When HMD Global announced its first lineup of Nokia smartphones at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the budget devices – Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 6 – were underwhelming. Some of them were fine devices, but they were only a timid representation of what the Nokia brand was.
And then came the Nokia 8, the company’s flagship smartphone that we all deserved, and needed.
The Nokia 8 doesn’t attempt to dazzle you with any design shenanigans. Instead, it goes for a safe, minimalist design – some may even call it boring. The design aesthetics of the Nokia 8 are divisive, but I’m in the camp that really likes the clean, refined look. It has a definite Scandinavian, or maybe that’s just our Nokia hangover, feel to it.
Not every smartphone needs to break new ground in terms of design – Mi MIX 2 does that quite well, OnePlus 5 doesn’t even bother – but an understated elegance with solid build quality and brilliant ergonomics can in no way not impress a lot of discerning users.
Carved out of a single block of series 6000 aluminum, the Nokia 8 offers a slim 7.9 mm chassis with rounded sides and curved edges which makes it a delight to hold. HMD Global seems to continue the legacy of solid construction of Nokia devices, and the Nokia 8 too gives you that assurance when you grip it.
While the world has moved on to bezel-less displays with 18:9 aspect ratio, Nokia 8 once again plays safe with a 5.3-inch Quad HD (2560 x 1440) IPS LCD screen. While it doesn’t aim to stand out from the crowd, it delivers one of the best displays out there, despite not being an AMOLED panel.
Once again, the display on the Nokia 8 is a testimonial of the fact that if basics are done right, sometimes the result is more impressive than what eclectic experiments yield. The display boasts of accurate color reproduction and is quite vivid. The text and images are sharp, and the viewing angles are on point with no color shift even at extreme angles. The brightness of the display is impressive, and at 700 nits, sunlight viewing is great. There’s also Gorilla Glass 5 for scratch protection.
While the display is one of the highlights of the Nokia 8 and watching videos or gaming on it is a treat, the significant bezels on the left and right and above and below the screen make it look dated. It enables practical ergonomics, but form over function or vice versa is a subjective debate and a matter of individual preference.