Video: Nokia 8.3 Unboxing and First Impressions

No, we didn’t get it yet. Our Nokia 8.3 5G is being unboxed and tested by diligent employees of Royal Mail. The phone was shipped by Nokia mobile (huge thanks!) on September 25th, and it is still somewhere in the UK, probably tagged as dangerous or smuggled goods :). So, our good guy and obviously super-wealthy Youtuber Abdulla couldn’t wait for us to unbox it and ordered a Nokia 8.3 5G for himself from China Hong Kong and got it delivered in just three days by DHL (bloody German efficiency). He immediately did an unboxing and first impressions video of the second most expected Nokia device in 2020. Do enjoy the video and also an inpatient version of Abdulla, and be kind and subscribe to his channel. Also, we’d like to do a test and see how quickly we can push a Nokia Youtuber, which is a rare kind today, to 100K subscribers :).

It’s finally here. I don’t know if I’m dreaming, but I finally managed to get my hands on the Nokia 8.3 5G. It feels like it was almost a past lifetime when this thing was officially announced and I was hyped to get my hands on it. Since then though, many different phones came out with similar specs, and many of them seem to have completely undercut the Nokia 8.3 5G in price. But does the Nokia have a triumph card it can use to justify its existence? I’ll save that for my full review, but for the time being here is my unboxing video:

It’s longer than what I anticipated, but I tried to cover as many aspects of the phone as possible for potential buyers to get a good idea of what they can expect. Here are my findings so far:

• I was expecting a big phone, but I was still surprised by how big this thing actually is. The Nokia 8.3 5G is bigger in size than the Note 20 Ultra from Samsung. If you want a compact phone, this isn’t it.
• The build quality seems superb. As expected, this phone feels very nice to hold. It feels expensive thanks to how dense it is at 220 grams, but it also feels durable. This is one of the aspects that Nokia Mobile has been nailing for the past few years.
• The color is very nice in person. The cyan/teal shade only pops up under light and its mesmerizing to look at.
• The display is also very nice. At this price point I want a higher refresh rate than 60Hz, but other than it lacking the extraordinary, this display is really nice to look at.
• Performance so far has been flagship-grade. Speed, smoothness, transitions are all fluid. I’m rocking the 8/128GB version though so keep that in mind.
• Speaker is loud and crisp, but I need to test more to see how well it handles different tones.
• The camera at first glance seems good as well. From my early snaps, the main shooter has an impressive dynamic range, and the wide-angle camera is flagship-grade. Will have to test more to see how well they handle low light situations.
• There are many different settings for video, and this is something I was waiting for from Nokia mobile for a very long time. H-log, 21:9 video, action cam, pro settings are all present. Unfortunately, though, there is no 4K/60fps option for recording, and for some reason, the front camera can shoot 2k/60fps while the main camera can shoot either 4k/30fps or 1080p/60fps.
• The software is Android One as you would expect. The phone launches with Android 10 out of the box. The contribution of Nokia mobile to the software is the camera app, PureDisplay, display color temperature, double-tap to wake up, and fingerprint scrolling.
• The fingerprint so far is quite quick and reliable. I like the side-mounted positioning of it as well.
• The vibration motor is on point.
• The biggest omissions are lack of IPS water resistance rating, lack of high refresh rate, and no wireless charging.

Overall, my first impressions are quite positive as you can see since the phone seems to have nailed the basics, but the devil is always in the details. This phone is not cheap, and even though I bought it for around $600, people expect a bit more. In my opinion, if the camera can live up to the PureView branding, this phone might have a chance.