Apr 4

Apr 4 Nokia8 Review: Nokia's Flagship Phone Is A Keeper.

It’s been three weeks of using the Nokia 8 flagship phone and getting familiar with it’s new and exciting features which for me is all about the photo and video capabilities. I was quite impressed with the sleek design after I unboxed it via a live instagram video and so were my followers who have been waiting impatiently for this review.

Operating System

Pure Android

The Nokia 8 is an Android-powered Nokia phone which many Android-loving Ghanaians should rejoice over. The phone comes powered by Oreo 8.0.0 the latest version of Android. The display is pretty much like the Pixel Google feed which you can easily access with a simple swipe to the right. Swiping up also reveals the Google apps wallpaper. The swipe motions are smooth and instant. The only two native Nokia apps installed are the Camera and Support App which on opening is also called Nokia Mobile Care. The Nokia Mobile Care includes FAQ’s, Support chat, User Guide, Device monitor, locating the nearest care centre, community forums and device monitor. The Camera app is also native to Nokia because the much touted Google camera is not part of Android.

Performance

Nokia 8 carries deep within it’s metallic recesses the Octa-core Snapdragon 835 which is new mobile system platform for many of today’s smartphones and tablets in use. Performance-wise I am not too disappointed although there’s a slight choppy move when I swiped up from the app drawer. It’s so slight that the average phone user would not notice it. I have not used a Google Pixel to compare it’s user experience performance with the Nokia 8 but like I said, barely noticeable.

Battery

For the past three weeks, I have charged the phone three times to full battery. A single full charge lasts me about 2 days but this is because I am not using it heavily for photography and taking of videos yet. But on days that I do take videos, the battery lasts a day and half before dying completely. At most my screen time has averaged between 30-45 minutes whilst on Wifi and that leaves me about 42% of battery power over two days.

To save extra battery, I turn on the Battery Saver option in the Battery settings as well as turn off apps which are working in the background.

Display & Design

The screen has a 5.3-inch 2K display with the resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels with a super clean mirror finish. The phone sits comfortably and light in the palm of the hand which gives it an ergonomic feel. The curved edges ties the phone in with other smartphones which have taken on this trendy feel and look. There's a fingerprint scan to unlock the phone as well as the screen lock pattern feature. I found the fingerprint a few seconds slower in responding as compared to other smartphones with the same feature.

Camera

With the Nokia 8 you can record 4K video with Nokia OZO spatial 360° audio which is pretty cool for shooting on the go YouTube videos. This technology is built in to the core of the phone. I played back a few videos I shot and the audio was simply incredible! Influential bloggers rejoice! You can livestream to your personal Facebook page or YouTube channel with a single tap from choosing to shoot video.

Nokia 8 features a 13 MP dual image-fusion rear camera with both colour and monochrome sensors, plus a wide-angle 13 MP phase detection auto-focus front camera. Both front and rear cameras are equipped with ZEISS optics.

I took some shots in Monochrome which is one of the toggles in the camera app.

Photos are pretty sharp but not as sharp as I expected it to have. In low light it does a good job of lighting up subjects. I love the fact that there’s a manual mode in the camera app for choosing to shoot macro or landscape, three different metering modes and exposure values as well. The existing screen size of 16:9 gives the camera screen a smaller size with the top and bottom bezels occupying too much space. If the bezels are reduced that would give the user a wider angle view for shooting.

You can take a Bothie with the Nokia 8. A bothie is an extension of a selfie which tells both sides of a story to anyone watching your story unlike a selfie which just tells one side. This is made possible by the exclusive Dual sight mode on the front and rear cameras of the phone.

Storage

I take a lot of photos so storage means a lot to me. The Nokia 8 has 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage with a microSD card slot which shares the same space as the nano SIM card.

Price

You can get the Nokia 8 for GHC 2,200 and it can be found in any phone shop in the city. It’s averagely more affordable than the Samsung’s, iPhones and Pixels.

The Nokia 8 will make my work more productive with respect to going live and shooting bothie videos which definitely will lend a much more immersive experience to my videos. Congratulations to HMD Global for bringing out Nokia from the ashes it had previously disintegrated into. The Nokia 8 is a definite keeper and hopefully will be durable like it's predecessors.