Nokia 8 review: Connecting the dots

Synthetic and real-life performance

HMD chose the most powerful Snapdragon chip - 835 - for the Nokia 8 and a flagship deserves nothing less. This means the Nokia 8 has one of the best processors on the market right now with two Kryo clusters, four cores each. There is also one of the best GPUs to date - the Adreno 540. HMD has paired the processor with 4 gigs of RAM, which should be enough, especially with that almost stock Android OS.

We ran Geekbench and the Kryo processor didn't disappoint. While the single-core performance is the best any Android can get right now.

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  3473
• OnePlus 5
  2031
• Nokia 8
  2005
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  1945
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  1943
• Huawei P10 Plus
  1937
• Huawei P10
  1927
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1915
• OnePlus 3T
  1890
• LG G6
  1733
• Oppo R11
  1629
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  646

Then again four Kryos top the multi-core chart and the Nokia 8 obviously packs some serious oomph under its hood.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  6404
• Nokia 8
  6293
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  6175
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6106
• Huawei P10
  6069
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  5837
• Huawei P10 Plus
  5821
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  5664
• Oppo R11
  5510
• OnePlus 3T
  4364
• LG G6
  4209
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2739

Moving on to graphics, the Nokia 8 is once again a chart topper when it comes to raw 1080p performance.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  39
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  39
• Nokia 8
  39
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  39
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  36
• OnePlus 3T
  33
• LG G6
  26
• Meizu Pro 7 Plus
  22
• Huawei P10
  22
• Huawei P10 Plus
  19
• Oppo R11
  15
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  4.6

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Nokia 8
  32
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  25
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  25
• OnePlus 5
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  23
• OnePlus 3T
  20
• LG G6
  16
• Huawei P10
  14
• Huawei P10 Plus
  12
• Oppo R11
  8.6
• Meizu Pro 7 Plus
  8.4
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2.5

HMD has raised the flagship status of the Nokia 8 with a 1440p screen though, so the onscreen test should be more relevant. Of course, competing phone which use the same processor and the 8 can't match the framerate Adreno 540 handling 1080p onscreen resolution on competitors such as OnePlus 5 or Huawei P10, but it is surely in line with all other Quad HD offers.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  42
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  41
• OnePlus 5
  40
• OnePlus 3T
  33
• Huawei P10
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  23
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  18
• Nokia 8
  18
• Oppo R11
  15
• Meizu Pro 7 Plus
  13
• LG G6
  12
• Huawei P10 Plus
  12
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  4.5

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  25
• OnePlus 5
  24
• OnePlus 3T
  20
• Huawei P10
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  13
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  12
• Nokia 8
  12
• Huawei P10 Plus
  9
• Oppo R11
  8.6
• LG G6
  8.5
• Meizu Pro 7 Plus
  4.8
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2.5

The same goes for some more sophisticated graphic tests such as BaseMark's X and ES 3.1.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8
  42370
• Huawei P10
  39433
• OnePlus 5
  38844
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  38507
• Nokia 8
  37593
• OnePlus 3T
  36958
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  34951
• Huawei P10 Plus
  30602
• LG G6
  30507
• Oppo R11
  20350
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  7516

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  1517
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  1189
• Nokia 8
  855
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  842
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  817
• OnePlus 5
  796
• Huawei P10
  716
• OnePlus 3T
  641
• LG G6
  541
• Oppo R11
  345
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  100

The compound tests AnTuTu and BaseMark OS II confirm the top-notch skills of the Nokia 8 - it's one of the fastest devices we've tested so far.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  180331
• Nokia 8
  175872
• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  174987
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  174435
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  168133
• OnePlus 3T
  165097
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  144223
• LG G6
  143639
• Huawei P10
  126629
• Huawei P10 Plus
  126252
• Oppo R11
  118677
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  47495

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 7 Plus
  3796
• OnePlus 5
  3601
• Nokia 8
  3503
• Samsung Galaxy S8
  3376
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  3319
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  3174
• Huawei P10 Plus
  2940
• Huawei P10
  2910
• OnePlus 3T
  2678
• Oppo R11
  2386
• LG G6
  2126

The Nokia 8 is a beast and we didn't even need benchmarks to confirm this. A smartphone that packs the latest hardware is destined to be powerful even with the worst software optimizations crippling its performance. Luckily, the Nokia 8 aces this department as well - it's one of the smoothest and fastest smartphones we've seen this year, if not the best. It runs cool under pressure, has no lag when switching apps, and the whole interface feels more fluid than, say, Galaxy S8 or even the OnePlus 5.

If we could pick an Android flagship for the most responsive user experience, it will be probably the Nokia 8. Granted, that's a strong claim - remember, we're saying this before we've tested the Galaxy Note 8 and IFA 2017 and the season's announcements are still around the corner.

But it's true, the Nokia 8 is a pleasure to use. It benefits from a pure and lightweight Android OS, without any extra services or bloatware. Having as little as proprietary software tricks has surely helped the Nokia 8 feel this smooth, but top-of-the-line chipset is surely helping too.