It's a big day for Nokia fans in India. Nokia's first Android flagship, the Nokia 8 has finally been launched in India at an extremely competitive price of Rs 36,999. The Nokia 8 is the fist high-end smartphone from the iconic Finnish company since their dark Windows Phone days and comes with top of the line specifications, ZEISS certified dual cameras, an all-metal design, OZO audio, stock Android and more. The smartphone is set to go on sale on October 14 via both online as well as offline channels.

With a price of Rs 36,999, the Nokia 8 goes head on against the OnePlus 5 which comes with near stock Android, an all metal design and the same Snapdragon 835 chipset.With the Nokia 8, HMD Global aims to capture the high-end smartphone market in India. It is the Finnish company's fourth smartphone launch in the country after the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6.

Nokia 8 specifications

As expected of a 2017 flagship, the Nokia 8 is powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor paired with 4GB of RAM, the Adreno 540 GPU and a 3,090 mAh battery with QuickCharge 3.0 support. It comes with an innovative heat management solution - a full-length graphite shielded copper cooling pipe dissipates heat across the full length and breadth of the smartphone.

On the design front, the Nokia 8 is constructed out of a single piece of series 6000 aluminum and is put through a 40-stage process of machining, anodizing and polishing. The phone retains the design ethos of Lumia smartphones of old whilst looking modern and contemporary. It is just 4.6mm thin at the edge and 7.3mm thin on average.

The Nokia 8 comes with a 5.2-inch QuadHD display with Gorilla Glass 5 on top for protection against nicks and scratches and a maximum brightness of 700 Nits. HMD Global has also brought an old Nokia favourite - Glance Screen - which displays the time, notifications and more even when the phone is turned off. There is 64GB of internal storage on board which can be expanded via a microSD card (of up to 256GB).

ZEISS powered dual cameras

On the imaging front, the Nokia 8 comes with a ZEISS powered dual camera setup at the rear with a primary 13MP RGB (color) sensor with optical image stabilisation and a secondary 13MP monochrome (black and white) sensor. The addition of the secondary sensor not only improves low light images but also allows for the capture of images with depth of field effects.

Also Read: Nokia 8 quick review: Nokia's first Android flagship feels special

On the front, there is a 13MP sensor with an aperture of f/2.0 which has also been developed in conjunction with ZEISS optics. Just like the rest of Nokia's Android smartphone line-up, the Nokia 8 also runs on a 100 percent sock build of Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Not only is an update to Android 8.0 Oreo on the way, HMD Global is also promising timely monthly security updates.

Special features

There are three nifty features on board the Nokia 8. The first called Bothie allows 'Dual-Sight' video to be live streamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as YouTube and Facebook.Dual-Sight allows you to use the front and rear camera at the same time in a split screen view. This feature can be utilised for both photos and videos

The second termed OZO Audio allows the capture of 360 degree audio via the phone's three microphones and Nokia's special acoustic algorithms. Lastly, the Nokia 8 is IP68 dust and water resistant which means you can dunk it in up to 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes.

Price and availability

he Nokia 8 will go on sale from 14th October via both online and offline channels. Online, the smartphone will be sold exclusively via Amazon India. During the launch event, HMD Global announced that Android 8.0 Oreo will be coming for the Nokia 8 very soon.