Nokia has enjoyed a recent surge in its stock as collateral damage in the GameStop trading excitement, which has spiked interest in stock trading apps and how to buy Dogecoin. But I'm not here to give investment advice.
Whether buying Nokia stock is a good idea or not, buying a Nokia-branded phone might not be a bad move if you are in the market for a budget phone as HMD Global just announced that the Nokia 5.4 is coming on February 15 for just $250 and packs an impressive 48MP primary camera and a 4,000 mAh battery.
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While it isn't going to be taking down Samsung's Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12 anytime soon, Nokia (via HMD Global) has been quietly putting out some of the better budget smartphones on the market, and the Nokia 5.4 looks like it could be another winner.
Perhaps the biggest selling point for the phone, other than its $250 price tag, is the promised two years of major OS updates and three years of security updates. That's common in the flagship Android world these days, but virtually unheard of at this price point. While it's shipping with Android 10, it should be updated to Android 11 in the near future and should stay up-to-date through 2023 and Android 13.
The rear camera array is intriguing with a 48MP primary wide-angle, 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP Macro and a 2MP depth camera. The last two are a bit of a cheat to round out the specs, but the depth camera could certainly offer some utility if it delivers better data for portrait photos. The front-facing camera might be the most noteworthy at 16MP, which is definitely a rarity in this range.
The 6.39-inch HD (720p) display looks like it has pretty minimal bezels and hides that hole-punch front-facing camera pretty well in the upper-left corner. The overall design isn't a significant departure from other budget options with a circular rear camera array, a rear fingerprint sensor and a textured back. The phone will be available in either Polar Night or Dusk, which are a deep cyan blue and purple respectively.
Inside you have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 paired with 4GB of RAM. Don't plan on this being your next gaming phone, but that should be sufficient for basic smartphone tasks. Storage is quite good with 128GB onboard and microSD expansion for up to 512GB more.
The company is boasting up to two days of battery life with its 4,000 mAh battery and "AI-assisted Adaptive Battery technology," we'd certainly want to test that before believing it, but given the lower-powered CPU and the reasonably large battery that is at least plausible.
The Nokia 5.4 is already up for pre-order on Amazon and will start shipping on February 15.
