We’ve been hearing of Nokia’s big comeback with new parent HMD Global since earlier this year, but the phones we’ve been treated to so far have, to be honest, failed to recapture the brand’s past glories.
But the Nokia 8 is different, and HMD has finally delivered what a lot of Nokia fans were clamoring for – a flagship-spec phone with the Nokia badge.
It ticks all the right boxes – Snapdragon 835, a quad HD display, dual cameras – and then some more (bothies, Ozo Audio, Zeiss-branded cameras). Our first impressions at the launch were good, but does the Nokia 8 stand out in an already saturated Android market?
Pros:
- Great hand-feel, form factor
- Durable build
- Top-notch internals
- Prompt software updates, (will get Android O and P)
Cons:
- Somewhat generic design
- Cameras falter in low-light
- Lacks water resistance and wireless charging
What’s Good?
Pick up the Nokia 8 and you’ll find the rather generic front, replete with bezels above and below the display, failing to impress quite in the same way as phones with edge-to-edge displays do. Now, while you wouldn't describe the Nokia 8 as downright sexy, there’s a sort of understated elegance in Nokia’s design, meant to appeal to folks who favor class over gloss.
The Series 6000 aluminium unibody feels good to hold, and the compact 5.3-inch screen size lets you maintain a steady grip on the device – not something we can say about many phablets these days. And of course, there’s the famed Nokia tank-like durability.
Looks aside, the phone boasts elements of a well-tuned flagship. The Qualcomm’s top-shelf 835 chip, which is fast becoming the chip of choice for all 2017 flagships, is present, as is 64GB of storage and 4GB of memory.
The 5.3-inch quad-HD Gorilla Glass 5-sporting display is crisp, vivid and rich on detail and is adequately bright even outdoors. You almost don't miss the fact that HMD opted against an AMOLED panel for the Nokia 8.
Nokia’s secret sauce is how it has optimised the experience atop the base Android 7.1.1, so you never really feel the lack of the additional 2-4 GB of memory that some of the competition packs in.
Aside from the Pixels, this is one of the rare phones that I’ve seen with the latest September security patch. When you add to that guaranteed updates to Android O and P, this is a phone that you know will go the distance.
Nokia’s custom camera app brings in additional features, including the headlining Dual Sight camera that shoots the unfortunately-named “bothies” (simultaneous front and rear photos and video).
It’s a great way to record your own reaction when the pet or the progeny is doing something memorable, or say when you’re at a live event and you want to show off both sides of the story.
You can even live-stream bothie videos via Facebook and YouTube, should you wish. I took a number of bothie photos and videos during my review, but how much it gets used depends on how much you want to be part of your photos and videos.
For me personally, the novelty wore off, but your mileage may vary. Regular videos (at 720p, 1080p and 4K @30fps) were pretty good, and the Ozo surround sound during videos often yielded spectacular spatial audio.
Although the 3,090 mAh battery sounds meagre by today’s standards, HMD has done a good job with the Nokia 8’s battery consumption, and I easily got more than a day’s worth of heavy use. There’s fast charging too. Excellent implementation, HMD.
What’s Bad?
Look, call it heightened expectations or the memory of some great imaging hardware from Nokia in the past – the Zeiss branding on the Nokia 8’s camera doesn't help this cause – but I can’t say I was blown away by the Nokia 8 camera. Don't get me wrong here, the dual (color+mono sensor) camera setup takes photos with subjects in focus and bags of detail and accurate colors – but only as long as the light is good.
The Live Bokeh shots have a pleasing blurred background, and you can select the level of bokeh while composing your shot. Unlike some of the competition, which produce shots that end up looking a bit artificial, the Nokia 8 takes natural-looking images with good edge detection.
The Panorama and Manual modes work as advertised. It’s when the sun goes down that the performance of the Nokia 8 falters – the shutter lag becomes pronounced and detail levels dip. Low light results aren’t particularly bad for its price segment, but the Nokia 8 doesn't compare too favorably with the best flagships around.
For something in its price category, the Nokia 8 is missing a few key differentiators – water resistance (although it has basic protection from water sprays) and wireless charging.
Why Buy It?
Before the Nokia 8 was announced, I feared HMD would fall prey to the premium pricing that had compromised the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 that came before it. I was pleasantly surprised (maybe even a bit shocked) by the Rs 36,999 pricing of the 8.
At this price, HMD has delivered the goods with the Nokia 8 – a sensible design, clean software, good performance and battery life. The likes of the OnePlus 5 and Mi Mix 2 had better watch their backs – Nokia is well and truly back.
(Tushar Kanwar is a technology columnist and commentator and has been contributing for the past 15 years to India’s leading newspapers and magazines. He can be reached at @2shar.)
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