For those like us who have lived through Nokia's heyday,
just hearing about it irremediably stirs a tear of nostalgia and happiness in
the face of the return of the well-known brand on the top-of-the-range
smartphone market.
Of course, it is no longer the same Nokia that created
devices such as the legendary Nokia 3310, the Nokia N70 or the Nokia 5800
Xpress Music but a new company born from the ashes of the historic Finnish
brand following the acquisition of the exclusive rights on the brand from part
of HMD Global, another Finnish company founded in 2016 by former Nokia
employees and other mobile industry experts.
We are no longer in front of Symbian's Nokia nor in front of
Windows Phone's Nokia . We are facing a renewed company that has relaunched
itself in the Android market with its new smartphones Nokia 3 , Nokia 5 , Nokia
6 and Nokia 8 , the top of the range of the brand that we are going to examine
in this review.
The return of Nokia to the smartphone market in the summer
of 2017 had not actually given the impression of the return of a leading
company in the * sector, on the contrary it had appeared as a subdued arrival in
a fierce and constantly changing market .
In fact, Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 were just common low
and mid-range smartphones , nothing that could somehow intimidate the big names
in the sector like Samsung or Huawei.
With Nokia 8 instead we are in front of a whole other kind
of device , with a very pleasant design , premium materials and above all a
true top of the range hardware that places it in direct comparison with Samsung
Galaxy S8 , Huawei Mate 10 and One Plus 5 .
PACKAGING & UNBOXING
The packaging of Nokia 8 is simple but characteristic , with
a style that deliberately recalls the Nokia packaging of the past : the device
represented on the front with the logo of the brand shaded together with the
historic intertwined hands that have represented the Finnish brand since time
immemorial .
On the back of the package we find the general technical
data sheet of the device together with a representative image of the smartphone
( front, side and back ).
Once the package is opened we will find the phone protected
by the classic film and a side drawer (immediately next to the phone ).
By lifting the device it will be possible to find the user
manual , the pin to open the drawer for SIM and MicroSD and a pair of very
pleasant in-ear headphones with 3.5mm jack . The battery charger with Fast
Charge technology ( 12V / 1.5A ) and a Type-C cable of discrete length and
apparently very solid material are stored
inside the small side drawer .
Nothing more to say about this package, simple and not very
elaborate but which does its job without too many aesthetic pretensions .
DESIGN
Nokia 8 is a device that makes its fair figure not so much
for the design itself, which is not particularly different from some old Lumia
nor from the younger brother Nokia 5 , but for the materials chosen and the
attention paid to the details in the realization of the product. the final.
Nokia 8 has a 6000 aluminum unibody chassis which in the “
Polished Copper ” and “ Glossy Blue ” versions has a further processing that
makes the rear and side surfaces shiny similar to a mirror .
During the review we were sent a Nokia 8 Glossy Copper color
, an aesthetic choice that we appreciated for its particularity but at the same
time we are aware that it may not be appreciated by everyone for the same
reason .
The other colors available for Nokia 8 are “ Tempered Blue ”
and “ Silver ” while the “ Glossy Blue ” color is reserved only for the Pro
version of the device .
The tactile feed offered by the material is pleasant and its quality is perceived, unfortunately,
however , aluminum tends to be rather slippery, giving the unpleasant sensation
of never having a too firm grip on the smartphone.
The rear part of the device also tends to retain
fingerprints, especially in models that have the particular mirror-like glossy
color .
Both problems of insufficient grip and finger marks can be
solved by placing a cover on the device, sacrificing its design and aesthetic
peculiarity.
Very small dimensions, with a central thickness of only
7.9mm which is further reduced to 4.2mm at the edges and a weight of only 160
grams .
Nokia 8 turned out to be a very comfortable device to hold,
also thanks to the ergonomic rounded edges , and almost imperceptible when you
put it in your pocket .
The front of the device is a very elegant investment and resistant
single sheet of glass
The beauty of this device all lies in its simplicity , at
the front everything is reduced to a single harmonic sheet of glass Corning
Gorilla Glass 5 with 2.5D curvature.
Below the glass we find a 5.3 ″ display with side frames to
the display reduced to a minimum ( albeit not edge-to-edge ) and upper and
lower frames in line with many other smartphones of the moment .
On the same side we also find the ear capsule and the front
camera placed in the upper part of the device while below we find the
fingerprint sensor on the sides of which are the two backlit soft touch buttons
" back " and " menu ".
The rear body is decidedly clean , interrupted only by the
camera block and the Nokia brand aligned vertically along the midline.
The bands for the antenna are absent on the rear, which were
instead positioned on the short sides of the device in order not to ruin the
mirror effect of the back.
In the Polished Copper version, we were not convinced by the
color of these bands which turn a little too much towards the antique pink ,
thus clashing with the rest of the design .
Inside the camera block we find the two rear optics , the
Zeiss logo , a circular dual-tone flash and an IR detector for focusing which
is also circular. The entire block also protrudes minimally from the profile of
the phone and is meticulously finished with a chrome border .
On the lower edge of Nokia 8 we find the down-firing speaker
, the microphone and the USB Type-C port while at the top we find only the
3.5mm audio output.
On the right side we find the power button and the volume
bar while on the right side we find only the recess for the SIM and MicroSD
trolley.
The work done by Nokia is excellent , the phone is light,
comfortable to hold (albeit slippery and subject to fingerprints ) and very
impactful thanks to its simple and refined aesthetic that goes well with its
position as the top of the range of the brand.
DISPLAY
Nokia 8 mounts a 5.3-inch screen , a rather peculiar size
for the current smartphone market where the displays are generally about 5.5
inches and then become larger or larger , often at the expense of ease of use,
or small up to about 5 inches ( see the
4.7 inches of the iPhone 8 ).
The Nokia 8's 5.3 ″ display compared to the iPhone 8 Plus's
5.5 ″ display
On the device is mounted an IPS display ( In Plane Switching
) from 1440 × 2560 pixels ( QHD ), a high resolution for a 5.3 ″ which has a
density of 553 ppi.
Excellent viewing angle of the display ( typical of this
kind of panels ) with a good retention of details and colors even if you
observe the display from angles almost parallel to the plane .
The IPS technology offers a fairly good color rendering and
vivid tones , very natural when compared to AMOLED screens, which however does
not offer perfect color coverage as we would have liked to see in action on the
Nokia 8.
It is a great display especially for resolution and viewing
angles but on a top of the range for colors a little more could have been done
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