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

The Nokia 8 has top-tier innards, sturdy stainless steel body, curved plastic-OLED screen and Android Oreo operating system, which comes with Android One promise of guaranteed timely updates

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.

The ultraHD (2K) pOLED screen is a delight to watch video content. It renders deep blacks and is bright enough to stay visible under direct sunlight. However, the mono speaker output is on a muted side and, therefore, hinders the performance. The lack of 3.5mm audio port is another miss -- the phone comes bundled with USB type-C to 3.5mm port jack.

our brief use, the Nokia 8 Sirocco imaging showed promising results in good day-light conditions. However, it was not up to the mark to capture low-light scenes. The dual-camera module is tuned for warm colour reproduction and the output shows saturated colours, instead of natural colours. The selfie camera also showed similar results but with prominent noise levels across light conditions.

The vanilla Android Oreo experience is smooth and the phone easily sails through tasks without breaking sweat. The software shows no sign of lag or unresponsive behaviour, at least in our first impression. The battery life seems good and the charging time is quick.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco has impressed us with its blueblood traits in first impressions. However, we are reserving our verdict until detailed review, where we’d test the device on several parameters to test its overall capabilities.