Nokia 8 comes to India to compete with contemporaries both new and old

It’s Nokia’s second innings in India and HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, today announced the launch of Nokia 8 in India. This time around Nokia is focusing on the true blue social media users with an Android powered smartphone that sports ZEISS optics camera and has an advanced aluminium unibody.

First time around, Nokia ruled the mobile phone market for years in India. But it’s not going to be that simple for Nokia to reach the top spot this time around. While its old competitions like Samsung are still very strong in the market, it’s the new competition, slew of Chinese smartphone brands that have launched in the country over the last few years are likely to give Nokia a tough fight.

However, the Nokia 8 does come packed with some key features that are clearly designed for the Netizens of today. Firstly it’s a pure Android powered Nokia phone, Nokia is introducing a Dual-Sight video that can be livestreamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as Facebook and YouTube. It means one can simultaneously harnesses both the front and rear cameras in a split screen visual for both photos and videos. Nokia has also up the Audio feature of the Nokia 8 by featuring Nokia OZO Audio, it can apparently give a 360° immersive audio experience.

And unlike the super sturdy phones from Nokia’s earlier set of phones, Nokia 8 has certainly put time and effort to up the design aspect of their phone. Nokia 8 comes in a sleek unibody design with 4.6mm thin at the edge and just 7.3mm slim on average, Nokia says that it has been refined through a 40-stage process of machining, anodizing and polishing. And the models that feature a high-gloss mirror finish has taken over 20 hours to complete to achieve a flawless look, says Nokia. The phone features Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 835 Mobile Platform for the first time.

Ajey Mehta, Vice President - India, HMD Global, said, “Millennials, today, are always exploring new ways to create and share content. It's these creative content creators who inspired us to craft a smartphone with them in mind.”

The Nokia 8 will be available in India starting October 14, 2017 for Rs. 36,999. It comes in four colours – Polished Blue, Tempered Blue and Steel. It will also come in a Polished Copper soon after the launch.

While it seems clear how Nokia is trying to get in the hands of the millennials as it has certainly worked on the features that has driven the smartphone market here in India but it is still going to be tough task for Nokia to compete with the existing competition. With the kind of price tag Nokia will be pitted against the likes of Chinese smartphone brand Oneplus and Korean giant Samsung among others.