Nokia 8 Sirocco, 7 Plus, and 8110 4G hands-on review

Nokia 8 Sirocco hands-on

The Nokia 8 Sirocco technically is HMD's flagship at the MWC 2018. The name makes it sound like a more premium version of the Nokia 8 but in reality it's closer to a new phone.

The Sirocco shares the Snapdragon 835 chipset and 6GB of RAM of the Nokia 8 but that's where the similarities end. It has a bigger 5.5-inch screen, which is p-OLED instead of LCD, there's Qi Wireless Charging (there's none on the Nokia 8), IP67 water-proofing (IP54 on the Nokia 8) and an all-new dual camera which has a regular and a 2x telephoto camera, instead of the 13MP color and 13MP black and white snappers on the Nokia 8.

The new camera on the Nokia 8 Sirocco is the same as the one on the Nokia 7 Plus. It's made up of a 12MP regular camera with large 1.4um pixels and a bright f/1.75 lens and a 2x telephoto 12MP camera with 1.0um pixels and an f/2.6 aperture. The front facing camera is a new 5MP shooter with the same 1.4um pixels and a wide 84-degree field of view.

The camera hardware is backed up by Nokia's Pro Camera app.

What's more impressive about the Nokia 8 Sirocco is its build. Nokia went with sculpted Gorilla Glass 5 for the front and back and a special stainless steel frame nestled in-between. Nokia says that stainless steel is 2.5 times stronger than Series 6000 aluminum.

The glass on the Nokia 8 Sirocco has curved sides both on the front and back panel. This makes it feel thinner than it is. When holding the Nokia 8 Sirocco you feel like you're holding some precise tool instead of a phone.

A downside to the thinner frame is that it's sharp and can feel a bit uncomfortable after a long period of time. But hey, it's about quality, and the Nokia 8 Sirocco oozes it.

The display on the Nokia 8 Sirocco hasn't grown taller than the Nokia 8's but has grown a bit bigger - 5.5-inch over 5.3-inch. And the difference is noticeable. Another noticeable change is the use of AMOLED over LCD.

The new Sirocco next to the old Sirocco

This isn't Samsung's Super AMOLED brand but rather LG's p-OLED branch. It's not quite the best around but it is good. The only thing we can fault the p-OLED panel on is color shift at an angle.

We were hoping to see the Nokia 9 at the Mobile World Congress but we are still glad to have seen the Nokia 8 Sirocco. Perhaps it's the base for the Nokia 9 - wouldn't that be nice, a dual-curved 18:9 screen with a stainless steel frame in-between.

Anyway, back to the Nokia 8 Sirocco, it will become available in April for the price of €749.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco next to the Nokia 8800 Sirocco

Nokia 8 Sirocco camera samples

We had a chance to play around with the Nokia 8 Sirocco and snap a few images with its new 12MP dual camera. The samples look really promising, just like the ones from the Nokia 7 Plus.

The camera on the Nokia 8 Sirocco is the same as the one on the Nokia 7 Plus - a 12MP snapper with large 1.4um pixels, an f/1.75 aperture and OIS on the regular camera.

Nokia 8 Sirocco camera samples

The telephoto camera has regular-sized 1um pixels and an f/2.6 aperture that lets in less light. When light levels aren't enough, there's a two-tone LED flash.

Nokia 8 Sirocco camera samples

We also captured a 1080p video with the Nokia 8 Sirocco. Take a look how the Nokia changes from the regular to the telephoto camera during video playback.

Nokia 8 Sirocco benchmarks

The Nokia 8 Sirocco is Nokia's most powerful phone until the Nokia 9 comes out. It packs the best hardware 2017 could offer - a Snapdragon 835 with 6GB of RAM - but is that enough for 2018?

Of course it is. The Nokia 8 Sirocco may lose some synthetic tests against the few phones with a Snapdragon 845 - Sony Xperia XZ2 and Samsung Galaxy S9 - but is otherwise ridiculously fast for just about anything you would do with your phone.

The Snapdragon 835 is made up of eight Kryo cores - four clocked at 2.5GHz and another four working at a maximum of 1.8GHz. Graphics are handled by an Adreno 540.

Below you'll find out just how good the chipset does inside the Nokia 8 Sirocco.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  6783
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  6759
• Nokia 8
  6568
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  6483
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  6428
• Nokia 7 Plus
  5920

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  1974
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  1949
• Nokia 8
  1925
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  1915
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  1902
• Nokia 7 Plus
  1641

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Nokia 8
  210323
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  207339
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  207072
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  203119
• Nokia 7 Plus
  141822

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  42
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  42
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  40
• Nokia 8
  39
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  38
• Nokia 7 Plus
  15

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Nokia 8
  32
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  26
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  26
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  25
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  22

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro
  1183
• Google Pixel 2 XL
  874
• Nokia 8
  855
• OnePlus 5T (Oreo)
  829
• Nokia 8 Sirocco
  807
• Nokia 7 Plus
  351