Nokia's re-entry into the smartphone market wasn't an ordinary one. HMD Global, which owns the brand's license to make and sell smartphones, left no stone unturned in playing nostalgia tricks to regain the lost love for the once-dear phone brand. But it is now in a place where it can compete against well-established brands in the affordable and mid-range price range.
Despite its strong growing presence in the smartphone market, the company hasn't placed itself among flagship players. Nokia 9, which is expected to wear the flagship crown for Nokia, has been making the rounds of the internet for quite a while now, but its release has been a mystery. In the latest development, it appears Nokia has different plans for its flagship device.
Contrary to the ongoing reports about Nokia 9 being the first Nokia flagship, a Chinese outlet CNMO.com has revealed that it is Nokia 8 that will own the privilege of being called the first flagship by the Finnish smartphone maker. The specifications and design of the leaked Nokia 8 look promising, making it a tough rival to handsets like Samsung Galaxy S8 and the upcoming iPhone 8.
By the looks of the leaked material of the purported Nokia 8, the unannounced flagship seems to boast a bezel-less design with a USB Type-C port and dual speakers at the bottom. The rear side of the phone features a slim vertical camera strip on the left side and comes in four colours, Blue, Black, Purple and Gray.
According to the reports, Nokia 8 could be launched with an Iris scanner, a top-notch camera setup comprising of a 23MP lens on the rear and a 12MP sensor on the front by Carl Zeiss, a 4,000 mAh battery, and Snapdragon 835 chipset. Nokia is expected to launch multiple variants of the flagship with different configurations of 4GB/6GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage models.
In line with other Nokia phones, the flagship will also run the latest version of stock Android 7.0 out-of-the-box. Nokia smartphones come with a promise of quick updates and security patches released by Google.
Nokia and HMD Global haven't commented on the existence of any such flagship, but rumours peg the launch of Nokia 8 to be sometime this month. The phone is expected to be priced at Rs 44,999, which is quite reasonable considering Samsung and Apple flagships retail at a much higher price.
