Nokia 8 Full Review Specs and Price

Nearly eight months have passed since the Finnish company HMD Global, created by natives of Nokia and entitled to use the legendary brand for its smartphones, has released its debut in China – Nokia 6. By making two more “budget” – Nokia 3 and 5 – the end of the summer, the Finns and their Chinese manufacturing partners from Foxconn are ripe before the release of the “real” flagship – with premium design, top Qualcomm processor, super-clear screen, surround sound recording and a dual-camera Zeiss claiming to compete with market leaders. Let’s find out if the novelty of is worth – for such a price it’s possible to buy Nokia 8 today.

To the flagships are usually referred to as devices with uncommon features. For example, a smartphone can be called “large” (for impressive screen size), “musical” (for advanced sound reproduction), “camera” (for rich photo-opportunities), “long-playing” (for high autonomy), etc. However, the paramount feature of an absolute leader in a family is usually considered to be the presence of a powerful mobile platform. This, of course, does not exclude other advantages. Smartphone Nokia 8, judging by the installed processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, the performance is not offended. But is this enough to compete on equal terms with other owners of the same chip?

Nokia 8 Review: Specifications

GENERAL FEATURES

• Platform: Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)
• Processor: Octa-core Processor: 2.5GHz quad-core & 1.8GHz quad-core (Qualcomm Snapdragon 835)
• GPU: Adreno 540
• Memory: 4GB RAM
• Colours: Tempered Blue, Polished Blue, Steel, Polished Copper
• Dimension: 151.5 x 73.7 x 7.9 mm
• Weight: 160 g
• SIM Type: Nano-SIM
• SIM Count: Dual-SIM or Single SIM

DISPLAY

• Display: 5.3-inch IPS Display, 1440 x 2560 pixels (554ppi)
• Screen Protection: Yes, Corning Gorilla Glass 5

CAMERA

• Rear Camera: Dual 13MP Camera, up to 2160p ultra HD 4K Video
• Rear Camera Features: dual LED Flash, HDR, Laser & PDAF Autofocus, Carl Zeiss Optics, Geo-tagging, Face Detection, Panorama
• Front Camera: 13 MP Camera, 2160p ultra HD Video

STORAGE

• Built-in Storage: 64GB
• Memory Card Support: Yes, up to 256GB Storage

NETWORK SUPPORT

• 2G GSM: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz
• 2G CDMA 1X: 800 / 900MHz
• 3G WCDMA: 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100MHz
• 3G CDMA EVDO: Yes
• 4G LTE: Yes, LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 28(700), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)

INTERNET & CONNECTION

• GPRS: Yes, up to 48kbps
• EDGE: Yes
• 3G/WCDMA/HSPA: Yes, up to 21Mbps
• HSPA+: Yes, up to 42Mbps
• CDMA EVDO: Yes
• 4G LTE: Yes, up to 450Mbps
• WLAN: Yes, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct
• Wi-Fi Hotspot: Yes
• Bluetooth: Yes, Bluetooth 5.0, A2DP, LE
• NFC: Yes
• Infrared Blaster: Yes
• USB Port: Yes, USB Type C (USB 3.1)

MESSAGES

• SMS/MMS: Yes
• Instant Messaging: Yes
• Push Emails: Yes
• Email Protocol: IMAP4, POP3, SMTP

ENTERTAMENT

• Music Player: Yes, mp3, WAV, FLAC, eACC+
• Video Player: Yes, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, XviD
• FM Radio: Yes
• Loudspeaker: Yes (Stereo)
• 3.5mm Jack: Yes

NAVIGATION

• Navigation: Yes, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• Maps: Yes, Google Maps
• Sensors & Control
• Digital Compass: Yes
• Accelerometer: Yes
• Proximity Sensor: Yes
• Light Sensor: Yes
• Barometer: No
• Heart Rate Monitor: No
• Gyroscope: Yes
• Fingerprint Scanner: Yes (Front)
• Iris Scanner: No
• Intelligent Digital Assistant: Yes
• Motion Sensing / Gesture Control: Yes
• Voice Control: Yes

OTHER FEATURES

• Video Streaming: Yes
• Active Noise Cancellation: Yes (with dedicated mic)
• Wireless Charging: No
• Water Resistant: No (Dust and Splash Resistant – IP54 certified)
• Dust Resistant: Yes
• Image Editor: Yes
• Video Editor: Yes
• Document Viewer: Yes
• Document Editor: No (download at store)

BATTERY

• Battery: 3090 mAh Li-ion Battery (non-removable)
• Fast Charging: Yes (Quick Charge 3.0)

Pros:

Metal housing
The most powerful mobile platform
Bright screen with Quad HD-resolution
Functional cameras with Zeiss optics
Nokia OZO surround sound for video
Free version of Android 7.1.1 (Nougat)

Minuses:

Noticeable side frames of the screen
The choice between installing a second SIM card and expanding the memory
Modest autonomy
Absence of full protection of the housing from water and dust

Overview of Nokia 8: Design, Ergonomics

Of all models released by HMD Global, Nokia 8 is nicer than all. But to call a streamlined design unique, of course, difficult. Like Nokia 6, temporarily acting as the flagship, the new smartphone is made of a single block of aluminum alloy 6000 series. As is known, alloys of the 7000 series are also used for the casings, which are approximately the same wear-resistant, but more durable and, as a result, more complex in machining.

The production process, which takes up to 20 hours, consists of 40 stages, including anodizing and final polishing. The rear metal panel of the Nokia 8 case is nicely rounded, while a fresh design solution is the placement of radio-transparent inserts for antennas on the ends of the device. Fresh, it’s fresh, but it looks ambiguous – when you look at the end, it seems that the smartphone is plastic.

The side frames around the screen are visible, clearly in spite of the current “frameless” fashion. Regarding dimensions, however, the smartphone comes out pretty elegant: the thickness of the body is 7.9 mm, at the edges – only 4.6 mm. The main photo-module almost does not protrude, projecting only 0.4 mm above the plane of the rear panel. Weight Nokia 8 – 160 g. The body colors are for every taste – noble matte steel and indigo and more flashy glossy indigo and copper. Especially spectacular is the last coloring, reddish-yellow with a brilliant tint.

For the novelty, the degree of protection of the enclosure IP54 is declared. In other words, some dust can penetrate inside without disrupting the operation of the device. Also, there is a barrier against water splashes falling in any direction. In general, at present, this is not too convincing for the flagship. Moreover, the “colleagues in the shop,” including Samsung Galaxy S8 / S8 +, LG G6, HTC U11, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, are protected more convincingly. Their protection is certified by IP68 (full dustproof and submerged operation up to half an hour).

The entire front panel of Nokia 8 is covered with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 glass. In the center of the screen, there is a “conversational” speaker around which the front camera lens was assembled, as well as proximity and illumination sensors. Here you can consider the low-key Nokia logo. Under the display, on the bottom plate, the capacitive pad of the fingerprint scanner, which also functions as the “Home” button, is surrounded by the dedicated “Back” (“triangle”) touch control buttons and the “Latest applications” (“square”). The duration of the backlighting of these icons is easy to change in the settings from 2 to 8 seconds, or turn them on/off together with the screen.

The volume control and the power/lock button, which differed significantly in size, were taken out to the right side of the case.

In a closed slot on the left edge of the case, one seat in the tray is for the first subscriber identification module (nanoSIM format), and the other occupies either the microSD memory expansion card or the second nanoSIM.

At the bottom, there is a decorative grille of the “multimedia” speaker, asymmetrical USB Type-C connector and a hole for the “talking” microphone. In the USB Type-C design, the USB 3.1 interface of the first generation (speed up to 5 Gbit / s) is implemented. The top end got a 3.5-mm connector (CTIA) for an audio headset. In the same place, under the radio-transparent plastic, besides the cellular, the NFC-antenna also hid.

At the top of the back panel was a photo module consisting of two lenses of the primary camera, a laser rangefinder, and a two-tone LED flash. The Zeiss logo directly points to the manufacturer of optics. Above the photo module, next to the upper end of the case, is an opening for the second microphone. Due to its compact dimensions, the device fits well in the palm of your hand. However, it is convenient to use the fingerprint scanner only with your free hand.

Nokia 8 Review: Screen

The resolution of the 5.3-inch IPS matrix of the Nokia 8 screen is 2560×1440 pixels (Quad HD), which provides a density of pixels per inch 554 PPI. There is a polarization filter that improves the visibility of the image in the sun, and the maximum brightness value under the passport reaches 700 nits (for comparison, the screen of Nokia 6 has 450 nits).

One of the features of Nokia 8 was the function of the “permanently turned on display” Glance, known even from Lumia smartphones, as “Screensaver” (other manufacturers can be called, for example, Always-On). With minimal energy consumption, the current battery charge, exact time, date, day of the week, as well as notifications of missed calls, new messages, messages and calendar reminders are displayed on the upper portion of the locked screen. Do not forget the developers and another convenient option that allows you to turn the backlight of the screen with a double tap on it.

Nokia 8 Review: Cameras

Cameras in Nokia 8 equipped with optics Zeiss, but the principle of the main photo-module seems to be “peeked” in smartphones Huawei and Honor – it consists of a duo of 13-megapixel cameras (color and monochrome) based on sensors with a pixel size of 1.12 m. One of the cameras that fixes the colors has received optical stabilization, about black and white, which simply collects all the light, there is no such information. By combining data with RGB and B / W sensors, the resulting image can increase sensitivity, expand the dynamic range, and provide more detail. Both lenses have a viewing angle of 76.9 degrees and an aperture of f / 2.0. Phase auto focus is supplemented with a laser rangefinder. There is also a two-tone LED flash.

The maximum resolution of the images for the duo of the main cameras is 4160×3120 pixels (13 MP) with a 4: 3 aspect ratio.
The front camera also based on a 13-megapixel with a pixel size of 1.12 microns received a lens with a viewing angle of 78.4 degrees, aperture f / 2.0 and, again, phase autofocus. Both photo-modules can shoot video in 4K-resolution (3840×2160 pixels, 16: 9) with a frame rate of 30 fps. Also, for them, the modes of fast and slow motion are provided. All content is stored in MP4 container files (AVC – video, AAC – audio).

By the way, in addition to self, with the help of Nokia 8, it is suggested to make “boss” (bothie, by analogy with selfie) – this is when the frame is made up of two identical rectangles taken from the frontal and rear cameras. The function of two-sided shooting (Dual Sight) allows you to not only take pictures but also record video; you can use it in live broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube. Complement the picture technology Nokia OZO Audio, but about it a little lower.

Nokia 8 Review: Sound

Although, in general, the sound of the smartphone was like, about Dolby Atmos, as in Nokia 6, the novelty of speech no longer goes. The fact is that the “audiophilia” of Nokia 8 is different – the recording of surround sound with video using Nokia OZO Audio technology, borrowed from the professional Nokia VR-camera OZO.

For recording 360-degree surround sound, at least three microphones are required, with only two microphones guaranteed, the “normal” spatial audio is fixed. Judging by the technical characteristics, Nokia 8 has three microphones (the hole for the third one can be hidden, for example, under the decorative grille of one of the speakers).

This is enough to create the effect of immersion (presence). To feel the difference between OZO Audio and the usual sound of the video, it’s worth watching and, most importantly, listening to the movie “Nokia 8 with Nokia OZO Audio – Experience the Difference”: And the difference is audible even if it happens not in the headphones but through the dynamics of the smartphone itself. If you believe the manufacturer, binaural codecs allow you to play the recording even on devices without OZO Audio technology.

Nokia 8 Review: Filling, Performance

Results of Nokia 8 in the GeekBench benchmark

The basic stuffing of Nokia 8 is the most flagship one – the most powerful chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, executed taking into account design standards 10 nm. Its eight computing cores are divided into two clusters of Kryo 280 cores, while the first quartet is clocked at 2.45 GHz, and the second one – up to 1.9 GHz. The graphics accelerator Adreno 540 supports DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0. Built-in LTE-modem X16 with aggregation of carrier frequencies allows receiving data at speeds up to 1 Gbit / s (Cat. 16). Also, the module integrates Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi (including 802.11ad and 802.11ac Wave-2). The basic configuration of Nokia 8 is supplemented with 4 GB of RAM LPDDR4X.

A couple of words worth mentioning about the cooling system in Nokia 8. According to the manufacturer, its basic element was a graphite-shielded long copper tube that evenly dissipates the heat emitted by the productive processor. What reagent is used in the tube (and is it used at all) is not specified. In Nokia 8, 64 GB of fast flash memory such as UFS 2.1 is installed. By the speed of exchange, it outperforms eMMC 5.1 just at times. The producers of some “flagship killers” can not always afford such a replacement, since it is not cheap. As already mentioned, for expansion of the storage with a microSD / HC / XC memory card up to 256 GB, there is a place in the combined slot. Also, USB-OTG technology allows you to connect to the device USB-flash drive.

One radio channel can alternately use two subscriber identification modules in the Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) mode. In 4G networks (Cat.9, 450/50 Mbit / s) the new smartphone supports several frequency bands, including the LTE-FDD – b3 (1 800 MHz), b7 (2 600 MHz) and b20 (800 MHz). The set of wireless communications also includes Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac (2.4 and 5 GHz), ANT +, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC. The NFC interface allows you to use the Android Pay service, but you can not read the transport cards with it.

To determine the location and navigation, you can use satellite systems GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. Also available is the coordination mode for Wi-Fi and cellular networks (A-GPS). The capacity of a non-removable battery, installed in Nokia 8, is 3 090 mAh. In the kit with the smartphone is a charger with support for quick charging Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 (18 W, 5 V / 2.5 A, 9 V / 2 A, 12 V / 1.5 A). Wireless charging is not available – and it debuted on the Nokia Lumia in 2012.

A relatively small in size battery has to pay for Quad HD-resolution and high screen brightness. The battery test AnTuTu Tester gave an average result of 7,075 points. A set of videos in the format of MP4 (hardware decoding) and Full HD-quality at full brightness spun continuously for slightly less than 6 hours. Quite modest even for the “novice” flagship.

In the “Battery” settings section, a convenient “Action Manager in the background” is offered, aimed, ultimately, to increase battery life. To do this, the automatic power saving mode is activated at the corresponding battery level (5% or 15%).

Nokia 8 Review: Software Features

Like all members of the new family under the nostalgic brand, Nokia 8 is working on a fresh, unmodified version of the Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) operating system, so there is a hope that these smartphones will receive updates much earlier than competitors. For more comfortable work, it is suggested to activate the options in the “Movements” section.

After that, you can reject the call simply by turning over the smartphone and to reduce the volume of the signal – take the device into your hand. In the “Gestures” section there is an option for quick access to the camera, which is caused by a double press of the power button lock. Up to 5 fingerprints can be used to unlock the smartphone with a fingerprint scanner. For the convenience of work, it is better to register the papillary patterns of the fingers of the free hand.

Nokia 8 Review: Conclusions

On the one hand, in the elegant metal case of Nokia 8 is hidden the most powerful mobile platform. The bright screen with Quad HD-resolution (here if it was not so actively used the battery charge, a 13-megapixel front and a dual main camera with Zeiss optics and a two-sided shooting function, and, also, the recording technology surround-sound Nokia OZO for video.
In turn, the NFC interface allows you to use the service Android Pay, and the unmodified version of the Android OS gives you the opportunity to receive updates much earlier than it gets smartphones competitors.

On the other hand, among the shortcomings should be pointed to the noticeable side frames around the screen, a rather modest autonomy, to the inevitable choice between installing a second SIM card and expanding memory, as well as the lack of adequate protection of the body against water and dust. Yes, and the camera in many cases to “flagship” quality is not enough.

Pricing and Availability

HDM Global start the shipping of Nokia8 worldwide in September 2017 starting at a price of around €599. The price of Nokia 8 is currently tag $400-500, which is now available in Nigeria. Nokia 8 Price in Nigeria is tag at ₦174,000 on Slot , ₦ 215,000 on jumia and ₦158,000 on Konga Nigeria.

Noticeably its lower than what is asked in large retail chains for such flagships as Samsung Galaxy S8 / S8 + , HTC U11 or Sony Xperia XZ Premium. We currently have no data on pricing and availability for Ghana, or Kenya. Nokia 8 price in Pakistan range from Rs. 46,297 to Rs. 60,899.

Nokia 8 price in India:
Nokia 8 (Steel, 64GB, 4GB RAM) Rs. 27,450
Nokia 8 (Polished Blue, 64GB, 4GB RAM) Rs. 27,499
Nokia 8 (Tempered Blue, 64GB, 4GB RAM) Rs. 27,499
Nokia 8 (Polished Copper, 64GB, 4GB RAM) Rs. 31,990