Nokia Joins Android One Family

HMD Global has today (Feb 25) unveiled five Android phone at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona.

The new Nokia 8 Sirocco claims to be the company’s “most lovely smartphone to date”, whilst integrating Dual-Sight ZEISS optics and finely tuned spatial audio.

Nokia 8 Sirocco will be available from end April in the UAE for an average retail price of AED2399. Official UK pricing is yet to be confirmed by HMD Global. The fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back to utilise this design choice.

However, the most interesting part of this phone is its display.

It comes with Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage. The secondary main camera provides a short telephoto f/2.6 aperture lens that channels light into a 13MP sensor. It packs in a 2150 mAh battery.

The phone is completely made out of glass except for the sides which are covered with stainless steel, and the result is stunning. The biggest disappointment, however, is the 5 megapixel front camera, a huge drop from the Nokia 8’s 13 megapixels. It offers 2x optical zoom and dual-tone flash. The front of the phone is completely dominated by the display, making it stunning also in the actual uses cases.

All devices will run Android Oreo out of the box and will join Android One – for fresh and timely updates – except the Nokia 1 and…

The Nokia 6 (2018) will be available in single-SIM and dual-SIM variants, depending on the region. Nokia claims 2 days but I’ll be the judge of that (if I get the chance to review it).

It comes in three colour blends: black/copper, white/iron and blue/gold.

The conference concluded with announcements for Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 Sirocco, or as we like to call it, the overkill phone.

Besides that camera, there’s a Snapdragon 660 CPU inside, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of internal storage. The phone will have a 16MP rear-facing camera with ZEISS optics and an 8MP front-facing camera.

The Nokia 7 Plus will land in Australia in Black/Copper, and will go on sale in May retailing for $749 (AUD RRP) at JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman. The Nokia 1 has a 4.5-inch display with a very modest 854 x 480 resolution. It is backed by a 3,260mAh non-removable battery and fast charging.

Other aspects of the 8110 are what you’d expect from a feature phone.

The device comes with Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Search included in the device and the phone will be available in two colors including the legendary Banana Yellow and Black colors. It will cost just $85 when it launches around the world in April, and for that you’re getting 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, and some kind of HD display.