Can HMD’s first flagship — Nokia 8 — be a true challenger?

1.2085601-1022275235 — Image Credit: Supplied

Dubai: After playing in the budget price segment with Nokia 3, 5 and 6 models, HMD has unveiled the Nokia 8 in the mid-range price segment which is also the first flagship.

The 5.3 inches Quad High Definition (1440 x 2560 pixels) Nokia 8 is powered by octa-core 2.45GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage capacity. The microSD card supports up to 256GB.

The same processor is powering the Samsung S8 and Note 8 models, HTC U 11 and Sony’s XZ Premium devices.

HMD has taken the design cues from Lumia handsets to create something pretty special out of the single block of aluminium and its pure design has been refined through a 40-stage process of machining, anodising and polishing.

The device weighs 160 grams and it is easy to hold due to the curved 4.6mm thin edges. The thickness is at 7.3mm in the middle.

The advantage is that it runs on stock Android Nougat 7.1.1 version and the security patch is up-to-date.

The 554 pixels per inch display is bright and can be seen under bright sunlight with ease. The fingerprint sensor is coupled with the home screen button and the sensor is pretty fast to open.

The Nokia 8 comes covered in Gorilla Glass 5 and bearing an IP54 rating against splash and dust damage and not water proof.

The Zeiss-branded 13MP dual-camera set-up is the one which steals attention. One is the standard RGB sensor and the other is the monochrome sensor for low light and dedicated black and white photography. The advantage is that the camera can be set to only work as colour or both or only monochrome and it can be adjusted in the camera app. This technique is used by several other recent and the end result is an image with oodles of detail and bright, punchy colours.

The 13MP rear camera has an f/2.0 aperture, laser and phase detection autofocus, OIS, dual-LED (dual tone) flash with 1.12µm pixel size.

When the world is moving in selfie mode, HMD has introduced “Bothie” which enables Dual-Sight video to be livestreamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as Facebook and YouTube.

Dual-Sight mode utilises both the front and cameras in spit screen for both photos and videos. Press the shutter button and both the shots are squeezed into a single frame. It is a fun and interesting feature but needs to be seen how many people will use it for a long term.

The images taken in decent light conditions turn to be super sharp with details and colours but it loses much of their sharpness in poor lighting

The in-house developed camera app is simple and has manual, live bokeh, panorama and beauty modes for the rear camera. The live bokeh mode lets you preview and adjust the intensity of the effect. It is good to take portraits with the monochrome sensor.

At 1.12µm, the pixels aren’t the largest and the f/2.0 aperture isn’t the brightest. The camera has some focusing issues and may be updated with a software upgrade.

I would recommend turning on the auto HDR option, which is pretty smart. When HDR is needed, the camera does a good job in boosting the shadows without blowing the highlights.

The 13MP front-facing camera with f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, 1.12µm pixel size takes decent snaps in good light conditions but struggles in lowlight conditions. The only thing missing is optical image stabilisation.

The front has a beauty mode which makes the screen turn into flashlight to illuminate the face.

Coming to videos, both the front and back can record 4K videos at 30 frames per second. You can also shoot time-lapse or slow motion videos. Coupled with OZO Audio, Nokia 8 combines three microphones with exclusive Nokia acoustic algorithms to capture audio with immersive 360° spatial surround sound to enable high fidelity playback on mono speaker.

The audio quality is good and the support for headphones. Nokia’s Active Wireless Headset — a lightweight, water, sweat, and dust proof premium headset is included with the box.

Regarding connectivity, it has 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi and all of the available standards, USB Type-C 3.1, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 5.0, A-GPS, NFC and GLONASS.

It runs cool under pressure, has no lag when switching apps and the whole interface feels more fluid with stock Android.

The Nokia 8’s 3,090mah capacity lasts through the day for fairly heavy use and gives more than 11 hours of video playback, more than 11 hours of web surfing close to 30 hours of 3G talk time, which is pretty good.

With Quick Charge 3.0 support, the Nokia 8 charges to a full with just over an hour at the plug.

Nokia 8 is an attractive and powerful smartphone but will face stiff competition from OnePlus5 and Huawei P10.

Nokia 8 will be available in four colours — polished blue, polished copper, tempered blue and steel and will be available in the UAE for Dh1,699 from September 21.

Pros