Nokia 5.1 Plus review - GSMArena.com tests

INTRODUCTION Ever since the Nokia brand returned to the smartphone world with the help of HMD, the company has pushed out new phones at a rapid pace. This has allowed the company to have a

fresh portfolio at any given moment, and also keep up with the latest market trends. Recently, the company launched two new mid-range smartphones, the Nokia 6.1 Plus, and the Nokia 5.1 Plus.

Both devices capitalize on the latest notch trend in the market, and although many seem to hate it, the sales haven't slowed down, and many people do seem to like these phones,

especially people buying budget smartphones that look like more expensive devices, most notably the iPhone. We have already taken a look at the Nokia 6.1 Plus in our review in the past and

today will be focusing on the cheaper Nokia 5.1 Plus that makes this design accessible to even more people. NOKIA 5.1 PLUS SPECS * DESIGN: 2.5D curved glass, polished aluminum frame *

DISPLAY: 5.8-inch, 19:9, 1520x720 IPS LCD, notched * CHIPSET: MediaTek Helio P60, 4 x Cortex-A73 1.8GHz + 4 x Cortex-A53 1.8GHz, Mali-G72 MP3 * MEMORY: 32GB storage, expandable up to 400GB;

3GB LPDDR3 RAM * REAR CAMERA: Dual camera; 13MP f2.0 PDAF primary, 5MP depth sensor; 1080p30 video; single LED flash * FRONT CAMERA: 8MP f2.2; 720p30 video * SOFTWARE: Android One 8.1 Oreo *

CONNECTIVITY: Dual SIM, 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/GLONASS/BDS/Galileo, USB 2.0 Type-C, 3.5mm audio * BATTERY: 3060mAh integrated * MISC: Single loudspeaker, FM radio,

fingerprint sensor For the price, the phone does come with mostly respectable specifications. However, the competition in this segment is no slouch, so Nokia has its work cut out for it. On

paper at least, it seems the company has covered all bases, but we will have to see if that's really the case. UNBOXING THE NOKIA 5.1 PLUS The Nokia 5.1 Plus comes in a simple package

that includes the phone, a standard 10W charger, and a Type-C cable. You will have to spend extra for a headset but don't bother with a fast charger as the phone does not support that

feature. _Disclaimer: You might notice that this review is shorter than usual and doesn't include some of our proprietary tests. The reason is it has been prepared and written far away

from our office and test lab. Still, we think we've captured the essence of the phone in the same precise, informative and detailed way that's become our trademark. Enjoy the good

read!_ DESIGN The Nokia 5.1 Plus looks nearly identical to the Nokia 6.1 Plus. However, don't let the name or the price fool you, because the Nokia 5.1 Plus is the larger of the two

phones. From the front, the Nokia 5.1 Plus looks like a modern 2018 smartphone, with its thin bezels and a rather large notch up top. The notch design is curious; it's actually bigger

than the one on the Nokia 6.1 Plus but there's no good reason for it. The camera and all the sensors sit on the left side of the earpiece and the area to the right of the earpiece is

completely blank. The notch is at least twice as wide as it needs to be, and that means you just get less space for your notifications. THE NOTCH There is also a small "chin" at

the bottom below the display, which isn't particularly big or bothersome but apparently, it's big enough for Nokia to want to put its logo there and spoil the clean look of the

front. We get it; it's a Nokia phone; you don't need a constant reminder of that. THE CHIN The front glass is scratch resistant, but Nokia won't confirm the manufacturer. The

glass has a 2.5D curve and flows near seamlessly into the side frame. The frame around the phone is made out of aluminum. Nokia has painted the metal and given it a high gloss polish, which

brings back memories of the Jet black iPhone 7. The material isn't especially grippy, however, so it's best to exercise caution while handling the phone. FROM THE SIDES The back of

the phone is made out of the same glass as the front. Near the top is the camera housing made out of aluminum and covered by scratch-resistant glass although the flash has its own lens to

avoid refraction. The back is a fingerprint magnet, but both the main glass and the camera glass have an oleophobic coating, so they are easy to clean. The fingerprint sensor is located

below the camera. It's unusually flush, but because it's located exactly where you'd expect it, you can confidently plant your finger on it without looking and get it right

nine out of ten times. The fingerprint sensor is also extremely fast and accurate. In terms of build quality, the phone feels nicely put together and premium in hand. It doesn't have

any kind of ingress protection, but that is to be expected at this price point. The phone also looks really nice. The only bit of eyesore is the Nokia logo put on the front and for some

perhaps even the notch. But otherwise, this phone looks a lot more expensive than it is. DISPLAY The Nokia 5.1 Plus has a 5.8-inch, 1520x720 resolution IPS LCD. The display has an aspect

ratio of 19:9, making it show a bit more content than most other 18:9 phones in this segment. As far as the display quality is concerned, we really found the Nokia 5.1 Plus to be lacking.

First, it's the resolution. A 720p panel just doesn't cut it anymore, especially at this size. The pixel density is sub-par, which gives text a jagged edge. Then there is the color

calibration, which is visibly very off. The color temperature is a cool blue, and the rest of the colors are all over the place. Nokia also applies a sharpening filter to any video you play

on the phone, which makes looks things even worse. Combine that with the poor color calibration, and even YouTube videos end up looking quite tacky with terrible skin tones. We found that

enabling Night mode and turning it to the lowest level mitigated some of the blue tint of the display and resulted in a much more pleasant color tone. It's still not quite accurate, and

whites tend to get a slight red tint, but it looks better than the default settings. DISPLAY SETTINGS The display also doesn't get very bright and even at its brightest it left us a

bit wanting. Bottom line, this isn't a good display, and in fact, it's very close to being a bad display. We could still live with the low resolution, but Nokia really needs to

start taking color calibration seriously. As a bare minimum, it could stop applying an artificial sharpening filter as that never gives a good result. BATTERY LIFE The Nokia 5.1 Plus has a

3060mAh battery, same as the Nokia 6.1 Plus despite being a larger phone. Having said that, battery life on the Nokia 5.1 Plus was still quite reasonable. BATTERY MENU The new MediaTek Helio

P60 processor is quite frugal, and the conservative display brightness means you're never guzzling down power particularly fast during regular use. In our usage at least, the phone

managed to get through a full day on a single charge. The phone, unfortunately, lacks a fast charging solution of any kind. But, because the battery isn't particularly large, you can

completely charge the phone from flat in exactly two hours even with a 10W charger. AUDIO The Nokia 5.1 Plus has a single, down-firing loudspeaker. The speaker does get pretty loud but also

a bit unpleasant towards the top-end so it's best kept at around 70% volume, where it sounds clear and loud enough for things like YouTube videos or podcasts. The phone also has a

headphone jack, which is good as we don't think people who buy phones in this price range would be quite ready to part with extra cash just to get Bluetooth headphones. The phone also

makes full use of that port by also including an FM radio. SOFTWARE As with other recent Nokia phones, the 5.1 Plus is part of Google's Android One series. All devices that are part of

this series have close to stock Android and relatively quick updates. Nokia has promised two years of major Android updates and three years of security updates for its devices from the date

of launch. Just to be clear, Android One devices still receive updates from the OEM, not directly from Google, as some erroneously believe. As such, when you get the update, if at all, is

decided by the OEM. NOKIA LAUNCHER Speaking of updates and Android versions, the Nokia 5.1 Plus comes with Android 8.1 Plus out of the box, which is obviously out of date at this point,

which says everything about Google's Android One program. The reality is, Android One was never quick to get updates and while it's still quicker than most OEMs, it's nowhere

as quick as the Pixel series or even some OEMs like OnePlus. Rants about Android One aside, this is pretty much stock Android Oreo that we have seen many times before. The software

experience on the Nokia 5.1 Plus is identical to that on the 6.1 Plus we checked out a few weeks ago. That means it has the same strengths and weaknesses. The strengths would be the

relatively stock Android, which for some is still very important. Nokia also does very little meddling here, and you won't find a lot of apps from the company, something that's not

true for all Android One devices. SETTINGS MENU However, there are other aspects of the device that could have used more attention, such as the notch, in particular. Nokia still

doesn't allow apps to access the area around the notch in fullscreen mode. The notch also awkwardly intrudes into the display area, and you can see some notification icons and volume

bar sliders go under the notch area. This was also an issue on the Nokia 6.1 Plus, but it's even more obvious here due to the bigger notch. The icons are not even the same size, and the

battery icon is strangely taller than the other icons in the status bar. For what it's worth, the phone does ship with the Widevine L1 DRM. However, neither Netflix nor Amazon Prime

Video support HD streaming on this phone as of this writing. There are more factors that go into enabling HD playback beyond just the DRM version, one of them being developer motivation.

Besides, even if the phone did support HD playback, this is not a screen you'd want to binge watch videos on. That aside, there's not much to complain about. Outside of the

expensive Pixel phones, Android One devices remain the best way to experience stock Android for those who seek it. The upgrade experience has been rather disappointing, but at least the

company is promising updates. It's just the matter of when you'll be getting them that's uncertain, even though that was one of the things Android One was supposed to solve.

PERFORMANCE The Nokia 5.1 Plus has a MediaTek Helip P60 chipset with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The Helio P60 is a known quantity at this point and we were greatly impressed by its

performance in the past on devices such as the Realme 1 and the Oppo F9. In fact, the Helio P60 is even more powerful than the Snapdragon 636 in the Nokia 6.1 Plus, which would have put

Nokia in a bit of an awkward situation. But to avoid that, Nokia has downclocked the Helio P60 on the Nokia 5.1 Plus to some extent. The P60 on the aforementioned Realme and Oppo devices

runs at the full 2.0GHz clock speed on all its cores. The P60 on the Nokia 5.1 Plus, meanwhile, runs at 1.8GHz. We were really interested in powering up Geekbench and checking where exactly

does this put the Nokia 5.1 Plus between the Nokia 6.1 Plus and the other Helio P60 devices, not to mention all the other phones in this segment. Unfortunately, our review unit from Nokia

would not let us run Geekbench. Something prevented the Geekbench application from connecting to the internet, which it requires before it can run the benchmark. We checked with our

colleagues from other publications, and they too said that their Nokia 5.1 Plus review units had a similar issue, so it's either a bug or a conscious effort from Nokia to disallow

running the benchmark on this phone. Anyway, we did run the rest of the benchmarks, we usually run, and the Nokia 5.1 Plus was predictably slower than the other P60 phones. It was also

slower than the Nokia 6.1 Plus even though it had no right to be. The only area where the Nokia 5.1 Plus raced ahead was in on-screen graphics benchmark, where the low 720p resolution

display gave the phone considerable advantage over the others. It's a shame Nokia had to nerf the P60 chipset on the Nokia 5.1 Plus. Sure, there could be some legitimate power

consumption concerns, especially since the phone does not exactly have the biggest battery in the world (the other P60 phones have about 17% larger batteries). But not wanting the cheaper

device from stealing the thunder from the more expensive one also seems like a fairly legitimate concern from a marketing perspective. Benchmarks aside, the Nokia 5.1 Plus is an absolute

pleasure to use. The animations and transitions within apps flow smoothly, you can start an app or launch a game or play a video, and it all happens fluidly without any stuttering or dropped

frames. Scrolling through apps is smooth too, and even multitasking works brilliantly. This feels like a phone that is comfortable with anything you can throw at it, and it does all of it

without complaining. The only concern here would be the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage, both of which will likely age faster than the processing power of the chipset. It's unfortunate that

Nokia currently does not offer any higher spec variants for this device. ANTUTU 7 Higher is better * Honor Play 204876 * Oppo F7 139414 * Realme 1 138524 * Realme 2 Pro 132958 * Realme 2 Pro

132958 * Xiaomi Mi A2 130927 * Meizu 15 128680 * Nokia 5.1 Plus 119428 * Nokia 6.1 Plus 115571 * Sony Xperia XA2 Plus 86374 * Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) 77964 * Realme 2 75434 GFX 3.1

MANHATTAN (1080P OFFSCREEN) Higher is better * Honor Play 39 * Meizu 15 15 * Xiaomi Mi A2 15 * Realme 2 Pro 14 * vivo V11 14 * Realme 2 Pro 14 * Oppo F7 12 * Realme 1 12 * Oppo F9 (F9 Pro)

12 * Nokia 6.1 Plus 10 * Nokia 5.1 Plus 9.6 * Sony Xperia XA2 Plus 9.5 * Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) 6.5 * Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 6.5 * Xiaomi Mi A1 6.4 * Realme 2 6.1 GFX 3.1 MANHATTAN

(ONSCREEN) Higher is better * Honor Play 36 * Nokia 5.1 Plus 20 * Meizu 15 16 * Xiaomi Mi A2 14 * Realme 2 Pro 12 * vivo V11 12 * Realme 1 12 * Realme 2 12 * Realme 2 Pro 12 * Oppo F7 11 *

Oppo F9 (F9 Pro) 11 * Nokia 6.1 Plus 9.6 * Sony Xperia XA2 Plus 9.1 * Xiaomi Mi A1 6.3 * Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 6.2 * Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) 6.1 GFX 3.1 CAR SCENE (1080P OFFSCREEN)

Higher is better * Honor Play 22 * Xiaomi Mi A2 9 * Meizu 15 8.7 * Realme 2 Pro 8.2 * vivo V11 8.2 * Realme 2 Pro 8.2 * Oppo F7 7.5 * Realme 1 7.5 * Oppo F9 (F9 Pro) 7.5 * Nokia 6.1 Plus 6.3

* Nokia 5.1 Plus 5.9 * Sony Xperia XA2 Plus 5.5 * Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) 3.6 * Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 3.5 * Xiaomi Mi A1 3.5 * Realme 2 3.5 GFX 3.1 CAR SCENE (ONSCREEN) Higher is

better * Honor Play 21 * Meizu 15 9.2 * Xiaomi Mi A2 8.6 * Realme 1 7.5 * vivo V11 7.4 * Nokia 5.1 Plus 7.4 * Realme 2 Pro 7.2 * Realme 2 Pro 7.2 * Oppo F7 6.7 * Oppo F9 (F9 Pro) 6.5 *

Realme 2 6.3 * Nokia 6.1 Plus 5.9 * Sony Xperia XA2 Plus 5.1 * Xiaomi Mi A1 3.5 * Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (Redmi 6 Pro) 3.4 * Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 3.4 BASEMARK X Higher is better * Honor Play 32238

* Xiaomi Mi A2 21378 * Meizu 15 20786 * vivo V11 18818 * Nokia 6.1 Plus 14903 * Realme 2 Pro 14576 * Realme 2 Pro 14576 * Sony Xperia XA2 Plus 14119 * Nokia 5.1 Plus 13873 * Oppo F7 11873 *

Realme 1 10880 * Oppo F9 (F9 Pro) 10536 * Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 10484 * Xiaomi Mi A1 10472 * Realme 2 6703 BASEMARK OS 2.0 Higher is better * Honor Play 3294 * Meizu 15 2556 * Xiaomi Mi A2

2240 * vivo V11 2218 * Oppo F7 1953 * Nokia 6.1 Plus 1951 * Realme 1 1940 * Realme 2 Pro 1911 * Realme 2 Pro 1911 * Oppo F9 (F9 Pro) 1904 * Nokia 5.1 Plus 1868 * Sony Xperia XA2 Plus 1523 *

Xiaomi Mi A1 1262 * Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus 1226 * Realme 2 1039 CAMERA The Nokia 5.1 Plus has a dual camera system on the back consisting of a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel

secondary camera dedicated to capturing depth information for the bokeh mode. The camera application on the phone is a pretty standard affair. You get a handful of useful features, such as

an HDR mode, timer, panorama mode, time-lapse, slow-motion, and the aforementioned bokeh mode. There's also a very basic manual mode that lets you adjust the metering, focusing distance

(no actual manual focus, just macro, and infinite modes), white balance presets and exposure compensation. CAMERA APP There there's a whole bunch of less useful stuff, such as

Nokia's picture-in-picture modes, beauty mode for both front and rear cameras, watermark and some Snapchat style AR filters. None of these are particularly good or useful but they can

be fun to the right audience. Image quality in daylight is generally pretty decent. Colors look good, and the auto white balance is accurate most of the time. The level of detail in the

images is good too and although there is some noise, it's generally preferable to overly smoothened out, watercolor look some cameras have when they try to cut back on the noise

aggressively. DAYLIGHT SAMPLES Where the camera does fail is in the dynamic range, which usually quite bad. The camera usually exposes for the highlights, which leaves shadow areas looking

way too dark and underdeveloped. The HDR mode does help out a lot sometimes, especially in bringing out detail in the highlights. However, it is a bit conservative when it comes to bringing

out details in the shadows, so even HDR images tend to have dark shadows a lot of the time. HDR OFF • HDR ON Lowlight image quality is poor. The images are overly dark and soft, and the HDR

mode essentially becomes useless. LOWLIGHT SAMPLES The bokeh mode is also lackluster, and the camera struggles to define edges even with the simplest of subjects. BOKEH MODE The video

quality is decent. You are limited to 1080p at 30fps, but the videos have a fair amount of detail in them. The electronic stabilization also works quite well, and the hand-held footage below

looks almost like the phone was placed on a tripod. [embedded content] Overall, the camera on the Nokia 5.1 Plus is okay if you stick to shooting in daylight and avoid any low light

photography. COMPETITION The primary competition to the Nokia 5.1 Plus is the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, also sold as the Redmi 6 Pro in some markets such as India. XIAOMI MI A2 LITE (REDMI 6 PRO) •

OPPO REALME 1 • OPPO REALME 2 • ASUS ZENFONE MAX PRO (M1) ZB601KL The Mi A2 Lite has several advantages over the Nokia 5.1 Plus, such as a better display, better camera and also

significantly larger battery. However, the Nokia 5.1 Plus does have a more powerful chipset that even with a downclock is still faster than the Snapdragon 625 on the Mi A2 Lite. Both phones

run Android One. However, the Redmi 6 Pro variant runs on MIUI. Also, in the price range is the new Realme 2 and last year's Realme 1. The new Realme 2 has more memory and storage and

also a larger battery, but a slower chipset and significantly worse build quality. The older Realme 1 competes a bit better, with a much faster Helio P60 chipset, same as the Nokia 5.1 Plus

but without the downclock. It also has a higher resolution display and a larger battery. However, the Realme 1 does have worse build quality and also lacks a fingerprint sensor. The ColorOS

on Realme phones also may not be to everyone's taste. It's also likely this phone won't be around for very long and may just be available till stocks last. Finally,

there's also the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, which includes an incredible 5000mAh battery, Snapdragon 636 chipset and close to stock build of Android. VERDICT We were impressed by the

overall quality and performance of the Nokia 5.1 Plus. The phone looks and feels really good in the hand and is leagues ahead of many of its competitors in this aspect. The performance from

the MediaTek Helio P60 chipset is also excellent, and the phone feels fast and fluid in use. The Android One experience is also more consistent and refined than some of the heavier custom

skins out there, and you do get the promise of updates long after you've bought the phone. What we are not too thrilled about is the display, which is low resolution, lacks proper

calibration and has an ugly sharpening filter while watching video. We also didn't appreciate Nokia downclocking the P60 chipset on this device and not letting the users get the full

benefit of the chipset. It just feels like something that was done to avoid casting a shoadow on the more expensive Nokia 6.1 Plus market prospects. Lastly, the battery size could have also

been bigger. The battery life isn't bad, but most other phones in this price range now pack a massive battery. The Nokia 5.1 Plus, meanwhile, has the same 3050mAh battery as the smaller

Nokia 6.1 Plus. Overall, we think the Nokia 5.1 Plus will really appeal to someone looking for a phone with a good design, performance or stock Android experience. However, if a good

quality display or long battery life are your criteria, then this isn't the right phone for you. PROS * Great design * Excellent performance * Stock Android experience CONS * Poor

display performance * Poor low light camera performance * Relatively small battery * Needlessly large notch that covers up UI elements