwiched between front and rear glass panel. Phone looks neat and visually appealing with smooth curved edges and gives a premium feel for its price. Even though it bears a tall display, Nokia has managed to fit in a compact form factor. At nearly 8mm thickness, Nokia 5.1 Plus looks pretty slim and rests comfortably in your hand. However, glossy paint job and glass build attract fingerprints easily, therefore requires regular cleaning.

At front, there's a large screen with a fashionably large notch as well, having thin side bezels and considerably thick bottom bezel. Notch houses front facing camera, earpiece and sensors while bottom bezels displays Nokia branding. Though bezels are not too thick, curved glass profile above screen makes them look reasonable. As for lower chin, it helps in holding phone and resting your thumb while reading a document, article or general news on this phone.

At back, you'll find glass, which is pretty surprising as this is a budget device and you don't get to see glass on budget phones. There's a dual camera setup placed vertically on top middle with a round fingerprint scanner right below it. There's Nokia branding to be found here as well, with rest of back kept clean.

A microSD card slot sits on left side, while volume keys and power button are located on right with buttons offering tactile feedback. At top, you will find a 3.5mm headphone jack which a pleasant sight. Interestingly, Nokia 5.1 Plus comes with a USB Type-C port which is quite hard to find in budget segment. Both speaker grille and USB Type-C port are located at bottom of device.

Design wise, this phone is nothing but amazing for the price it sells for. Glass at front and back with a shimmery finish makes it look premium, and its compact form factor makes it feel great in hands. Hands down to Nokia for making this beautifully crafted smartphone for budget users.

Nokia 5.1 Plus sports a 5.8-inch IPS LCD HD+ display with a resolution of 720x1520p, having pixel density of 287, and an aspect ratio of 19:9 due to a notch on top. Notch area is significantly bigger than one seen in Nokia 6.1 Plus or any other smartphone in same segment. It is almost the size of notch seen on Apple iPhone X. Right now, Nokia 5.1 Plus is the cheapest Nokia smartphone with the notch. Although the notch here looks wider and unattractive compared to the minimal notch we saw on Nokia 6.1 Plus.

In terms of output, display is bright and has good sunlight legibility. However, colors look muted that hampers its use playing multimedia content such as videos on YouTube, Amazon Prime Videos, Netflix, etc. Due to limited screen area around notch, apps notification also does not show icons on top bar and requires a swipe down to access all notifications. Talking about display quality, HD+ IPS LCD panel renders decent colors and viewing angles. Screen brightness is sufficient enough to read content in bright sunlight with touch latency being pretty smooth on this phone.

This HD+ display is capable of showing colors quite accurately as they appear neither too light nor too saturated. At around 133 nits, screen brightness is sufficient for most indoor and outdoor spots. However, surface of screen can get very reflective in some angles. Touch sensitivity is good and almost every touch is registered at the first go. If anything, I think resolution of display is a tad low. Even then, it doesn't really show while watching 720p videos on YouTube. Extra pixels in HD+ resolution takes care of that.

Overall, it's a display you'd expect to see on a budget smartphone. You may wish it to be better, but it is what it is.

While Nokia 5.1 Plus has a sturdy build and a beautiful design, it also comes with a good hardware under its hood. Unlike Nokia 6.1 Plus, which packs a Snapdragon 636 chipset, Nokia 5.1 Plus is built around a MediaTek Helio P60 SoC, having 4 GB of RAM and 64 Gb of onboard storage or 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of onboard storage. For more storage, there's a microSD card slot that offers up to 400 GB of extra storage.

This Affordable chipset offers similar performance that comes close to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 660 SoC. Chipset is built using a 12nm process and offers a NeuroPilot AI technology, which can perform deep-learning facial detection, scene recognition, AR and MR acceleration and other tasks. Notably 12nm production process is better than the 14nm process of the Snapdragon 660, Helio P60 chip offers better performance with added power efficiency, putting lower strain on battery. However, SD660 bears a higher clock frequency and an Adreno 512 GPU which is theoretically more powerful than Mali G72 MP3. Given that, Snapdragon 660 may offer better performance both in terms of multitasking and gaming but providing this chip would definitely shoot up the prices. (Additionally, MediaTek's flagship chipset has reportedly outscored likes of SD636 in terms of AnTuTu benchmark scores)

Performance is smooth across user interface and phone keeps up even when put through daunting tasks. However, phone shows thermal inconsistencies at times, especially when battery is low. Phone warms up a little, not to a point where it becomes unbearable to hold or operate. On call, front also warms up that makes it feel uneasy to use for long duration calls. However, thermal inconsistencies show up only some time, and most of the time it works just fine.

During benchmark tests, Nokia 5.1 Plus scored 1,19,305 on AnTuTu. On PCMark test, it showed an average run time 10 hours and 24 minutes, which is much better than most budget phones in a similar price band. However, when you are surfing on internet with 2-3 tabs open, it runs smoothly. But the moment you open about 5 tabs or more, lag is noticeable. Also, when you have apps like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Slack running in background, phone starts slowing down, and you need to wait a few seconds till it reacts. It is clearly noticeable when playing games as well. Casual games like Subway Surfers and Sonic Dash run smoothly, but it can't handle graphics intense games like Asphalt 9 or PUBG. Even with graphics settings at low, there is too much of stuttering. Devices in the same price segment with chipsets from Qualcomm or Huawei-HiSilicon tend to perform better.

Good thing is that Nokia 5.1 Plus comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB Type-C. With all that, it makes a good overall budget hardware combination, one of the better ones you'll find on any budget phone in market.

Moving ahead, Nokia 5.1 Plus packs same 3060mAh battery as on Nokia 6.1 Plus. On an average, smartphone delivers a good one day's stamina, which includes casual messaging, browsing through regular social media apps and web, and occasional binge watching of videos. Battery levels do drop when playing a resource-intensive game, however.

Phone supports fast charging using bundled 5V/2A wall charger. Charging, or 'fast charging' as Nokia likes to call it, happened from 10 to 100 percent in 1 hour, 57 minutes. Power efficient processor and screen helps it sail through more than a day on single charge on a mixed usage, which includes video streaming, audio streaming, social media usage, calls, messages and camera usage. Thankfully, Nokia 5.1 Plus boasts a USB type-C port for charging and data transfers. This is one feature that only a handful of budget smartphones have, therefore, works in favor of the Nokia 5.1 Plus. In GPS navigation test, Nokia 5.1 Plus's battery dropped from 57 to 40 percent after running Google Maps in 100-percent screen brightness for 40 minutes straight. On standard battery benchmark test, Nokia 5.1 Plus lasted 7 hours, 52 minutes.

For most users, battery performance on this device will be satisfactory, and there's always fast charging for power users so this phone is a go in battery department.

On photography front, Nokia 5.1 Plus has a tad different set of cameras than Nokia 6.1 Plus. It sports a 13MP+5MP dual rear camera setup with an f/2.0 aperture and PDAF. For selfies, there is an 8MP sensor with an f/2.2 aperture however, it lacks a front flash.

To begin with, there is a shutter lag, after you click on camera shutter button, it takes about two seconds to capture photo, and another one second to save in camera roll. And even after all of this, quality isn't as good as you would expect. Photos look dull, bokeh effects look too artificial, dynamic range isn't too good, and sometimes it over exposes. Selfies taken on the 8-megapixel front camera too look bearable, but I would have expected a bit better. It is not that camera is bad, but to get that one perfect picture, you need to click a few times and get your framing perfectly.

During daylight, captured images turned out to be good showing sharpness and details right on track. Dynamic range is above average, and colors come out natural with a decent contrast ratio. However, images do capture a little noise when light metering goes for a toss with lack of details noticeable. Images also get a little softer as sun goes down. Camera app is also fast enough to lock focus on subject in good light, but it does struggle a bit at night.

There's also a live Bokeh mode and images captured using it are above average with a reasonably decent level of edge detection and details while also moderately blurring background of subjects. You also get an option to adjust level of background blur on a real-time basis. Apart from this, camera app offers other modes including Panorama, AR stickers, Beauty, Manual and Dual-sight mode among other things.

While clicking selfies, front camera performed decently in favorable lighting conditions but struggles in low light with some amount of noise seeping in. There's no front LED flash however, Nokia 5.1 Plus uses its display itself as a screen flash for better results.

Camera works fairly better in good light conditions. However, it struggles to keep up in low light. Camera interface is loaded with basic Nokia tools such as Bothie mode which allows user to take shots from back and front camera simultaneously, auto HDR mode and beauty mode. There is a manual mode hidden inside camera menu, but mode is limited to basic settings such as exposure, focal metric and white balance settings. Key granular controls such as ISO settings, shutter speed, focal length, etc. are missing in this manual mode, rendering it useless.

Interestingly, this camera supports live video sharing on Facebook and YouTube. As for video quality, camera is capable to record 1080p videos at 30fps from primary camera and 720p videos at 30fps from selfie camera. Video recording footages show good amount of details. However, like still camera, video camera also suffers in low light. Additionally, camera app has a Manual mode for those who wish to play around with focal length, metering modes, white balance, and exposure compensation. Option to switch between front and back cameras is tucked away along with rest of photo options on top.

Overall, I wish buttons were larger on camera app and more conspicuously placed so taking selfies with app would be a quicker affair. All things considered, camera setup on Nokia 5.1 Plus is not bad at all. It's good enough for everyday photos even if it's not particularly great for photography enthusiasts.

Talk about software, one good thing about Nokia smartphones is that they run on stock Android, being a part of Android One program. For now, it runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with September security patch, and it will get Android 9 Pie update in coming months. Seeing how Nokia has been keeping its promises when it comes to software updates, I won't be surprised to see Pie update before end of year, if not earlier.

Unlike other smartphones that come with Face Unlock feature, Nokia 5.1 Plus does include this feature, but implementation is a bit different. Rather than adding a separate feature, Nokia is making use of Google's Smart Lock feature that has existed since Android Lollipop. You can find it under Settings > Security & Location > Smart Lock. It is not fast but works pretty well.

There is a 409MB day-one software update available for this device that offers a host of bug fixes and stability improvements, and software experience is largely unchanged from what you get on other, Android One phones. There's zero bloat to be found, and while phone comes with Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, HMD says that Nokia 5.1 Plus is ready for 9.0 Pie, with an update planned in coming months.

Nokia 5.1 Plus will be available in stores, starting at $149 (€129) to $209 (€189). Phone is available in three different colors: Night black, Glacier white and Baltic sea blue. For a price of Rs.10,999 in India, Nokia 5.1 Plus does stand out in budget segment, courtesy of its classy design and clean software experience. Glass design with a neat back panel will surely grab the user's attention. Besides the Nokia 5.1 Plus is the first smartphone in budget segment in to offer a USB Type-C port.

Android One smartphone promises stable, zero-bloatware software experience. With MediaTek chipset, phone manages to handle day-to-day tasks with ease. For users who prefer a compact designed smartphone with a decent display, imaging sensors and battery backup for a budget price, Nokia 5.1 Plus is a worthy option at this price point.

However, Nokia's latest budget entry does come with its drawbacks. Glass back panel is prone to smudges and fingerprint grease also making this phone quite slippery as it tends to fall while using single-handedly. Front 2.5D glass panel gets reflective on some angles and furthermore, notch on easily distracts your attention while playing games or streaming content in landscape mode. More so, while phone rendered AnTuTu and PCMark test scores, it couldn't run Geekbench test. Fingerprint sensor on Nokia 5.1 Plus is quite consistent and unlocks phone in less than a second. However, at times I faced difficulty searching for sensor to unlock the device since it does not have a tactile border. Dual camera sensors yield good result in bright lighting condition, but indoor shots are another story. Some of photos appeared to be quite grainy even in the well-lit situation.

Having said that, Nokia 5.1 Plus is a good attempt from HMD Global and had a lot going for it, such as the compact form factor, front and back glass design, and Android One software that promises timely software updates. USB Type-C port is a welcome addition in this price segment. It also offers good battery life, and you don't have to worry about sailing through the day provided you start with a full charge. Smartphone misses out on the performance aspect with frequent lags and poor camera performance and in same price, you could go for Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 which comes with a better chipset, a bigger 5,000mAh battery, and near-stock Android as well, albeit in the form of a lightly-skinned Zenfone UI.

Otherwise, Oppo Realme 2 and Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro aren't bad options either. However, they come with custom Android skins, which might take away from performance and flexibility. But design and build quality of Nokia 5.1 Plus outshines all its competitors and for this price, it surely is ready for contention in budget market.