Gadgets & Gizmos: Nokia 5

Nokia's return to Android smartphones has been long awaited, and the Nokia 5 I looked at, sits in the middle of the portfolio that its new parent HMD Global has released in India over the past couple of months. It gets a number of things right – the phone is distinctively Nokia in terms of design, and reminds you of a number of iconic handsets of yore, both in terms of build quality and premium in-hand feel. The display is bright and compact and good with colours, and the camera too turned out good photos in almost all but the worst lighting conditions. I really liked the fact that they chose to go with a separate slot for the microSD card, instead of that hybrid SIM funny business most brands opt for these days.

There are some compromises – the 1280 x 720 pixel display coupled with the entry-level Snapdragon 430 chip with 2GB memory and 16 GB storage are stuff that significantly lower priced devices are made of. The key thing to remember when using the Nokia 5 is that HMD have mated the hardware-software combine to make the bloat-free build of stock Android 7.1.1 work fluidly for the most part. The lack of memory is felt each time you put the phone through any serious multitasking, so if its raw performance you crave, look elsewhere.