The Nokia 8

It’s finally here. Nokia’s flagship smartphone, built specifically to compete with Apple’s iPhone 8 and Samsung’s Galaxy S8. Whilst Nokia have partnered up with HMD before to release budget and mid-tier smartphones such as the Nokia 3 and the Nokia 6, this is their first venture into the top tier of the smartphone market.

 

So how does it stack up? Well it goes into battle well-armed with the cutting edge Snapdragon 835 chipset, a stunning high resolution LCD display, and a premium aluminium unibody similar to that of the iPhones.

 

The 13MP front and rear cameras are an improvement on those found in the iPhone 7 and the Galaxy S7, but the water resistance rating of IP54 gives ground to both rivals which have IP67 and 68 respectively.

 

Despite offering very similar or improved specifications in a lot of areas, at around £550 the price of the Nokia 8 is considerably lower than that of its rivals.

 

The days of the Nokia ‘brick’ phones are clearly gone, with the Nokia 8 showcasing a sleek, modern look. 2 types of finish are available, with a choice between the “Polished” mirror finish and the “Satin” matte finish. Two colours are available in each. Polished Blue or Copper, and Satin Blue or Steel.

The Nokia 8 is a tidy android phone that has a great specification for a price considerably lower than that those of its direct competitors. The clean appearance, and quality of the hardware could be signalling the re-entry of a major player into the smartphone market.

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / HSPA / LTE

 

LAUNCH	Announced	August, 2017
	Status	Coming soon. Expected release in September 2017

 

BODY	Dimensions	151.5 x 73.7 x 7.9 mm (5.96 x 2.90 x 0.31 in)
	Weight	160g
	SIM	Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
		– IP54 certified – dust and splash resistant

 

DISPLAY	Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours
	Size	5.3 inches (~69.4% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1440 x 2560 pixels (~554 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 5
		– Always-on display

 

PLATFORM	OS	Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835
	CPU	Octa-core (4×2.5 GHz Kryo & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo)
	GPU	Adreno 540

 

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 256 GB (uses SIM 2 slot)
	Internal	64 GB, 4 GB RAM

 

CAMERA	Primary	Dual 13 MP, f/2.0, laser & phase detection autofocus, Carl Zeiss optics, OIS, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
	Features	1.12µm pixel size, geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama
	Video	2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps
	Secondary	13 MP, 2160p

 

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		– 24-bit/192kHz audio – Nokia OZO audio – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

 

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot
	Bluetooth	5.0, A2DP, LE
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
	NFC	Yes
	Radio	No
	USB	3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector

 

FEATURES	Sensors	Fingerprint (front-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
	Browser	HTML5
	Java	No
		– Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 3.0) – MP4/H.264 player – MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player – ANT+ support – Photo/video editor – Document viewer

 

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Ion 3090mAh battery

 

MISC	Colours	Tempered Blue, Polished Blue, Steel, Polished Copper
	Price	About 550 Pounds

 

TESTS	Performance	Basemark OS II: 4215 / Basemark OS II 2.0: 3503 Basemark X: 37593
	Display	Contrast ratio: 1840:1 (nominal), 4.239 (sunlight)
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Loudspeaker	Voice 88dB / Noise 77dB / Ring 81dB
	Audio quality	Noise -94.2dB / Crosstalk -88.5dB
	Battery life	Endurance rating 78h