While Apple and Samsung are on the move to impress the smartphone market with their fresh offerings, HMD Global-backed Nokia is all set to take on both the behemoths by bringing the anticipated Nokia 8. But how the new model by the Finnish company would rival the upcoming iPhone 8 and even make things difficult for the existing flagship market leader -- Galaxy S8?
The Nokia 8 will be the third Android smartphone by HMD Global, which has been maintaining Nokia's brand since December 2016. However, the prime reason behind its anticipation is the presence of high-end optics by Carl Zeiss. The Espoo, Finland-based company announced its partnership with German optical system maker Carl Zeiss AG last month to bring a high-quality photography experience to smartphone range. Originally, Nokia was deploying Zeiss optics in its Symbian OS-based mobile devices. The Nokia 808 PureView and the Windows Phone-powered Lumia 1020 were among the two renowned handsets with Zeiss technology.
Advanced photography experience
In addition to a Zeiss lens on the top, the Nokia 8 is rumoured to sport dual image sensors. This is something that makes the new Nokia flagship a close alternative to the iPhone 8 that is also rumoured to have two rear-facing camera sensors -- just like the iPhone 7 Plus. The smartphone is also likely to come preloaded with a custom camera app that would have manual settings to adjust aperture, focus, shutter speed and other tweaks like ISO and white balance.
The Nokia phone is also expected to debut with a built-in optical image stabilisation (OIS) that would help to deliver smooth video results even at top-notch 4K resolution. Similarly, the handset might come with an 8-megapixel frontal sensor. The front camera will certainly not support Apple's FaceTime, but it is speculated to have a large enough aperture to enable a decent selfie-taking experience even under dark.
High-end processing
To compete against Samsung's Galaxy S8, the Nokia 8 is rumoured to have a Snapdragon 835 processor with 6GB of RAM. The 10nm chip would make the latest Nokia smartphone capable of delivering flawless results with low battery consumption. At the same time, the advanced DRAM is expected to have enough space to handle all your daily multitasking operations.
Apple hasn't so far participated in the race of processors and memory chips when it comes to its mobile developments. The iPhone 8 is expected to follow the same pattern with an A11 chip and 3GB of RAM.
Latest Android on top
It is iOS that empowers Apple to go beyond processors and memory chips by optimising the end performance. But Nokia is apparently set to use the latest Android -- similar to the Galaxy S8. Some recent reports suggest that the new Nokia would run Android 8.0 out of the box. Neither Google nor Nokia has hinted any such details. Nevertheless, one thing is quite clear here that the Finnish handset maker has preferred a top-end Android version to make its flagship a comparable option in the market.
Other tweaks
The Nokia 8 is also presumed to have features such as NFC, USB-C and wireless charging support. In the same way, the handset would sport a QHD display and stereo speakers.
HMD Global is hosting an event in London on August 16 where it would launch the Nokia 8 publicly. The smartphone would go on sale at US$600 (approximately S$818) -- lesser than the official US$720 price of the Galaxy S8 and remarkably lower than the rumoured US$999 iPhone 8.
