Nokia 8
Ever since Nokia reappeared earlier this year, we’ve been wondering when it was going to truly make its mark with a flagship phone. That time has finally come - the Nokia 8 is here, and it’s every bit the high-end handset we’ve been pinning our hopes on.
Bringing back long-time collaborator Zeiss optics, and learning lessons from the Nokia 3, 5 and Nokia 6, put it in a great place to make a splash - even with big guns like OnePlus, Honor and Motorola already having made their mark.
It matches the Galaxy S8 on core specifications, and Nokia promises timely updates to its vanilla Android operating system. But in other respects the Nokia 8 does little to stand out in the crowded market. There was also the PR win of the new Nokia 3310 that got people sitting up and interested, and now finally here’s the flagship device from the company that we’ve all been waiting for.
If the Nokia 6 was a chunky slab of metal, the 8 is a slim, svelte slice. It’s 7.3mm in the middle, but tapers down to less than 5mm at the edges, with smooth curves that fit perfectly in your hand.
It feels slick to hold, whether you go for the grippy, matt colours with their coarser texture, or the shiny, polished variants that are a bit more of a fingerprint magnet, but look that little bit more premium. It’s a similar look to HTC’s U11, only here it’s metal and not glass doing the shining.
Annoyingly, I wasn't allowed to take photos of the copper version, which is easily the best-looking phone in the line-up. The stealthy antenna lines at the top and bottom leave the entire back of the phone free from unwanted distractions, letting you get a good look at the shiny surface.
Up front, you still get the familiar screen bezels we’ve been seeing for the best part of ten years - Nokia hasn’t made the move to skinny screens just yet, leaving Samsung and LG (and possibly Apple later in the year) in a category to themselves. It still looks good, just not as future-friendly as some of the more expensive competition.
The Nokia 8 comes with a 5.3-inch screen. It’s an LCD panel that has a QHD resolution and 700 nits of brightness. That's high for a smartphone and should mean your phone's display is easily viewable even in particularly glaring sunlight.
Antenna bands on the Nokia 8 are visible along the top and bottom of the phone, but each fits in with the look of the phone. The company has placed them on the top and bottom to try and give you a better signal when you’re holding the phone in your hand.
Below the screen is a fingerprint scanner between the two navigation buttons that seemed in an easy to reach position to tap to unlock the phone.
Nokia wants to particularly highlight the camera tech on this phone and it's no wonder, as it looks like an impressive setup. Much like most of the major phones in 2017, Nokia has opted for a dual-sensor here that uses two 13MP shooters.
One is an RGB lens and the other is a monochrome shooter and the two combine their images to offer better photos in low light. You can also shoot from just one of the lenses if you wish, but you’ll likely only want to use the monochrome one to do this, as it allows for true filter-free black and white shots.
Nokia has given this feature the awful name of #Bothie, but the idea is you can shoot what you see in front of you as well as your reaction. This is a feature that some apps already offer, but having it ready and waiting on your phone makes you much more likely to actually use it.
For video filming there's also OZO Audio included, which uses similar tech to the professional OZO virtual reality camera. It uses three microphones alongside Nokia's own algorithms that should allow it to capture immersive 360 degree sound when recording video.
If the new Nokia’s first three phones didn’t quite hit the mark when it came to power, this more than makes up for it. Here you get a Snapdragon 835 CPU and 4GB of RAM, which puts it on par with the most expensive smartphones around right now.
It certainly felt rapid when swiping between home screens and opening apps - although that could partly be down to Nokia’s barebones approach to Android customisation. It feels almost exactly like a Google Pixel, with no ugly UI or preinstalled bloat slowing things down. That also means it'll be first in line to get Android updates, including the big push to Android O later in the year.
That Qualcomm chip also has one of the best mobile GPUs around for gaming, so we don’t doubt it’ll absolutely fly when you load up Asphalt 8.
The one worry is the 3000mAh battery, which isn’t exactly massive. Nokia reckons it has done a lot of work to optimise the CPU, which should translate to a day and a half between charges, but we’ll have to wait until a full review to see how that works out in real life.
At least you get USB-C charging here, and QuickCharge 3.0 support for quick top-ups.
That said, Nokia has only included a 3,090mAh battery in here so it may struggle to power a QHD screen. But Nokia has also included a liquid cooling system that it seems particularly proud of, which should mean the phone runs smoother and won’t get too hot and therefore use a lot more power.
With the two now coming in at much the same price Samsung is the clear winner in this pairing. Though the Nokia 8 boasts a dual-camera, Samsung’s single-lens offering is fantastic in its own right. Core hardware is similar, but Samsung wins on design - especially with its gorgeous Infinity Display. Unless you are a content creator who will make great use of Ozo and the Dual-Sight Zeiss cameras, we can’t see why you would choose the Nokia 8 over the Galaxy S8.
Nokia's First Android Flagship Phone
HMD Global has just unveiled what will be the very first Nokia flagship running Android: the Nokia 8. Historical significance aside, does the Nokia 8 represent the return to form that legions of Nokia fans have been waiting for? Well, it certainly looks and feels a whole lot like a 2017 flagship and like many flagships, it has a killer feature to set itself apart. Let’s dive right in.
Bringing back long-time collaborator Zeiss optics, and learning lessons from the Nokia 3, 5 and Nokia 6, put it in a great place to make a splash - even with big guns like OnePlus, Honor and Motorola already having made their mark.
It matches the Galaxy S8 on core specifications, and Nokia promises timely updates to its vanilla Android operating system. But in other respects the Nokia 8 does little to stand out in the crowded market. There was also the PR win of the new Nokia 3310 that got people sitting up and interested, and now finally here’s the flagship device from the company that we’ve all been waiting for.
Nokia 8 Deisgn
It feels slick to hold, whether you go for the grippy, matt colours with their coarser texture, or the shiny, polished variants that are a bit more of a fingerprint magnet, but look that little bit more premium. It’s a similar look to HTC’s U11, only here it’s metal and not glass doing the shining.
Annoyingly, I wasn't allowed to take photos of the copper version, which is easily the best-looking phone in the line-up. The stealthy antenna lines at the top and bottom leave the entire back of the phone free from unwanted distractions, letting you get a good look at the shiny surface.
Up front, you still get the familiar screen bezels we’ve been seeing for the best part of ten years - Nokia hasn’t made the move to skinny screens just yet, leaving Samsung and LG (and possibly Apple later in the year) in a category to themselves. It still looks good, just not as future-friendly as some of the more expensive competition.
Nokia 8 Display
The Nokia 8 comes with a 5.3-inch screen. It’s an LCD panel that has a QHD resolution and 700 nits of brightness. That's high for a smartphone and should mean your phone's display is easily viewable even in particularly glaring sunlight.
Antenna bands on the Nokia 8 are visible along the top and bottom of the phone, but each fits in with the look of the phone. The company has placed them on the top and bottom to try and give you a better signal when you’re holding the phone in your hand.
Nokia 8 Camera
One is an RGB lens and the other is a monochrome shooter and the two combine their images to offer better photos in low light. You can also shoot from just one of the lenses if you wish, but you’ll likely only want to use the monochrome one to do this, as it allows for true filter-free black and white shots.
There’s a 13MP front-facing camera as well that should give you some sharp selfie shots, and you can also livestream to either Facebook or YouTube from both cameras at the same time.
Nokia has given this feature the awful name of #Bothie, but the idea is you can shoot what you see in front of you as well as your reaction. This is a feature that some apps already offer, but having it ready and waiting on your phone makes you much more likely to actually use it.
For video filming there's also OZO Audio included, which uses similar tech to the professional OZO virtual reality camera. It uses three microphones alongside Nokia's own algorithms that should allow it to capture immersive 360 degree sound when recording video.
Nokia 8 Speakers
Sound is more of a mixed bag. There’s only a single speaker, and I didn’t get the chance to properly try it out, but Nokia is promising big things when it comes to recording. Ozo audio is essentially a 3D recording algorithm that uses multiple mics to create surround sound. Again, it’s one to test before we pass judgment. There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you don't have to worry about living the dongle life just yet.
Nokia 8 Specs and Performance
It certainly felt rapid when swiping between home screens and opening apps - although that could partly be down to Nokia’s barebones approach to Android customisation. It feels almost exactly like a Google Pixel, with no ugly UI or preinstalled bloat slowing things down. That also means it'll be first in line to get Android updates, including the big push to Android O later in the year.
That Qualcomm chip also has one of the best mobile GPUs around for gaming, so we don’t doubt it’ll absolutely fly when you load up Asphalt 8.
The one worry is the 3000mAh battery, which isn’t exactly massive. Nokia reckons it has done a lot of work to optimise the CPU, which should translate to a day and a half between charges, but we’ll have to wait until a full review to see how that works out in real life.
At least you get USB-C charging here, and QuickCharge 3.0 support for quick top-ups.
Nokia 8 Battery
Conclusion
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