Introduction
After a short delay due to cancellation of this year's Mobile World Congress, HMD Global - a Finnish smartphone manufacturer - has announced four new Nokia-branded handsets, including its first-ever 5G phone. The new Nokia 8.3 5G is the headline smartphone from this announcement, and as the name suggests, it’s mostly focused on its 5G elements of the handset. Alongside a 5G smartphone, the company also unveiled two affordable – Nokia 5.3 and Nokia 1.3 handsets, and a featured – Nokia 5310 phone. The phone is technically the successor to the 2018 Nokia 8.1 and comes with all the features you will find in a 2020 upper mid-range smartphone. The Nokia 8.3 5G will be available in a single Polar night color option inspired by the northern lights. It will be available in summer, starting at $640.
Nokia 8.3 5G design and display
The design is similar to what we’ve seen from HMD Global’s Nokia smartphones in previous years with a metal edge and Gorilla Glass on the rear of the phone. The fingerprint sensor is housed within the power button that sits on the side of the handset allowing you to turn the phone on and unlock it with one press. It comes with a refracted light design that gives it a unique look rather than just a solid color. It’s only available in blue, or as the company is calling it, Polar Night. The phone has adopted the punch-hole display design we have seen on a number of phones in recent times. However, there is still a significant amount of bezel at the top and bottom of the screen. On the backside, it has a circular camera design that houses four cameras, but they are different from what we have seen on other devices. There’s a USB-C charging port at the bottom of the handset.
Let’s talk about the display, which is a 6.81-inch Full HD+ screen with an aspect ratio of 20:9. That means the phone’s screen is longer than most handsets in an attempt to have a larger screen without it feeling too large in the hand. The screen’s (IPS LCD) FHD+ resolution is 1080 x 2400, which is a pixel density of 386 pixels per inch. That likely means the picture won’t be as clear as you’ll get on a QHD device, but it should be enough for your day-to-day tasks. Surprisingly, Nokia 5.3 5G’s display has a Pixelworks chip that helps it convert SDR to HDR content. Nokia claims that the phone provides an 82.9 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Front and rear cameras
The Nokia 8.3 5G has a quad rear camera setup. It includes a 64MP primary camera with f/1.89 aperture, a 12MP ultrawide angle camera with impressive low light performance thanks to its large 2.8um Super Pixel size. The ultrawide angle camera can also record in 4K UHD. The other two cameras are a 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro camera. All four cameras have ZEISS optics. Nokia has also partnered with ZEISS to bring its cinematic effects to the Nokia 8.3 5G allowing you to edit videos professionally in Hollywood style with effects such as Blue flare and Anamorphic. There's a new mode included called Action Cam Mode that is specifically designed to capture smooth video. It uses a higher frame rate - that's 60fps - to improve the footage for fast-moving subjects. The Nokia 8.3 5G is also capable of filming in 4K too. On the front of the phone is a 24MP selfie shooter. You can record only Full HD videos at 30fps by using the front camera.
Processor and 5G support
5G is the most prominent feature here, and this is the first phone from the company to be able to sport it. In fact, the company is referring to this as the brand’s first “global 5G smartphone”. HMD Global believes this is the handset that supports the most 5G bands right now. That claim seems to be correct with the phone able to use a large selection of high-, mid- and low-frequency 5G bands. It supports not only 600MHz bands but also mid-bands and 3.8GHz High-bands. Nokia 8.3 5G supports all 5G TDD and FDD sub6 frequencies (n78, n40, n41/38, n7, n1, n2, n3, n66, n9, n5, n28, and n71). There isn’t a top-end chipset inside this phone, and instead, HMD Global is using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G chipset inside here. That allows for 5G connectivity, but likely won’t provide as impressive processing as phones that use the flagship Snapdragon 865 Chipset. You’ll have the choice of either 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage or 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage. There’s also microSD support for cards up to 400GB.
Battery and Software
The phone comes preloaded with Android 10 by default, and the company ensures that it will be provided software updates for two years and monthly security upgrades for a minimum of three years. That means you’ll be set to get Android 11 as soon as possible later in the year too. The phone has a 4500mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging. By using a company’s standard charger, you can charge phone battery 0 percent to 80 percent in 48 minutes.