NOKIA 8 LAUNCH IN INDIA

Nokia 8 destroys the competition at Rs 36,999

The Nokia 8 - Nokia's much awaited Android flagship smart phone has finally landed in India. Not at Rs 45,000. Or even at Rs 39,999. But at a disruptive price of Rs 36,999. When I took a look at the NOKIA 8 a few weeks ago, I called it a phone that feels extremely special and one that does a lot of things, including all the essentials, right.

Many people, inducing us at India Today Tech were expecting HMD Global to price the Nokia 8 at around Rs 40 - Rs 42,000 in India. Even at that price, I was convinced Nokia was sure to have winner on their hands. But at Rs 36,999, the Nokia 8 is almost a no-brainier. The smart phone comes with a gorgeous all-metal design, ZEISS powered dual cameras, a pure build of Android, top of the line specifications and much more.

The Nokia 8 does not come with full IP68 dust and water resistance, wireless charging and stereo speakers. Those were credible pain points that many of us had when the phone was announced a few weeks ago in London. But now with its killer price, HMD Global has made sure these omissions do not really matter. In fact, the Nokia 8 is IP54 splash proof while its primary competitor - the OnePlus 5 has no official water ingress protection whatsoever.

The Nokia 8 looks subtle, elegant and classy - very Scandinavian so as to speak. It is machined out of a single block of series of Series 6000 aluminium with subtly integrated antenna lines, rounded corners and a vertically mounted dual camera setup with the ZEISS branding. The smart phone feels compact and extremely sturdy in the hand. Just like the Nokia 6 and Nokia 5, the build quality is impeccable.

With the Nokia 8, HMD Global has managed to make a smart phone that looks modern whilat retaining the soul of Nokia smart phones of old. Yes, an edge-to-edge display is conspicuous by its absence but none of its competition including the mighty One Plus 5 come with a bezel-less design either.

As expected of a late 2017 flagship, the Nokia 8 delivers the goods - It is powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor paired with 4GB of RAM, the Adreno 540 GPU and a 3,090mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support. During my 5 plus days with the device, the Nokia 8 tackled both day to day tasks and intensive use with aplomb - one of the most fluid experiences I have come across.

This is partly due to the fact that Nokia 8 runs on a 100 percent build of stock Android without any unnecessary gimmicks, bloat or overlays. At today's launch event, HMD Global also promised that an update to Android 8.0 will be arriving shortly. The software on board is butter smooth and is Android in its purest sense- just how I and innumerable folk across the globe like it.

At Rs 36,999, the Nokia 8 is almost a no-brainier.

Nokia 8 also comes with a vivid and pixel-dense 5.3-inch Quad HD display which has a maximum brightness of 700 Nits - which ensures the phone can be used in even the harshest of sunlight. The ZEISS powered dual cameras on board are also on point - in the time I used the phone, it produced crisp, detailed and well exposed images with minimal noise in artificial light. The focus is a bit slow, but if you can live with that, the quality of images is on par with much more expensive smart phones such as the Galaxy S8.

The Smartphone’s Live Bokeh Mode is also stellar. Unlike competitors like One Plus 5 and Honor 8 Pro, which produce bokeh shots that look a tad artificial, depth of field images taken with the Nokia 8 are sharp and clear with no visible jadedness around the edges of the subject even in the highest settings.

The One Plus 5 now suddenly has competition - that too from one of the most iconic smart phone brands in the market

The Nokia 8 also allows you to record 360 degree spatial surround sound via its three microphones and Nokia's acoustic algorithms. There's also the really badly named feature called Bothie which allows 'Dual-Sight' video to be live streamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as YouTube and Face book.

At Rs 36,999, Nokia 8 seems like a no-brainer

At Rs 36,999, the Nokia 8 is almost a no-brainer. It has a gorgeous design, top of the line specifications, a pure build of Android and (although I have to test them out more) great cameras. The One Plus 5 now suddenly has competition - that too from one of the most iconic smart phone brands in the market.

Many people argued that HMD Global overpriced the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 in India. And to an extent I agree with that - all three of those phones come with compromised specifications for the price. The Nokia 8 on the other hand not only comes with top of the line specifications but also a stellar design and flagship level cameras.

As I said in my quick review, with its focus on build quality, software and design, the Nokia 8 just feels special. And at Rs 36,999, it comes off as a great deal. I will withhold my final verdict on the Nokia 8 till my full review but for now similarly priced competitors like the One Plus 5 and LG G6 better watch out.thanks