Nokia 5.1 Plus review

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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.

Nokia 5.1 Plus review

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.

Nokia 5.1 Plus review

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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review From the sides - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
From the sides - Nokia 5.1 Plus review From the sides - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
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.

Nokia 5.1 Plus review

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.

Nokia 5.1 Plus review

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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Display settings - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Battery menu - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Battery menu - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Nokia Launcher - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Nokia Launcher - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Settings menu - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Settings menu - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
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
rel="tooltip">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.

    Nokia 5.1 Plus review

    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 - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Camera app - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Camera app - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Camera app - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
    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 - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/1325s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Daylight samples - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/351s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
    Daylight samples - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/1065s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Daylight samples - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/1139s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
    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 - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/1325s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review HDR On - ISO 100, - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
    HDR On - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/1065s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review HDR On - ISO 100, - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
    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 - f/2.0, ISO 1000, 1/25s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Lowlight samples - f/2.0, ISO 1250, 1/17s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
    Lowlight samples

    The bokeh mode is also lackluster, and the camera struggles to define edges even with the simplest of subjects.

    Bokeh mode - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/1325s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review Bokeh mode - f/2.0, ISO 100, 1/754s - Nokia 5.1 Plus review
    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.

    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
    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.

    Nokia 5.1 Plus review

    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

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