Nokia 5.1 unboxing and hands-on: Android One for everyone

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The Nokia 5.1 might well be the Android One phone for... everyone. The affordable new Nokia 5.1 features a 5.5-inch screen and runs on a clean version of Google's Android platform optimized for speed.

The phones comes in a colorful box and here are all the accessories that you find inside.

What's in the box:

  • Nokia 5.1 phone
  • Wall charger
  • MicroUSB to standard USB cable
  • 3.5mm ear buds (black)
  • Sim ejector tool
  • User manual

Unfortunately, the Nokia 5.1 only supports the old microUSB standard for charging, rather than the newer and more convenient USB-C standard. This is one compromise that are still made in the cheapest phones in order to bring their price down, but it's really something we wish changed sooner.


For all else, the Nokia 5.1 is a fairly well built phone with an aluminum body and a 5.5-inch Full HD LCD display. Under the hood, the phone runs on the MediaTek Helio P18 chip, another cost-cutting measure that might not please everyone, as much as the clean software. There are two versions of the phone, one with 16 gigs of storage and 2GB of RAM, and an upper tier with 32GB of storage and 3GB RAM.

On the back, you get a 16-megapixel single main camera, while up front, you have an 8-megapixel shooter for selfies.

The battery inside the Nokia 5.1 has a 2,970mAh capacity.

Hands-on Impressions


Our hands-on impressions of the Nokia 5.1 are those of a reliable affordable phone without bells and whistles. The design is utilitarian, and the screen quality is just average in terms of color reproduction with noticeable motion blur as you scroll around. The most alluring part of the Nokia 5.1 is indeed its clean software and nearly rock bottom budget price. With tough competition from Huawei, Honor, and the likes of Xiaomi in this space, though, the Nokia 5.1 has a tough fight on its hands.
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