Nokia 8 Sirocco – A New Mid-Market Flagship

Nokia is no more. However, the brand licensing is owned by HMD Global. Last year they refreshed the brand albeit under new auspices. This allowed Nokia to rise from the ashes of the Microsoft-Nokia tie-up failure, like a phoenix under the watchful eye of HMD Global.

The latest flagship handset – the Nokia 8 Sirocco – is a sign of this new patronage. A new flagship handset that retains Nokia’s prior claim to technical quality with a new sense of purpose within the Android ecosystem. This balancing act is a central tenet of the Sirocco unique selling point.

What’s all the buzz about?

A lot of review sites have taken against the failure to include a more recent chipset technology and the failure to include a headphone jack as somehow lacking vision. However, in reality, what Nokia has done is created a flagship for the mid-section market – and they haven’t held back.

HMD Global themselves claim the handset is “the ultimate statement of flagship design with the latest screen and camera technology… made for the fans.” The power of the Nokia brand is undiminished. This latest flagship is a ‘yes’ to this reality. However, marketing spiel aside, what does the phone include?

The details

The handset is priced at £650, according to Clove UK and will be available from April 23rd. The handset design has morphed from the previous incantation – with a glass unibody design aesthetic. This glossy black finish and curved edges showcase similarities between the Samsung S8 and the BlackBerry PRIV handsets by borrowing the gloss back finish read of the PRIV and morphing it with the S8 curved edges to create a unique design.

The handset screen comes in at 5.5 inches with a 2560 x 1440 resolution OLED display. The Sirocco also boasts a Snapdragon 835 processor, 6GB of RAM along with 128GB of on-board storage. The battery is 3,260 mAh big. The rear camera is a dual lens 12MP and 13MP combo with a 5MP front-facing ‘selfie’ camera. The phone comes with the latest Android 8 out of the box as well.

The power of the screen technology is a further nod to its mid-market focus. Whilst the S9 and the iPhone X have stronger resolution technologies, in relation to the mid-market the Nokia 8 Sirocco beats Honor, Huawei and OnePlus hands down. The QHD technology is peerless in the mid-market segment and this is a killer aspect of the overall unique selling proposition.

The dual camera is a workhorse. The Zeiss tuned camera is a result of the longevity of the Nokia/Zeiss collaboration. Whilst the Chinese phone makers clamber aboard the Leica accreditation, Nokia is remaining loyal to the Zeiss standard. This is another high-quality spec and showcases how much bang for your buck you get with this handset.

Why should you buy this phone?

If list of flagship specifications isn't enough, then the single biggest draw is that HMD Global have signed up to Google’s Android One partnership. This guarantees phone owners the chance to get the next two Android updates along with three years of online security. This, along with a stock installation of Android 8, means you don’t get any nonsense, just pure, secure, up-to-date Android.

A "yes" from us!

From late April you get a lot of phone for a reasonable price. This is another purposeful handset from Nokia’s new parent company. It is a mature handset that provides utility and functionality at the price point many can afford. This handset with its premium design, utilitarian battery and overall epic Android interface experience will help turn many phone owners into Nokia converts.