Review: Nokia 8 Sirocco

Nokia showcased its premium flagship – the Nokia 8 Sirocco – at Mobile World Congress this year. The Sirocco range has always been a premium affair during the yesteryears of Nokia. And that holds true even today. The Nokia 8 Sirocco looks and feels premium from the outset.

Like most flagship smartphones on the market, 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 also makes it feel solid and hefty.

Since the phone is made of glass at the rear, you also get Qi wireless charging to go with it. However, the wireless charging included is not of the “fast charging” kind. On the top edge of the device, you do not get any ports – all you get is a microphone. At the bottom edge, you will find a USB-C port and a mono speaker. There is no 3.5mm audio jack.

On the left edge, you get a nanoSIM card slot, which accommodates just one SIM. This could be a deal breaker for many who have gotten used to dual SIMs on smartphones these days. On the right edge, you get the volume rockers along with the power button. The Nokia Sirocco measures just 2mm thin at the edge. On the front, you get an edge-to-edge pOLED 2K 5.5-inch display with smaller bezels, with 16:9 aspect ratio, and moulded body curves.

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. It is quite surprising that Nokia opted for the Android One Oreo version for this premium device – Android One was initially designed specifically for budget phones. Nokia possibly went for Android One because of faster access to security patches and OS updates.

Under the hood, the phone comes packed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC along with 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The dual camera setup on the back of the device features a wide 12 MP f/1.75 unit paired with a tele 12 MP f/2.6 unit. The front features a 5 MP f/2.0 unit.

While the Nokia 8 Sirocco only supports one SIM, it also supports microSD card-based expansion, Bluetooth 5.0, and comes with a 3260mAh battery with support for Quick Charge. This is a powerful phone with 6GB RAM on board and delivers impressive performance even if it doesn’t boast of the latest processor. I did not experience any sort of lag, stutter or hang up when switching between multiple apps.

The two cameras at the back are built so, in order to allow more detail and better low-light photography. The phone also comes with 2X optical zoom, which lets you take better long distance shots. During our test shoots, we clicked images using the auto mode and most of the times, we ended up with good images.

The phone also comes with a Pro mode. In this mode, you adjust lots of settings such as ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and so on. Images shot using the Pro mode turned out to be vibrant and sharp. The phone also comes with a software-based Bokeh effect that helps capture the depth of images. During our tests, it performed satisfactorily.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco is a solid device. The price tag of AED 2399 is quite good for a flagship device – most flagships these days sell at AED 3000+. So, Nokia 8 Sirocco has a fighting chance when it comes to pricing. The Nokia 8 Sirocco ticks most of the boxes that spell a premium flagship and comes across highly recommended.

Price: AED 2399