Nokia 5.4 goes official but is a mixed bag with downgrades in some departments

The latest affordable smartphone from Nokia has finally landed. The new Nokia 5.4 is the latest in HMD Global’s portfolio of mid-range smartphones and brings some solid upgrades in terms of its design, but actually goes backwards in the processor department. As rumored, the Nokia 5.4 is fitted with a Snapdragon 662, whereas the Nokia 5.3 was fitted with a Snapdragon 665 -- although the configuration is similar, it is clocked slightly slower (2.2 GHz versus 1.8 GHz) which means it trades some speed for better battery life.

Also getting a slight downgrade over the teardrop 6.65-inch 450 nits IPS LCD of the Nokia 5.3, the Nokia 5.4 picks up a smaller hole-punch 6.39-inch 400 nits IPS LCD display. Although pixel density is similar, the theme here once again seems to be about delivering better battery life at the expense of a certain level of performance. Given that both the Nokia 5.3 and Nokia 5.4 are fitted with similar 4,000 mAh capacity batteries, Nokia seems to have determined that battery life at this price point will be more important to its target market.

In addition to the more contemporary design, Nokia has made its most meaningful upgrade to the Nokia 5.4 in the camera department. The main sensor gets a big bump over the 13 MP camera in the Nokia 5.3 to a larger 48 MP module.  This joins the same three 5 MP, 13 mm ultrawide, 2 MP macro and 2 MP depth sensors that carry over from last year’s model. Storage options come in 4 GB/64 GB, 6 GB/64 GB and 4 GB/128 GB configurations. As with all Nokia smartphones, it comes pre-installed with Android One with three years of guaranteed updates.

The Nokia 5.4 is expected to go on sale in early January for US$229.