A new lineup of Nokia Android smartphones was unveiled by HMD Global earlier this week at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona. One of the brand-new handsets is the Nokia 8 Sirocco, an updated version of the 2017 flagship with a few easily recognizable changes. For one, the special Sirocco edition is composed of 95 percent glass, plus the device sports a curved edge display with thin stainless steel chassis on the sides.
As reported by The Verge, the Nokia 8 Sirocco features curved, chamfered points at the edges. The bezels are also further reduced so that the screen is wrapped from edge to edge, giving an all-screen design at the front. However, the fingerprint reader, which is located below the Nokia 8 screen, can now be seen at the rear side of the Sirocco variant. One might not notice any traces of the original Nokia 8 design in the Sirocco edition, especially that the handset sports right-angled edges.
Nevertheless, the Nokia 8 Sirocco, as HMD Global presented it, still has its roots from the original Nokia 8 smartphone. Most of the similarities of the two can be found under the hood. The device is running the latest Android 8.0 Oreo update, and is packed with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with 6 GB of random-access memory (RAM) and 128 GB built-in storage.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco is revealed to have an IP67 water- and dust-proof rating, unlike the first Nokia 8 version that is only waterproof. As the Sirocco handset is almsot entirely made of glass, it has wireless charging capability, aside from the more traditional wired charging. The Nokia 8 Sirocco has a slightly bigger battery of 3,260 mAh. Another change worth noting is the dual rear camera configuration of the Sirocco handset, which comprises one 12-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 13-megapixel lens with 2x optical zoom. The original Nokia 8 has dual 13-megapixel lens combo.
While the rear camera of the Nokia 8 Sirocco sports improvement, its front-facing snapper is actually a downgrade from the original Nokia 8's 13 MP, which is now just 5 MP. Still, HMD Global has included an enhanced camera software in the Sirocco edition, in which the new Pro Camera mode will allow manual control over the camera settings. The user can change the camera options such as focusing, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and exposure amount firsthand.
