Nokia is set to launch its next smartphone and unlike its previous phones that cater to the budget segment, it will go all the way up among flagships. The Nokia 8, which recent leaks say will come with a dual camera and optics from Carl Zeiss, is expected to be launched on July 31. Though nothing has been confirmed by the company yet, recent leaks have revealed almost everything about the phone. Here is what we know so far.
Design
Nokia 8 will be the most expensive smartphone from Nokia, yet. But it does look very different from the Nokia 6 or the Nokia 5. Renders leaked by show the phone will have a unibody metal built with rounded edges and a polycarbonate back. There are no rumours about the phone being water-resistant, but there is a fingerprint sensor in the front and backlit capacitive keys alongside.
Nokia has followed this design strategy with its cheapest device the Nokia 3 as well. But given the fact that Nokia 8 will be a high end device, it may come under similar criticism Samsung faced few years ago (all of its phones would look the same). Though the build quality of Nokia phones is awesome, at higher price range, it will be competing with phones like Galaxy S8 or the HTC U11 that marvel in their design. It has only dual cameras as the differentiator.
Camera
Nokia ups the game with dual cameras on the rear of Nokia 8, but they will not be similar to current phones like OnePlus 5 or Honor 8 Pro. The company plans to bring in something that hasn’t been offered yet in the Android smartphone space.
Nokia 8’s dual camera will have two 13MP sensors with lenses from Carl Zeiss. The two companies recently announced a partnership and the leaked renders also show the Zeiss stamp on the back of Nokia 8, like you would have seen on Nokia N95 or the Nokia 808 PureView. Lenses define sharpness and color quality of a photo as much as the sensors do, so the Nokia 8 will surely take photography to a new level. Though rumours say it will be as good a phone as a camera it carries. At front it comes with a 12MP camera.
Hardware
Nokia 8 will be a handy device, quite similar to the likes of previous year Galaxy S7, Google Pixel or the HTC 10. For a phone that is not bezel-less, that is a blessing, but we may probably see a bigger screen device in the form of Nokia 9 with similar specs.
As for the display, Nokia 8 is said to come with a 5.3-inch screen with Quad HD resolution and a 2.5D glass on top that is thick and curved at edges for a smooth finger glide. The side bezels are almost negligible but the top and bottom bezels are quite thick. For a high-end phone launching in 2017, this could be a deal breaker for some.
But under the hood, Nokia 8 packs a powerful setup. There is Snapdragon 835 processor with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, expandable via micro SD card. Along with the Adreno 540 GPU, this will remain the top hardware in the industry at least till Apple launches the A11.
Software and features
The Nokia 8 will come preloaded with Android 7.1.1 and live images leaked last week reveal it will be running the usual stock interface found on Nokia phones earlier. The images posted on Nokiamob.net show off the copper gold colour variant of the phone, which would make you believe that it certainly looks different from the Nokia 6.
Nokia 8 will also pack OZO audio technology that the company has been touting since its re-inception along with Dolby Atmos audio. Capable of 3D sound recording and playback, Nokia says it will change the sound we record in videos. The phone will also have 4G LTE support on dual SIM.
Launch date and price
Fortunately, the wait period for the Nokia 8 is not as long as the Nokia. The company is expected to announce the phone on July 31. Rumours point to a sub Rs 50k price in India, while in European countries it is expected to cost between 500-600 Euros. Many say the exact price to be 589 Euros, which is roughly Rs 43,660.