Nokia 8

The comeback of Nokia is perhaps the most interesting story in phones of 2017, and now its first range of devices seems to be complete, with the introduction of the brand new Nokia 8.

Earlier in the year HMD Global revealed it would be announcing new phones using the Nokia branding, and we’ve already seen the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and the Nokia 6, which are all middling to good mid-range devices.

There was also the PR win of the new Nokia 3310, which got people sitting up and taking notice, and now, finally, here’s the flagship device from the company that we’ve all been waiting for.

Nokia 8 price and release date

• Out now in the UK and Australia, will not launch in the US
• Price was originally £499/AU$899 (about $700)
• We've now seen the price drop as low as £399/AU$690

The Nokia 8 is now out in the UK and Australia, but those in the US haven't seen the phone yet. HMD Global has confirmed the phone won't be landing on US shores, despite there being a suggestion it would.

The phone launched at £499.99/AU$899, but we've already seen the price drop down to £399/AU$690. That price puts it below the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8, but still very much in high-end territory around the OnePlus 5T.

Key features

• Dual-sensor rear camera that can take great bokeh images
• New 'Bothie' mode for both selfie and rear camera images

With the Nokia 8 being the brand’s first flagship for a few years, a big emphasis is being put on its camera, which was a highlight feature of the last Windows Phone Nokia devices from 2014.

The Nokia 8 features a dual-sensor rear shooter that can capture ‘bokeh’ images with an attractive background blur, and uses a RGB and monochrome sensor in tandem for better low light photography.

The camera has been made in partnership with Zeiss too, although it’s not entirely clear what input the German lens specialists have had.

There are lots of extra features squeezed in here in an attempt to make this one of the best phone cameras on the market.

You may have heard of the new ‘Bothie’ mode, which uses both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras at the same time, so you can capture what’s behind your phone – probably yourself – as well as what’s in front.

On top of that there’s also Nokia’s OZO 3D audio capture tech, which should allow for more immersive video when you’re recording.

Design and display

• One of the best looking Nokia phones ever
• Metal uni-body and available in four different colors with differing looks
• Vibrant 5.3-inch QHD display that's bright and looks stunning

The design of the Nokia 8 is one of the key elements, and it’s one of the most – if not the most – beautiful phones we’ve ever seen with the Nokia branding emblazoned on the rear. 

It’s an aluminium unibody design with metal edges, but while the back is metal too, the feel on the rear will depend on which finish you opt for.

There are steel and tempered blue colors, but both of these have a matt finish, and look a little bit lackluster when put next to the shiny copper and blue options.

For our review we’ve used the steel and shiny blue options. The shiny blue finish is by far the more eye-catching, although you may want to invest in a case for it, as we found we’d picked up a few scratches after only a week or so of use.

The body of the phone is thin, coming in at 7.9mm at its thickest point, but the edges curve down, so it sits comfortably in the hand. 

Those with smaller hands may also enjoy this device, as it comes with a 5.3-inch screen. It’s an LCD panel that has a QHD resolution and 700 nits of brightness – that's high for a smartphone, and should mean your phone's display is easily viewable even in glaring sunlight. 

Video looks beautiful on the Nokia 8, although at such a small screen size it’s unclear whether a QHD resolution is really necessary here. Nokia has yet to reveal if any virtual reality functionality is planned for the Nokia 8.

If you want your regular video to look great though, the super-bright and high-resolution display on the Nokia 8 will be a great fit for you. It offers 554 pixels per inch, although it doesn’t compete with the likes of the Sony Xperia XZ Premium with its 4K front panel.

Antenna bands are visible along the top and bottom of the phone, but these don’t detract from the overall look. The company has placed them on the top and bottom to try and give you a better signal when you’re holding the phone.

Below the screen is a fingerprint scanner, which sits between the two navigation buttons and is in an easy-to-reach position to tap to unlock the phone. We found it quick at unlocking the phone from a single tap, although it is quite small, so you need to make sure to place your thumb or finger precisely.

The Nokia 8 isn’t waterproof like the Samsung Galaxy S8 or iPhone 7, but it’s splash-resistant at IP54, which should mean you’ll be able to use it in the rain without having to worry about flooding the internals.

Battery

• Acceptable battery life, but the 3,090mAh cell won't blow you away
• Quick Charge 3.0 enabled so you can boost your device quickly

The battery in the Noka 8 is a relatively modest 3,090mAh unit, so we initially thought it might struggle to power a QHD screen as well as driving top-end performance, but the phone does quite well in terms of battery.

We found it would last until the end of the day with medium to intensive usage, so if you’re someone who uses your phone quite a lot you can expect to get through the day before it needs a charge.

While the 3,090mAh cell may sound small for a phone with a 5.3-inch QHD display, the Nokia 8 is running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset – more about that on the next page – which is particularly good at handling power.

On top of that, Nokia has included a liquid cooling system that means the phone shouldn’t get too hot and won’t burn out the battery very quickly. Even when running intensive games we found the phone wouldn’t get hot to the touch, and the cooling may be contributing to the decent battery life.

The phone is charged up via the USB-C port at the bottom. There’s also Quick Charge 3.0 at your disposal, which pumps up the cell quickly, but there's no wireless charging option.

It’s a shame Nokia hasn’t included wireless charging, although it’s not a feature we particularly missed, and having fast-charging tech in here is more welcome.

Camera

• Dual rear camera with two 13MP sensors working in tandem
• Selfie camera is also a 13MP sensor and there's a new 'Bothie' mode too

HMD Global wants to highlight the camera tech on this phone – and it's no wonder, as it looks like an impressive setup. Much like most of the major phones in 2017, it has opted for a dual-sensor array that uses two 13MP shooters.

One is an RGB lens and the other is a monochrome shooter, with the images from the two combined to offer improved quality in low light. You can also shoot using just one of the lenses if you wish, but you’ll likely only want to do so with the monochrome lens, as it allows for true filter-free black and white shots.

The images from the Nokia 8 don’t compare to those you’d get out of the Galaxy S8 or the iPhone 7 Plus. Compared to images taken on those phones, the shots didn’t appear crisp enough, and it’s unclear what’s really missing here. 

Images lose much of their sharpness in poor lighting, which is something the dual-lens setup should be particularly good at. In good lighting, though, the Nokia 8 performs well, capturing some super sharp-shots.

There’s also a 13MP front-facing camera that should give you some nice sharp selfies, which is good for when you’re using the new Bothie mode.

We hate the name ‘Bothie’, but the idea itself is an interesting one, allowing you both capture a photo and your reaction to what you’re seeing. It’s a limited use-case scenario, but it means that if you want to be included in a photo with others you won’t need to try and shoot it with your arm extended.

Bothie isn’t anything new though – it’s a feature we’ve seen on a few other Android phones, and it’s unclear why Nokia is pushing it so hard in its marketing.

What is new to the Nokia 8 is the ability to livestream directly to Facebook and YouTube from within the camera interface. It means you can just boot up the camera app,connect it to your social media accounts and start streaming right away.

Again, though, this is something you can do through the Facebook and YouTube apps, so it’s unclear why this is such a big push for Nokia. Sure, you can do it through the phone’s own camera UI, but that’s not a huge selling point.

While the camera hardware is mostly pretty good, the same can’t be said of the interface; it’s awful, and makes finding particular features a complicated affair. For example, if you want to use just the monochrome lens to shoot video you’ll need to go back to the still photo mode to switch lenses and then head back into video mode again.

A software update may be able to solve this problem, but right now there are sufficient issues that you may want to download a third-party app for using the camera on the Nokia 8.

For shooting video there's also OZO Audio included, which uses similar tech to the professional OZO virtual reality camera. It uses three microphones alongside Nokia's own algorithms, which should allow it to capture immersive 360-degree sound when recording video.

We’ve yet to really notice a difference in the sound when playing back video though, and we can’t say it’s a particular highlight of the phone.

Camera samples

Anything else I need to know?

• Packs the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset with 4GB of RAM
• Standard storage size of 64GB is an added bonus
• Running Android 7 software, can now upgrade to Android Oreo

The Nokia 8 comes packing the top-of-the-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, which we’ve seen be a major success in the Samsung Galaxy S8, HTC U11 and many other phones this year.

It’s a particularly powerful option, and means the battery is well optimized and it won’t be using tons of power at all times. Our benchmarking scores showed exactly that, with the phone returning an average Geekbench 4 score of 6478.

The Nokia 8 also packs 4GB of RAM – and some markets will have access to a 6GB variant as well. We don’t think that extra 2GB is necessary though, as we found the phone capable of completing all tasks with ease with just the 4GB on board.

Graphically the phone performs well when you’re playing games too. We played a lot of high-end titles and they all loaded fast, and we never had a problem with gameplay.

When it comes to storage there’s only a 64GB option for the Nokia 8. The software on the Nokia 8 will take up at least 14GB of that, so you’ll have 50GB to play with. If you need more storage you can add a microSD card up to 256GB.

Originally when the Nokia 8 launched it was running Android 7.1.1 Nougat software in a stock configuration, but now Android Oreo is ready to go on the phone.

It looks very similar to how Google intended it to, with no Nokia-specific overlay sat on top.

That’s a big benefit if you like the look of Google’s software, although it does mean the phone lacks  the extra features some manufacturers like to add.

We've yet to test out the Nokia 8 running the Android Oreo update, but we've heard it works well and even improves the speed of the phone. 

Everything written here refers to the phone running Android 7.1.1 Nougat, but it's largely the same as it was then.

Nokia claims this allows the company to keep it more secure too. Software updates should be easy to push to the phone, and quickly, as there’s not much extra that needs to be done to the software on top of what Google provides.

The software on the Nokia 8 runs well, despite some initial bugs that made the way it works a stressful experience. Before the phone was released, HMD Global pushed an update to the phone though and we've found all of the problems we found before have been solved. 

It's now a much more stable experience and we found all apps runs well with the new software.

Audio quality on the Nokia 8 is good, but when listening through the bottom-firing mono speaker the sound won’t blow you away as the speakers on the HTC U11 can. 

You can use Bluetooth headsets for private listening, or there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the device for wired headsets.

Verdict

The Nokia 8 isn’t the best phone on the market right now, but it offers a lot of the features you expect from a great device in a well designed package with a retro name.

You’re paying a lot for the Nokia brand here considering it’s a bit more expensive than alternatives such as the Honor 9 and OnePlus 5, but if you’re okay with that this is worth the money you’re paying.

There’s a good camera setup, some fun features such as the #Bothie mode and the phone is well designed with a gorgeous QHD display on the front of the handset.

Who’s it for?

If you remember the Nokia brand fondly, it’s likely the Nokia 8 is designed just for you.

Everything you want from a modern smartphone is available here, but a few missing features and a super-high price tag let it down. If you like the design and want a QHD display, though, you’ll want to go for this phone.

Should you buy it?

Alternatives such as the OnePlus 5 and the Honor 9 offer very similar features and designs for less money. But if you want to use the Nokia brand as your daily phone and like what’s on offer here, you’ll want to go for the Nokia 8.

It’s not the best phone of the year, but it offers a lot of the features we like to see in the best phones out there.

The competition

Here are the competing handsets you should take a look at before buying the Nokia 8.

Samsung Galaxy S8 

The Galaxy S8 is our favorite phone at the time of writing this and there’s a reason for that. It’s powerful, comes with great battery life and despite not packing a dual-lens camera it takes as good if not better photos than the Nokia 8.

The price is a touch more for some markets, but if you’re after a phone without bezels, a gorgeous design and all the top end features that the Nokia 8 doesn’t offer you may want to opt for the Galaxy S8 instead.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy S8 review

OnePlus 5T

Like the Nokia 8, the OnePlus 5T comes with a dual-sensor rear camera, but we much prefer the camera on this phone over the Nokia’s. It makes for a much more compelling photography experience, and we love the power that’s inside the OnePlus 5 too.

The true highlight though is the lower price compared to the Nokia 8. If you want to spend less and get very similar results, both out of your photography and in terms of power, this phone from OnePlus is a real winner.

• Read our OnePlus 5T review

Honor 9

This is another very powerful phone packing a top-of-the-range chipset, but again the price is super-low, showing up the Nokia 8 for value from the off

If you’re after a shiny-backed phone the Honor 9 is an attractive proposition, but you’ll lose out on the QHD display, as it only packs a 5.1-inch Full HD screen. It does do everything the Nokia can for a lot less though, so it’s well worth keeping  in mind.

• Read our Honor 9 review

First reviewed: August 2017

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