HMD Global has been super busy. The Finnish phone maker, official home to Nokia devices, rolled out not one, not two but five phones at MWC 2018 in Barcelona. From the entry-level Nokia 1, the nostalgic reboot 8110 Reloaded, the all-new Nokia 6 and Nokia 7 Plus, all the way up to a special edition Nokia 8 Sirocco. You can’t deny the brand is working hard on its “comeback.”
And to be honest, the comeback hasn’t been bad. The company sold more than 70 million handsets last year, granted most were feature phones. Smartphones sales did top 10 million, which isn’t shabby for its first year.
So, you’ve read about the Nokia 1, Nokia 6, Nokia 8110 Reloaded and Nokia 7 Plus. Here comes the icing on the cake: the beautiful, premium Nokia 8 Sirocco.
If you’re wondering why the name Sirocco sounds familiar, well, it’s because Nokia reserves the name for special edition, super premium variants of its handsets. Back in 2007, the 8800 Sirocco Gold combined both Vertu-level style and craftsmanship, with almost Vertu pricing (around USD1,355).
While some of us expected a Nokia 9 flagship device, I doubt you’d be disappointed with the Nokia 8 Sirocco.
The device has a stainless steel chassis that’s 2.5 times stronger than 6000 series aluminium, coupled with curved edges that wrap around the 5.5-inch full-screen pOLED display (2560×1440). It’s incredibly thin too—7.5mm all round, and as thin as 2mm at the edges.
Nokia has thrown in IP67 dust- and water-resistant, which at least puts it close to par with the current crop of flagships. It also comes with wireless charging.
It looks gorgeous, with the front kept minimalist and clean. The fingerprint scanner has been moved to the back, leaving the bezels super thin on the front.
The flagship device is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor, coupled with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
It offers a dual-camera system at the rear: 12MP units with ZEISS optics. On the front you get a 5MP selfie shooter with a wide-angle 84-degree lens. As seen on the Nokia 8, the cameras support Nokia’s “bothie” mode to take photos using both front and rear cameras simultaneously.
HMD is also bringing a much-missed feature from the good old Lumia days: Pro Camera mode. Pro Camera mode lets you adjust anything from shutter speed, white balance, focus, ISO, and exposure compensation. It even comes with the familiar radial camera UI of Lumia’s heydays.
The original Nokia 8 was pretty lacklustre in the camera department, surprising because the hardware was good on paper. Let’s hope the Sirocco edition improves things.
Having switched to a glass back, the Nokia 8 Sirocco now supports wireless charging and it also supports fast charging via USB Type-C.
What’s missing though, is the headphone jack but don’t fret if you’re more wired inclined, because HMD has a USB-C to 3.5mm headset adapter in the box. Or you can use Bluetooth (move with times, will you?).
The Nokia 8 Sirocco will be available in April, priced at EUR749/MYR3,607.
What do you think?
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