They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery and the Nokia 8 Sirocco is HMD Global's attempt at out-Samsunging the Samsung Galaxy S9.

Read it and weep: dual Zeiss cameras, dual curved Quad HD OLED display, Gorilla Glass 5 front and rear sitting on a central stainless steel core, pure Android and a 7.5mm thick IP67-rated body.

It's no surprise that Juho Sarvikas, chief product officer at HMD Global, described it as "the ultimate fan phone". If you were waiting for Nokia's new Android smartphones to make a statement, then the Nokia 8 Sirocco is it. 

This phone is really an evolution of the existing Nokia 8. It has the same core hardware, for example, sitting on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 platform. It's not the latest from Qualcomm and some will pick at that as weakness, but it's still a flagship grade phone - especially when pared with 6GB RAM and 128GB of storage. 

The form of this phone is impressive, taking those dual curved edges that Samsung has graced the smartphone world with the past few years. It's not quite as impactful as the Infinity Display on a Samsung Galaxy, but it's a great looking phone nonetheless.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco Pulls Curved Poled And Stainless Steel Into Its Svelte Sexy Frame image 2
Pocket-lint

The stainless steel core is there for strength, giving this phone greater robustness than aluminium devices. Gorilla Glass front and rear gives it a profile that's similar to the Galaxy S8, but at only 7.5mm thick.

In working to make this phone as slim as possible, the 3.5mm headphone socket has been dropped, but you do get wireless charging - something that the aluminium-bodied phones across the rest of Nokia's range don’t offer.

The camera on the back gives you a pair of Zeiss lenses so you can pull those fancy bokeh shots, shoot bothies, or take advantage of the lossless 2x optical zoom.

For those Nokia fans waiting for something a little more special from Nokia, this appears to be the wishlist phone that was circulating as the Nokia 9 over the past few months.

It can be yours for €749 when it goes on sale in April 2018.