Nokia 8 with Snapdragon 835 SoC, dual-rear camera launched, priced at Rs 36,999
Perhaps, a rear-facing fingerprint scanner, or a large home button, could have been much easier. The pill-shaped home button does take some time to get accustomed to. If you’d used Nokia 6 in the past, you would have faced the same issue initially.
Needless to say, the pure Android (it runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out-of-the-box) seems fluid with absolutely no lag or stutter while shuffling between apps. The stock Android is now finally getting a wide attention by various OEMs. In the last couple of months, a number of phones, including Xiaomi’s Android One Mi A1, launched with the pure Android. Lenovo ditched its Vibe UI for a range of its smartphones such as the K8 Note. The Nokia 8 will not only be upgradable to Android 8.0 Oreo but also receive regular security updates, a big pain point for Android users for a long time.
The Nokia 8 comes with dual 13-megapixel rear cameras with one sensor for colour and the other for monochrome. Though it does not have a dedicated depth-sensing sensor, it can deliver Bokeh effect (DSLR-like shallow depth-of-field). The camera also has a dedicated button for Bothie, which essentially lets you shoot from both the rear and front cameras simultaneously.
You can also natively livestream Bothie videos to YouTube, Facebook and other social networking sites. We couldn’t spend much time with the phone to draw a conclusion on Bothie. However, unless you are a big fan of gimmicks, take this feature with a pinch of salt. Do you really see yourself using this feature a lot? Yes, it’s a good addition, but we have the same feelers for Bothie that we had for Sony’s 3D creator on the Xperia XZ1. ALSO READ: Liked Nokia 8’s ‘Bothie’ feature? Try these 3 free apps to mimic the experience
With Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM under the hood, the Nokia 8 is unlikely to be a slouch. More on that later, after we’ve had a chance to thoroughly review the device. We are really looking forward to try out the OZO 360-degree sound and the Carl Zeiss camera. With a price tag of Rs 36,999, this phone has a good chance in the premium category where its closest competitors are the OnePlus 5 and Honor 8 Pro, priced at Rs 32,999 and Rs 29,999 respectively.