HMD Global has unveiled the first ever Nokia branded Android flagship, the Nokia 8 at an event in London on August 16th. The premium smartphone with an all metal design, dual cameras and more 2017 specifications will go on sale in early September for 599 Euros (Rs. 45,000 approx.). After a string of mid-range Android smartphones, the Nokia 8 was highly anticipated for not just being a Nokia flagship, but the first flagship device since the Finnish company’s Windows Phone days.
The Nokia 8 has an IP54 rating for splash resistance. Although, the smartphone does not look like a 2017 flagship with big bezels around the edges unlike the LG G6 or the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+. The Nokia 8 sports a 5.3 inch 2560 x 1440 px display and 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. Powering the device is a 3,090mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0 support via USB Type-C port. Under the hood is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and a 2.45GHz octa-core processor, the Adreno 540 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage which is expandable via microSD card. The Nokia 8 runs on stock Android 7.1.1 OS and the company has promised monthly security updates and yearly Android updates. The fingerprint sensor is housed inside the home button below the screen.
The new flagship is also the first Nokia Android device to feature Carl Zeiss optics. In a very 2017 move, the Nokia 8 boasts a Zeiss powered dual camera setup at the rear – a primary 13MP RGB (colour) sensor with optical image stabilisation paired with a 13MP secondary monochrome (black and white) sensor and an f/2.0 aperture. The dual-camera setup is capable of recording videos in 4K at 30 FPS and has a portrait mode for bokeh effect. On the front is a 13MP camera which can also record 4K videos at 30FPS.
The Nokia 8 comes with a feature called Bothie. It is the first smartphone in the world which allows ‘Dual-Sight’ video to be live streamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as YouTube and Facebook. Dual-Sight allows you to use the front and rear camera at the same time in a split screen view. Another feature that the smartphone boasts is called OZO Audio in which the smartphone’s three microphones and Nokia’s acoustic algorithms allow you to capture 360-degree spatial surround sound. You can also share 4K videos with OZO audio with anyone – binaural codecs ensure high fidelity playback even on devices without OZO Audio.
There is no official word on the Nokia 8’s availability in India as of yet. The Finnish brands’ foray into Android smartphones has s far been through mid-rangers, but, with this flagship device, Nokia is ready to compete with the big boys of the smartphone industry.
Nokia Recently launched the Nokia 5 in India, available exclusively in the offline market.
