Other OEMs have decided to somewhat bow out of MWC 2018 in order to steer clear of the Samsung giant’s shadow. Not all, however, are intimidated or worried in the slightest. It’s business as usual for HMD Global, whose response to the threat of being overshadowed is to throw as many new devices onto the wall and see which sticks. If you were waiting for something truly phenomenal, however, you might be a bit disappointed./ The Nokia 8 Sirocco is indeed a thing, but it’s not the revolutionary the leaks have made it out to be.
To be clear, you shouldn’t immediately write off the Nokia 8 Sirocco. It is HMD Global’s most high-end Nokia phone to date and it’s designed to look that way, too. With an edge-to-edge curved 5.5-inch pOLED QHD screen, the Sirocco easily outclasses the plain Nokia 8 in looks. The slim 7.5 mm profile and 95% glass design, the Nokia 8 Sirocco is meant to look handsome and deceptively fragile.
Inside, however, it is, as HMD calls it, a powerhouse. That said, this is also where things start heading south. Inside, it’s practically the Nokia 8 all over again. That means the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, not the latest 845. Memory does now start at 6 GB RAM and 128 GB UFS storage, doing away with the lower configuration option. The biggest disappointment, however, is the 5 megapixel front camera, a huge drop from the Nokia 8’s 13 megapixels. Not great for the “bothies” HMD loves talking about.
At least the main cameras aren’t that bad, at least on paper. There’s no penta-lens magic here. Just a 12 megapixel f/1.75 wide-angle camera paired with a 13 megapixel f/2.6 telephoto shooter. HMD offers a new Pro Camera mode that lets users control every aspect of those cameras as they see fit in their professional eyes.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco seems to be targeted at those who are still on the fence about getting a high-end Nokia-branded Android phone. It might, however, have a harder time standing out, even from last year’s later batch of devices. Availability details are still under wraps but, considering it might not be available in the US, it might not matter at all.
