Nokia 8 Sirocco is as elegant as original Nokia 8800: First impressions

HMD Global, a Finnish company behind Nokia-branded phones, finally has a flagship – the Nokia 8 Sirocco – that can take on the competition. The device has top-tier specs, sturdy stainless steel body, curved plastic-OLED screen and Android Oreo operating system, which comes with Android One promise of guaranteed timely updates.

In terms of design and features, the Sirocco edition is a completely new device with major improvements and, therefore, is nowhere close to the original Nokia 8, which was launched last year. The phone’s curved sides grabs the attention and looks plush. The compact form factor improves usability, but the glossy stainless steel back and curved side profile make it prone to accidental drops.

Things get interesting once the device is powered on. The front is dominated by a curved pOLED screen that results in zero side bezels and limited top and bottom bezels. The screen looks vivid and touch response is top-notch. However, due to curved profile, the sides of the screen registers accidental touch, which results in unstable phone’s behaviour.

Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 6 (2018) launched: Things to know

HMD Global, the Finnish company behind the Nokia-branded phones, has launched the Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 6 (2018) in India. The smartphones were first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, along with Android Oreo Go edition-based Nokia 1 and 4G VoLTE-enabled Nokia 8110 feature phone.

Nokia 8 Sirocco

The Nokia 8 Sirocco edition is made of stainless steel frame, which is 2.5 times stronger than 6,000-series aluminium. The front is covered with a 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5. Underneath, there is a 5.5-inch curved edge-to-edge pOLED 2K display with smaller bezels and moulded body curves.
Nokia 8 SiroccoNokia 8 Sirocco Photo: Rahul Saha The phone sports dual rear cameras with ZEISS optics. The dual-camera set-up in the Nokia 8 Sirocco boasts a 12-megapixel wide-angle primary lens, coupled with a 13MP telephoto sensor for enhanced portrait shots and 2x optical zoom capabilities. Imaging is assisted by Nokia’s spatial audio microphones, which record high-resolution audio in surround sound.

Will my smartphone get Google Android Oreo? List of devices that get update

Google in August announced Android 8.0 Oreo and released a list of smartphone manufacturers that will be updating their devices soon. The Pixel and Nexus devices will be the first among the first smartphones to receive the update and Google has already confirmed that the carrier testing is underway and the devices will receive it soon.

Here are the smartphones that that will receive the update:

Google
Google Pixel
Google Pixel XL
The upcoming Pixel devices, which are launching on October 4 are expected to run Google Oreo 8.0 out of the box.

Nexus
Nexus 5X
Nexus 6P

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Glimpses of Nokia 6, Nokia 5, Nokia 3 & Nokia 3310: India launch very soon

HMD Global, the company behind the resurgence of Nokia brand, on May 8 hosted an event in Delhi to give a peek into the current line of Nokia smartphones, besides feature phones Nokia 6, Nokia 5, Nokia 3 and Nokia 3310 – before their official launch in India.

Speaking at the event, Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer, HMD Global said, India is a crucial market for Nokia as the country is witnessing great demand for entry-level and mid-range smartphones.

Nokia’s great hardware, combined with Google’s Android operating system, offers consistent performance and real value for money, added Sarvikas.

While there is no fixed timeline defined for the launch of Nokia devices in India, Sarvikas said the company was working with partners to bring the devices sometime in the second quarter.

Asked about the company’s plan to launch flagship devices, Sarvikas said, HMD Global would continue to work towards enhancing user experience by investing in areas like excellent antennas set-up for better network strength, camera modules, strong build quality, efficient displays etc. The company, therefore, is in no rush to release a half-baked flagship product.

Speaking about after sales support and software update cycle, the company’s spoke person said, the company is working with partners to establish extensive service support network. For software updates, HMD Global would provide consistent support to the complete line of product for as far as possible.
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