Nokia 8.1

Nokia 8.1 comes with both an attractive mid-range price and the Nokia reliability attached to it. Priced at Rs 25,960, the phone is loaded with features that will make it stand out in the mid-range market as a delightful option.

Equipped with an impressive design, stunning display and the Nokia-special Zeiss lens camera – Nokia 8.1 does not hold back in any department. Even in terms of performance and battery, Nokia 8.1 modifies from a mid-range processor and includes a near-premium processor. Though it does have some small shortcomings like the lack of waterproofing and the poor low-light image capturing quality, the phone turns out to be a mid-range delight.

Nokia continues to modify their phones so that they don’t fall back in the looks department. The Nokia 8.1 is no exception. It is a well-crafted phone. The metal curves, glass, and aluminium blend together without any sharp edges jutting out. It can comfortably sit on your palm. The aluminium frame is Series 6000 aluminium which stands out among the new gradient handsets. Plus, it adds to the sturdy quality of the phone. The steel accents that surround the phone gives it a premium touch too. The front and the rear panel of the phone are covered with 2.5D Gorilla Glass protection. The glass rear does reflect light, but it does not attract fingerprint smudges.

The fingerprint sensor lies at the back, with the rear camera module present on the rear panel, which does not sit quite in flux with the body. The phone is a bit hefty, but it is still capable of being handled with one hand. The design remains an excellent point for Nokia 8.1. The speaker is located at the bottom and can get covered by your hands easily, resulting in muffled sounds.

Nokia 8.1 follows up with the Nokia 7.1 brings in the PureDisplay screen, which has HDR10 support and provides a beautiful contrast. The phone comes with a 6.18-inch screen with an FHD+ resolution, and the PureDisplay technology does add a bit of sheen to the display. The remarkable colour reproduction beats Poco F1 and that of Vivo V11 and provides a beautiful Netflix experience. Outdoors, the phone is very reflective making the sunlight legibility is poor.

Otherwise, indoors, the white balance looks accurate and the viewing angles are decent. The notch is a bit chunky and keeps the phone from delivering an immersive experience, but otherwise, the phone display remains one of the best among its competitors.

Nokia 8.1 is powered by the capable Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 710 which is also fitted into the Oppo R17 Pro. The processor is blazing fast, coming with an octa-core chipset clocked at 2.2 GHz. This processor could act as a bridge between the budget Snapdragon 600 series and the high-end Snapdragon 800 series. Regarding apps, the phone functioned beautifully. Even with multiple apps running on the phone, it did not end into a slow-down mode. App loading was also quite fast.

It seems that the bloatware-free Android One OS has also come to the rescue to add some speed to the phone. The Nokia 8.1 comes with the Adreno 616 GPU. It has the capability of running high-end games like PUBG on the phone without lag, even on high settings. Performance is a plus for the Nokia 8.1!

Nokia 8.1 comes with a 12MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture. It also has a secondary 13MP camera. The Zeiss lenses that Nokia phone use captures the right amount of detail, especially in daylight. The colours come out natural and vibrant, and the images are quite sharp. Live Bokeh mode click great Portrait modes which turn out well enough.

In low-light however, the camera performance drops. There is a bit of visual noise that we get, but even then, the subjects are discernible.

The phone comes with a 20MP selfie camera as well. It clicks detailed selfies, but there is a bit of artificial touch in the selfies. The Portrait Mode of the front camera performs well to preserve an adequate amount of details.

The rear camera can record videos up to 4K at 30fps. The videos are decent, but the exposure does not adjust smoothly enough.

Nokia 8.1 offers a reliable 3500 mAh battery which, according to the company, can last the phone up to two days. A 90-minute video with maxed out bright saw the phone drop about 20% of its charge which is not bad, but higher than Honor 10’s 16% drop.

With heavy use, the phone runs for more than a day, and moderate use can chug it to two days. The phone comes with fast charging tech, but it does not charge as fast as OnePlus and Oppo R17 and can take nearly two hours to reach full charge.

The Nokia 8.1 has everything present that will please the crowd. Firstly, the phone comes with a fantastic design that makes it worthy to look at. Then, there is a potent processor paired with a decent design that makes the phone performance-friendly. Even the cameras work a lot better than many competitors, especially when it comes to daylight shots. As an Android purist going for an Android One phone, this can be a great set to look out for. However, a worthy alternative is the Honor 10 for slightly better battery performance.