Last year, Nokia launched its flagship handset — the Nokia 8 (review). However, the handset met with a tepid response with most reviews criticising it for its poor camera performance and not living up to its high price tag. Six months later at MWC 2018, instead of unveiling the successor to Nokia 8, the HMD Global-owned …
Last year, Nokia launched its flagship handset — the Nokia 8 ( review). However, the handset met with a tepid response with most reviews criticising it for its poor camera performance and not living up to its high price tag. Six months later at MWC 2018, instead of unveiling the successor to Nokia 8, the HMD Global-owned company unveiled an upgraded version of the handset at the MWC 2018 expo: the Nokia 8 Sirocco.
While the Sirocco variant of the Nokia 8 features the same internals as the regular Nokia 8, it comes with an upgraded design, display, and camera which should overall make it a more attractive package. However, six months is a long time in the world of smartphones and 2018 flagships like the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9 Plus ( review) are already out. So, is the Nokia 8 Sirocco good enough to take on them with its dated internals and upgraded design? Let’s find out in our review.
Like with any other flagship smartphone released in 2018, the Nokia 8 Sirocco features a 3D curved Gorilla Glass panel at its rear and front which sandwiches a stainless steel chassis. The use of glass along with a stainless steel chassis gives the Nokia 8 Sirocco a very premium look and feel. The steel chassis, in particular, makes the Sirocco feel more premium than the likes of the OnePlus 6 and even the Galaxy S8 as it feels solid and hefty.
Despite the glass back, the Nokia 8 Sirocco features plastic inserts in its chassis for antenna lines. Thankfully, Nokia does include Qi wireless charging support on the device. It is not fast wireless charging as seen on flagship Samsung Galaxy smartphones, but it is still better than not having wireless charging at all ( we are looking at you, HTC U12+).
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The top of the phone is devoid of any ports and only houses a microphone, while the USB-C port and mono speaker are located at the bottom. The speaker is below average in performance and sounds very harsh at high volumes. The single nanoSIM card slot is located on the bottom left edge of the handset. The lack of a dual-SIM card slot on the Nokia 8 Sirocco instantly makes it a deal breaker for many, and it is puzzling to see Nokia miss out on such a key feature from its flagship phone. The rear of the phone houses the vertically oriented dual-camera setup along with a fingerprint scanner. The Nokia and Android One logo can also be found at the back.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco features an IP67 certification which makes it dust and water-resistant. While Nokia has not made any compromises with the design and build quality of the Sirocco, it has removed the headphone jack from the handset. If you have already jumped on that bandwagon, it is not going to make much of a difference to you. But if you still prefer phones with a headphone jack, the Nokia 8 Sirocco is a no-go for you.
At the front, the handset sports a 5.5-inch curved P-OLED display with QHD resolution. The display is also protected by a 3D curved Gorilla Glass 5 panel. Unlike other handsets released this year, the Nokia 8 Sirocco continues to feature a 16:9 aspect ratio display, though its top and bezels are pretty small. If you are not a fan of 18:9 displays and yet want a phone with minimal bezels, the Nokia 8 Sirocco perfectly fits that bill. The curved display — akin to what we see on flagship Samsung’s Galaxy S series — ensures that the side bezels are not visible at all.
It also blends beautifully with the steel chassis. However, the steel chassis and the rounded corners are a bit too sharp and dig into the palm of your hands which can lead to an uncomfortable feeling when using the phone for long periods of time. The volume rocker and power button — located on the right edge — are somewhat tactile in nature with their being a clear room for improvement.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco is definitely a beautiful phone to look at, but the sharp edges mean it is not that pleasant to use in hand for a long time. On my unit, the SIM card slot did not flush with the steel chassis thereby leaving its sharp edges exposed.
Coming to the 5.5-inch P-OLED display, its a decent panel but with its own set of shortcomings. It is a bright and vivid panel and you are not going to have any qualms with its viewing angles. The auto brightness works just fine and it cranks the display to its very maximum when under direct sunlight to ensure the content on the screen is eligible.
However, the curved edges of the display is a deal breaker. There’s absolutely no palm or finger rejection on the Nokia 8 Sirocco which makes it a disaster to use. Almost always while typing or reaching the other end of the display, my palm touched the curved display which would inadvertently end up pressing some other UI element.
This is not an issue that can be downplayed since it rears its head almost every time you use the phone. Nokia should really consider improving the poor palm rejection issue on the Nokia 8 Sirocco on a priority basis.
Like other smartphones released by Nokia this year, the Nokia 8 Sirocco also carries the Android One branding. This means it runs a stock build of Android 8.1 Oreo, with the promise from HMD Global to receive regular monthly security updates and quick OS updates.
A stock build of Oreo means you get to get experience the purest form of Android on the handset — just the way Google intended. I am a fan of stock Android as I like the simple approach. However, if you are coming from a phone running MIUI or Emotion UI, you are going to miss the built-in option to record calls, listen to FM radio, and the plethora of customization options that these skin offer. Thankfully, most of these issues can be solved by simply downloading a third-party app from the Play Store.
For a 2018 flagship smartphone, the Nokia 8 Sirocco does have ‘outdated’ internals. It features Qualcomm’s flagship chipset from 2017, the Snapdragon 835 running at 2.35GHz. This is paired with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage space.
Before you dismiss the Nokia 8 for its slightly dated chipset, you should remember that it runs on a stock build of Oreo. And that makes a lot of difference. I used the Nokia 8 heavily during a recent trip to Mumbai and the phone performed like a champ. At one instance, I had multiple Word and Excel documents open along with a couple of PDF files, an email thread in Gmail, Google Maps, and Uber with no issues whatsoever. The phone never showed any signs of lags and coming from a Pixel 2 XL, I could not notice any dip in performance as well.
Even with a bunch of apps running in the background, the Nokia 8 was always quick to open the camera app, something which even my Pixel 2 XL struggles with. An important point to note here is that the phone did get hot when pushed hard during my testing. It was not so hot to be uncomfortable to hold but it was definitely more than any other Snapdragon 835 phone that I have used in the past. The heating issue did not have any impact on performance though.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco features a dual-camera setup at its rear. The primary sensor is a 12MP shooter with a f/1.7 aperture and large 1.4um pixel. It is paired with a secondary 13MP f/2.6 telephoto sensor and a dual-tone flash. The telephoto sensor allows the handset to offer 2x optical zoom and capture portrait photos.
When there’s plenty of light around, you are not going to have any issues with the photos taken by the Nokia 8 Sirocco. The color reproduction, details, and dynamic range are all on point in such scenarios. The colors are boosted a bit so as to make the photos look more pleasing to the eye but its nowhere near as bad as some other smartphones.
