The little phone that could
Nokia 8 is a flagship smartphone that competes with other giants and fares relatively well.
IT HAS been ages since I last used a Nokia handphone, and if I remember correctly it was an 8210 that was so tiny, I misplaced it almost every day. But I looked cool using the phone, so whatever.
The Nokia 8 is nothing like the dinosaur Nokia phones that I had used before. First – the screen is much bigger, and secondly it doesn’t look like a kiddie phone that came out of a Gachapon (toy vending machine). But the getting misplaced part still stands true until today ...
So what’s inside?
The performance is pretty decent and there isn’t any lagging when it comes to games. But I have to be honest here: my word games and puzzles don’t require a powerful phone but the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor makes them a breeze to play anyway.
There shouldn’t be any problem in storing your apps or photos with the 64GB internal memory, and those wanting more space can expand it to up to 256GB with a microSD card.
The Nokia 8 has a 3,090mAh battery which lasts for slightly over a day, but that’s because I really am a light smartphone user. My days with the smartphone were spent on WhatsApp, Spotify, Solitaire, makeup videos on YouTube and finding out the latest revelations in the Harvey Weinstein controversy. In my experience, it takes at least 90 minutes to get the phone from almost flat to fully charged even with the Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
Do the “Bothie”
The phone is aimed at content creators – those who love to take photos and videos and upload them to their social media accounts. Unfortunately, I am not one of them, but for the sake of this review, I did a “Bothie” which is basically taking photos or videos while simultaneously using the front and rear cameras. You can stream them live to your Facebook or YouTube accounts (soon it will be made available on Instagram as well), and my video consisted of mostly me asking “Is this thing working?” to my three viewers.
The Nokia 8 has three 13-megapixel cameras. It boasts a dual Zeiss optics rear cameras set up: one with colour and the other a monochrome sensor. The front camera has a f/2.0 aperture and features a display flash. Playbacks of recordings are amazing, thanks to the Nokia OZO Audio with 360° capture.
Look and feel
I really liked watching videos on the 5.3in QHD screen with 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. I mean, the colours looked bright and vivid to me, although I keep hearing that an Amoled instead of an LCD panel would make a whole lot of difference here.
The fact that I watch videos on a smartphone shows that I am not fussy about my displays, and the 700nts screen brightness ensures that I can still view the said videos when I am out in the sun.
The Nokia 8 is super nice to look at and hold. It has an aluminium body with metal edges, and has a front fingerprint sensor that could be quite frustrating at times. It takes several attempts for the scanner to recognise your prints especially if you’re not pressing it front and centre. It is 7.9mm at its thickest point, but still is comfortable for one-handed use.
Conclusion
The Nokia 8 may not be the greatest flagship smartphone currently in the market, but with its RM2,299 price tag, you can’t help but take notice of what it has to offer – good display, camera and audio. The Nokia 8 comes in Polished Blue, Polished Copper, Tempered Blue and Steel.