Nokia’s Android era has been notable for delivering some incredible value propositions and Nokia 8.3 5G’s €599 price attempts to do the same. Nokia 7 Plus remains the best mid-range phone I have ever reviewed for any outlet – having been blown away by its all-round performance and its copper and black ceramic finish built around a slender frame. All for €399 SIM-free.
Comparisons with that high-watermark in value are inevitable for Nokia’s latest aggressively-priced flagship. Nokia 8.3 5G’s standout feature is this many G for this many € but it also brings a host of extras that bolster the overall offer.
Pretty, Unique Design
Nokia have attempted to forge a fresh visual identity with each series. 2018 was the aforementioned ceramic and copper, last year was diamond-cut metal detailing and this year is glass rears with 8.3 5G sporting a ‘Polar Green’ pattern shimmering through said rear.
The colours remind me of the ‘Aurora’ P30 Pro but Huawei’s effort has a clean, almost linear pattern. Whereas the teased refractions/reflections of the Nokia 8.3 5G are bolder. The rear’s look offers a perfect visual counterpoint to the device’s clean front and sides.
We haven’t seen it in person just yet, thanks to some understandable event cancelations. But our livelink show gave us an accurate look at the device’s distorted colour burst and it is indeed gorgeous.
Cut-Price 5G
As it stands, 5G network speeds in Dublin are typically around 250-400 Mbps with a ‘Ping’ of under 15ms*. While these figures don’t yet show the true potential of the upgrade and network coverage is still restricted, handset manufacturers have embraced the tech. The biggest players have more than one handset on the market to take advantage of 5G.
*Networks claim a peak of over 1Gbps but I have never come close to this.
Samsung currently sells four 5G capable units having launched the pricey-but-probably-worth-it Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G just this month. However, none of the 2020 line-up sell for under €1,000.
Last year’s Galaxy S10 5G uses a less power-efficient and less speedy non-integrated 5G module and is available for around €849 new. So on-paper at least, Nokia 8.3 5G offers a better 5G experience than the next model up the price chain. Nokia 8.3 5G uses the newfangled Snapdragon 765G with its integrated 5G modem. Theoretical maximum download speeds of 2.4Gbps beat Samsung Galaxy S10 5G’s same figure of merit 2.0.
Snapdragon 765G is a Known Quantity
Redmi K30 5G isn’t available in our neck of the woods but benchmarks indicate the 7nm process SDM 765G isn’t cast adrift when up against last year’s premium SoCs. While the K30’s 765G performance falls a bit short of the Galaxy S10’s Exynos 9820 in every single speed metric, the newer chipset is, again, more power-efficient.
Nokia 8.3 5G’s ample 4,500mAh battery coupled with the all-round efficiency is a recipe for a two-day battery life for many users. 6GB and 8GB of RAM are about average for the upper mid-range/sub-premium price bracket that the respective models are aiming for. 6GB of RAM is probably enough, of course – but the 64GB of storage is more of a concern.
Quad-Lens Setup by ZEISS
Nokia 8.3 5G sports an interesting choice of sensors amongst its total four. The 64MP wide-angle lens does the heavy lifting during ideal conditions while the night trickery comes from the 2.8 micrometer sensor pixels of the 12MP lens. A dedicated 2MP macro lens and a dedicated 2MP depth sensor add extra utility.
The set-up seems tuned for all-round features instead of focusing on one or two marquee selling-points. That is probably a good thing given the limited resources at hand.
4K video is limited to 30 frames per second and the handset doesn’t feature optical image stabilisation. While gyro-fed EIS is better than nothing, we don’t feel that video was a priority in engineering the Nokia 8.3. The selfie video topping out at 1080p30 is another indicator that the engineers feel that stills photography is more important. For what it’s worth, this writer will take good stills over good video any day if forced to choose.
Compromises and Commendations Elsewhere
The aforementioned 4,500mAh battery and two-day battery life is a great feature to boast should it work out in practice. The 18W fast-charging seems a little slow next to the 40W+ premium Samsungs and Huaweis. Until you remember they cost over a grand.
Our guess is the 18W should fill the device in well under two hours with a 50% charge in under 45 minutes. Of course, we’ll only know when we get our review devices.
The 3.5mm headphone jack is very welcome at TechStomper.com. As is the SD card, especially for the 64GB model.
Nokia goes the old Sony route and places the fingerprint sensor on the side-mounted power button. We weren’t thrilled to see that particular arrangement – even premium Xperiae (plural) were slow reading such a small sliver of the user’s fingers. Coupled with accidentally turning the screen off while trying to use the reader and this writer is wary. I can understand the unwillingness to break the beautiful rear shimmer or make customers pay more for a potentially even slower in-screen reader.
A Promising Price-Pioneer
Nokia didn’t dwell on their 5G capabilities or the incredible price during the device’s reveal. The Finnish former-champs seem to be confident that the device’s unique look and obviously competitive specifications can stand up next to the 5G throughput.
