Nokia 8 Lands In Asian Market, India Release Not Far Away
HMD Global launched the Nokia 8 in August at an event held in London. The Nokia 8 is the first flagship smartphone running Android OS under the brand name of Nokia and turned a few heads at the time of its launch. The smartphone was highly anticipated because of the nostalgia factor and launched with high-end specifications. At the time of its launch, HMD Global announced that the phone will be made globally available in mid-September. Now, the Nokia 8 has been launched in Malaysia at a price of RM 2,299 (Rs. 35,000 approx.), which means that its entry in other major Asian markets like India is not too far away. That being said, there is no official word on the date of launch of the Nokia 8 in India yet. The smartphone might have a lot of suitors in India as Nokia was one of the most well-known brands in the pre-smartphone era and a chance to hold a premium Nokia handset again might influence quite a few buyers.
To recall, the Nokia 8 has a 5.3 inch 2560 x 1440 px display and 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. A flagship device of 2017, the Nokia 8 does have a very unlike 2017 design with thick bezels around the display. The smartphone has an aluminum unibody design. The Nokia 8, however, has IP54 rating for splash resistance. The fingerprint sensor is housed inside a physical home button which sits between two navigation touch capacitive buttons below the screen. Powering the device is a 3,090mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0 support via USB Type-C port. The Nokia 8 runs stock Android 7.1.1 OS and the company has promised monthly security updates and yearly Android updates. Under the hood is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and a 2.45GHz octa-core processor, the Adreno 540 GPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage which is expandable via microSD card.
In terms of optics, the Nokia 8 is very 2017 flagship-like device. The smartphone is the first Nokia Android device to feature Carl Zeiss optics. In a very 2017 move, the Nokia 8 boasts a Zeiss powered dual camera setup at the rear – a primary 13MP RGB (colour) sensor with optical image stabilisation paired with a 13MP secondary monochrome (black and white) sensor and an f/2.0 aperture. The dual-camera setup is capable of recording videos in 4K at 30 FPS and has a portrait mode for bokeh effect. On the front is a 13MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture which can also record 4K videos at 30FPS.
In the overcrowded world of premium smartphones, Nokia has taken a step further to try and differentiate itself from the crowd. The device has a feature called Bothie. It is the first smartphone in the world which allows ‘Dual-Sight’ video to be live streamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as YouTube and Facebook. Dual-Sight allows you to use the front and rear camera at the same time in a split screen view. Another feature that the smartphone boasts is called OZO Audio in which the smartphone’s three microphones and Nokia’s acoustic algorithms allow you to capture 360-degree spatial surround sound. You can also share 4K videos with OZO audio with anyone – binaural codecs ensure high fidelity playback even on devices without OZO Audio.
The Nokia 8, when it does enter the India market, might be priced in the sub-45K category, considering the price bracket of its launch in Malaysia. The smartphone will face competition from the likes of the OnePlus and LG G6, both of which also offer dual-camera setups, albeit different implementations. The wait for a Nokia branded Android flagship is not too far away and we will keep you updated on all the latest developments surrounding the Nokia 8 launch in India.
