- [Mr. Mobile] When I made a video
about Nokia's latest enduring retrophone here in Barcelona,
you all but shouted me back to my editing booth
to film the real Nokia headliner of the show.
So, fine.
I'm Mr. Mobile and I went hands on
with possibly the most talked about phone of MWC,
the Nokia 8 Sirocco.
(upbeat music)
I wanna thank Myriam Joire over at the Mobile Tech Podcast
for waking me up to the fact that this isn't the first time
the name Sirocco has graced a Nokia product.
The only Nokia used the brand on a super premium trim
on the old 8800 over a decade ago,
and it's east to see some parallels on the new version,
mainly in the use of stainless steel for the frame
and this glossy black finish.
Those good looks are backed up
by IP67 dust and water resistance.
Adding to the positives, this phone ships with Android 1,
like most of the new Nokia lineup,
which means there's no bloat out of the box
and it also means it'll get consistent software updates
for two years and security updates for three,
at least that's the promise.
I spent about a day with the phone running Android 8.0
and it didn't have any of the hesitation
or jitter I detected in the early builds
of the standard Nokia 8 last year.
Powering that experience is a Snapdragon 835,
not quite top of the line but no slouch either,
and an okay-sized battery,
of which can be recharged wirelessly if you're fancy,
and HMD has managed to leverage
some of the old Nokia relationships here, too.
The new phone has a Zeiss-branded dual camera system
and a pro mode that looks and works exactly
like what I used on my old Lumia Windows phones.
Now that might come as a surprise to some of you
because there's a common misconception
that the new Nokia is some kind of Chinese imposter
looking to make a quick buck on a storied brand name.
Okay, well, first of all, HMD Global
is headquartered in Finland literally across the street
from the old Nokia headquarters,
and secondly the folks in chard at HMD
are mostly ex-Nokia and ex-Microsoft employees,
and no I haven't been paid to say any of this,
I'm just tired of the same specious cynicism
showing up in the comments of every Nokia video I make.
Moving on, this phone does have a short fall, or three,
that you should know about.
The most disappointing to me
is that the ergonomic focus of the old 8800 Sirocco
didn't make it over to the 8 Sirocco.
What I mean is that the fingerprint censor
being almost flush with the back glass
makes it tough to find by feel
and same deal with the side keys.
Just in general with its wide display
and edges that taper to just two millimeters,
this phone is hard to hold.
If you had any experience with Samsung's old Galaxy x6 Edge
it feels a lot like that,
while the severe curve to the cover glass
leads to some substantial discoloration
on the edges of this PO lit display.
There are always costs to placing aesthetics
above usability but I feel like other manufacturers
have had more time to figure this out than the new Nokia.
Speaking of costs, the Nokia 8 Sirocco
will make ya around 749 Euros lighter
if you want to walk away with one.
That doesn't undercut the iPhone 8,
which starts about 100 Euro higher,
but it seems a little pricey for a phone
with a last generation processor launching in April of 2018.
No plans for a US release, sadly,
but if that changes you can bet
I'll be lining up to review this one.
It's just hard to resist the combination
of pure Android, premium build,
and a newly resurgent brand name.
Even one with a history as complicated as Nokia's.
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Til next time, thanks for watching
and stay mobile, my friends.
(upbeat music)