The return of the king? Nokia 8 and 9 series

[mrk]

Most will have seen Nokia's recent re-entry into making good phones again with the release of the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 series. They have rolled out the Android 7.1.1 update, which is quite pleasing to see, as well as what they call "Pure Android" experience.

Those phones are all aimed at the low to mid range segment though, and whilst they are built extremely well, and look extremely classy, they aren't flagship level.

The 8 and 9 series have been talked about ever since, and recently a few drawings popped up which are said to be fan created, and now, renders of those drawings show what could effectively be Galaxy S8 killers in terms of design if the actual devices are anything remotely like these images show:









Given the concept and leaked images of the Galaxy S8 long before its announcement, I think anything is now possible, so am keeping fingers crossed these flagships from Nokia resemble the concept images!

Nokia 8 and Nokia 9 are rumoured to have Octa-core and Quad-core Qualcomm processor respectively and the screen size with the 8 expected to come in at 5.7 inches while the 9 might be a tad bit smaller at 5.5 inches. Both are expected to sport a humongous 6 GB of RAM. Internal storage options are said to be 64 & 128 GB. Battery are expected to be near the 4000 mAh range.

Other rumoured specs for the Nokia 9 include a 5.5-inch QHD OLED display, Snapdragon 835 processor with an Adreno 540 GPU, and a 3800mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick-Charge 4.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/...okia-8-and-nokia-9-design#RqpwwoB7JVEtTxuu.99

There was also an article posted up saying how the 9 series could very well give the Galaxy S8 a run for its money. Make of that what you will, but I'm quite excited by this. It seems Samsung don't really care about their enthusiast customers any more, what with the recent removal of the Bixby button customisation on the S8, and die-hards screaming for a stock Android experience but on a device that oozes the same level of elegance like the S8.

I think the Nokia 9 may well be the device to suit fit that need. Now if the price point is just right, I think Nokia will have a slam dunk on their hands given what we know already from the 3, 5 and 6 phones and how they've been received.

Update: Further reading: https://telecomtalk.info/hmd-global...ith-its-upcoming-flagship-the-nokia-9/162743/

Price rumour is in Indian Rupees, after conversion it comes to £542....

 

[mrk]

Good thing is the current Nokia phones run stock android as it is with Nokia's choice of icons and homescreen. But as everyone knows, these are easy to customise. So all good on that front.

 

[mrk]

Windows Phone is dead, so that's a given

 

[mrk]

Actually Microsoft has a fleet of top quality apps on Android and iOS, they seem to be able to develop some good apps indeed, just not for their own mobile platform to the same level!

 

[mrk]

£550 for a flagship now is excellent pricing given the competition flagships are considerably more.

The S8 will remain high in price for a long time yet, the Nokia 8 and 9 are pegged for Q3 this year, not Q4. Look at the S7 edge, the cheapest sim free price at present is still over £500 from all reputable retailers. That's a phone which came out in 2015!

It is almost certainly going to be a big hit with the enthusiast crowd keeping in mind stock android, high end specs and camera features it is supposed to have, oh and the big battery.

 

[mrk]

Brexit hasn't changed the price much at all, the S7 edge was £639 sim free when it launched. That is how much I paid for mine from CPW. The price currently is reflective of the depreciation of the device over the course of the year and now especially since the S8 announcement. It is still very expensive for a year old flagship, but a better value option instead of buying an S8 Plus by comparison with performance vs price in mind.

I think The direct conversion of £550 is a fair price given all of the features it is said to be having.

 

[mrk]

So yeah, it's Nokia then...

HMD Global consists of ex Nokia (of old) people, and staff from Microsoft/Lumia. "Nokia" even has a seat at HMD's board.

Likewise, the president of HMD was the previous Senior VP at Nokia and Microsoft. The current CEO was the VP at Microsoft, the current Product chief was previously at Microsoft/Nokia.

Essentially, HMD's staff either came from HTC, Microsoft or Nokia. It is every bit "Nokia" as Nokia itself once was. They are not some company of randoms who just happened to have the cash to buy the brand name.

 

[mrk]

It's less about lenses these days due to the high quality of off the shelf lenses anyway as evidenced on competing flagships over the past 24 months. It's more to do with the sensor and integrated RAM now.

We are now at a time where SoCs support 120fps 4K video recording with HDR, and 1000fps slow motion capture. Multiframe and HDR on stacked sensors allows for low light low noise capture at higher ISOs and built in OIS is always improving.

I read that the 8/9 won't feature Carl Zeiss lenses, but I'm sure the sensors themselves will be ahead of the competition. It would be nice to have, and maybe they will have a Zeiss lens in the 9 series only just to give it an additional USP.

Let's hope.

 

[mrk]

He's on about the G6, not the V20. The G6 only comes with the DAC in Asia. The USA and Canadian model only comes with wireless fast charging. Europe gets none of those features.

 

[mrk]

Yes and no.

Yes because they're rumours.

Nobecause everyone said the same thing about the Galaxy S8 in its early rumour phase, and look at that device. A Samsung without front logo? No way! A Samsung without a home button? No way! And so on.

Given the current phones like Mii Mix, G6 and S8, there's no doubt the Nokia 9 will look very much like the renders shown in my eyes.

Bezel free displays is the flagship trend this year, and Nokia are releasing at least one flagship which we already know.

My post is based on observing online chatter and seeing what has already come out and what is reasonable to expect in a new flagship Nokia given what is currently possible.

It's a reasonably educated predicion, if you will.

 

[mrk]

I think your level of buzzkill is quite frankly disturbing

The G6 has its issues and the S8 can no longer have the Bixby button remapped, and battery life is only marginally better than the S7.

We need this. We need Nokia back.

 

[mrk]

Most likely two main reasons why the 6 came first.

1: The flagships were still in development. Nokia may be playing it safe and not releasing a flagship device until it is fully ready to be labelled as such.

2: Samsung had bought out all initial units of the SD835.

Obviously the latter plays a strong role in this, but number 1 bodes well for consumers as it could mean we get a well thought out device without any compromises.

 

[mrk]

I think I'll be getting those at those prices for the work phones when I'm upgrading users this year. Seems like the most sensible Android choice for the workplace.