Feeling nostalgia about recently released Nokia 3310 but the phone wasn’t smart enough for you? You’re not alone. Those who had experienced Nokia phone in the 1990s probably have gotten sick and tired of Apple iPhone, Samsung or China-made cheap phones. There could be millions of former Nokia supporters who wish they could get their hands on the infamous brand again.

 

But why don’t they get the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 or Nokia 6? That’s because they are all mid range handsets. In the last 8 months, HMD Global (the start-up that licenses Nokia’s brand) has released eight devices – five feature phones, and three smartphones. None of them is high range smartphone that could compete with top range devices from Apple, Samsung or Huawei – until today.

 

On Wednesday, HMD Global launched what it claims to be the flagship smartphone – Nokia 8. The Ferrari of Nokia comes with 5.3-inch Quad HD display (protected by Gorilla Glass 5), high-end Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB of RAM. More importantly, a first for mobile phones, Nokia 8 comes with exclusive Dual-Sight mode allowing you to use both front and back cameras simultaneously.

What this means is you can concurrently have split-screen photos and video. Essentially, you can take pictures and videos using the front and back camera at the same time. Forget “selfie” because HMD is calling this “bothie” mode, as in using “both” cameras simultaneously. But what type of lenses Nokia 8 is using here?

 

Ahh, Sony fans should rejoice. The new Nokia is packed with Carl Zeiss cameras – 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. So if you hate Sony phone but love its ZEISS optics, this is one big reason to convince yourself to get Nokia 8.

 

Nokia 8 brings you to the next level as far as video is concerned. Featuring OZO Spatial 360° audio built in to its core, you can play back sound in multiple directions, imitating how it was captured during recording. If you are concerned about overheating problem, a normal issue with most China-made phone, worry not and here’s why.

This gadget comes with a full-length copper cooling pipe with graphite shield to dissipate system heat across the full body of the phone. At least that was what HMD Global claims. If you’re still not sold, perhaps you might want to consider that Nokia 8 is loaded with a pure and virgin Google’s latest mobile operating system – “Android O”.

 

HMD said its latest Android Nougat 7.1.1 phone is the purest Android you can get, meaning that the company has not modified the software in any way, like many manufacturers do. They also promise to regularly update your operating system. It comes with four colours – matte silver, polished blue, matte blue and polished copper. Yes, it actually features “a polished aluminium body.”

 

Oops, we missed out the storage part. Well, this gadget comes with 64 GB of storage and MicroSD card expandable to 256GB. But this isn’t the phone for you if a slim phone is what you’re looking for. At 7.9-mm, this is obviously thicker than iPhone 7’s 7.1-mm. HMD said the Nokia 8 will cost €599 (US$705; £546 RM3,030) and will go on sale in early September.

Surprisingly, Florian Seiche, acting chief executive of HMD Global, said that they would not launch the Nokia 8 in the U.S. or China. Instead, the latest model would be made available in Europe, Middle East and even Asia. HMD’s strategy was to target countries which are accustomed to higher average selling prices of phones. It appears HMD is playing hard to get here.

 

Seiche explained – “The U.S. requires a separate strategy, even a separate portfolio and tech investment so we are not in a rush today around that because we are seeing such strong demand across the globe.” Unlike the old Nokia management, HMD Global, formed by a group of former Nokia executive has a different business model to bring the Nokia handset brand back to its former glory.

 

It was really a waste that Nokia was let to rot after Microsoft acquired but failed to rejuvenate the Finnish brand. In actual fact, it was Nokia that launched the world’s first smartphone (not Steve Jobs’ iPhone, mind you) in 1996 – the Nokia 9000 Communicator (who can forget that piece of awesome machine which ran the infamous Symbian operating system?).

Prior to that, Nokia made the best phone the world had ever seen. Nokia launched its first mobile phone, the Mobira Talkman, in 1985 but it was the 1987’s Cityman which shot to fame when pictured in use by Mikhail Gorbachev. By 1998, Nokia had overtaken pioneer Motorola to become the bestselling global mobile phone brand, manufacturing its 100-millionth phone by December that year.

 

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August 17th, 2017 by financetwitter

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