Friends+Design
- The Nokia 5.3 is a looker, with its sleek and nearly premium design - the polycarbonate back has a matte finish, that gives it a good grip
- The fingerprint sensor at the back of the Nokia 5.3 is responsive and works fine
- The Nokia 5.3 also has a dedicated Google Assistant button
Display
- Decent 6.55-in IPS LCD screen with HD+ resolution - colour reproduction is good and so are the viewing angles
- Most competing phones offer an FHD+ panel at the price, which the Nokia 5.3 is lacking
Software
- Being part of Android One series, you get clean, simple stock Android backed by at least 2 years of guaranteed updates
Performance
- Decent performer powered by the Snapdragon 665 SOC - it handles regular day-to-day usage with ease, calling, messaging, and social media apps are not an issue, and you can multitask between them quite easily - you can also run some heavy games like PUBG Mobile in its lower setting (though, this phone is not recommended for gamers)
- Nokia 5.3 could use some more power, the competition offers better SOCs at this price
Camera
- Portrait shots taken with the Nokia 5.3 have good edge detection, and the camera app does let you set the level of blur before taking a shot
- Selfies taken with the 8MP camera are decent in daylight and it does give you the option to take portraits - In low light, there is a slight dip in quality but it is still decent
- Average quad-camera setup - a 13MP primary camera, a 5MP ultra-wide camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor
- In daylight, photos lacked dynamic range and fine grain was visible in the output on zooming in
- Shots taken with the wide-angle camera are of a lower resolution, and these too are grainy
- The macro camera is strictly average, and the subject needs to be well lit for shots to come out looking decent
- Low-light shots are below average and do not have good detail - switching on Night mode improved brightness and sharpness, but photos remain grainy
- The camera performance of the Nokia 5.3 isn't very good overall, and you can get better results from other phones at this price level
Battery
- Good battery life from the 4000 mAh battery - you will get a full day of battery life out of it
- No fast charging - charging the phone completely takes close to two hours
Verdict
- The competitions beats the Nokia 5.3 at every spec it has to offer, except the software experience and the guarantee to get updates for few years, but that can't be the only reason to buy this phone - If you are a heavy user or are looking to play a lot of games, you might want to consider more powerful and similarly priced alternatives such as the Realme 6i and the Redmi Note 9 Pro
