Nokia Mobile has announced a brand new flagship handset, the Nokia 8 Sirocco! It's the higher-end flagship follow up to the super Nokia 8 and cashes on the traditional Nokia strengths of functional design, decent pricing - and, these days, Android One

But how does the new handset compare to the previous Nokia 8? We have put the company's flagship device up against its older sibling to see how things have moved on. 

Nokia 8 vs Nokia 8 Sirocco: Design

  • Both phones are all metal - the Sirocco is stainless steel
  • Qi wireless charging and waterproofing for the Sirocco
  • Sirocco slightly thinner, with curved display at the edges

The Nokia 8 comes complete with rounded corners, a softly-curved back and a premium metal design that oozes quality. Nokia says the 8 Sirocco is "milled from a single piece of stainless steel" and it's 2.5 times tougher than 600 Series aluminium. That's TOUGH. It's worth mentioning that the iPhone X is the other major recent handset to feature stainless steel as the key part of its construction. 

The reason is strength, for both the iPhone X and Nokia 8 Sirocco, because the front and back of both handsets are made of glass - here it's Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 front and back. Like the iPhone X as well, the rear glass is because of Qi wireless charging compatibility.

The Nokia 8 has been available in polished copper, polished blue, a matt temperate blue and a steel finish. We're expecting similar finishes for the Nokia 8 Sirocco, but we don't yet know what they will be. 

The Nokia 8 measures 151.5 x 73.7 x 7.9mm and it features minimal branding, a rectangular button on the front below the screen that doubles up as the fingerprint sensor, and a slim vertical dual-camera and flash array on the rear. The Sirocco is slightly thinner at 7.5mm. 

The Nokia 8 Sirocco doesn't have a physical button - eveyrthing is part of the screen - so the fingerprint sensor moves to the back in a Huawei-style placement under the camera.

The Nokia 8's display has very slim bezels on the sides, but quite large bezels at the top and bottom. The Sirocco's top-and-bottom bezels aren't strikingly big, but they're not as small as some. Regardless, they're not big enough to be bothered about and there is no "notch" like the iPhone X - and like some copycat handsets we reckon we'll see this year. 

Unlike the Nokia 8, the new Sirocco is waterproof, IP67 rated. 

The Nokia 8 Sirocco Pulls Curved Poled And Stainless Steel Into Its Svelte Sexy Frame image 2
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Nokia 8 vs Nokia 8 Sirocco: Display

  • LCD display on the Nokia 8, pOLED on the Sirocco
  • Same resolution, slightly bigger display on the Sirocco

There was talk of the Nokia 8 appearing in two sizes originally, but it arrived in just one 5.3-inch screen size featuring a standard 16:9 aspect ratio, which is why it sits within a larger footprint than the Galaxy S8 despite a smaller screen.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco is that follow-up device, with a 5.5-inch curved display that is also a little reminiscent of Samsung's Galaxy S8

While the Nokia 8 opts for an LCD display with a Quad HD resolution at 2,560 x 1,440 the Sirocco steps this up a gear with a plastic OLED display; using plastic rather than glass for the display essentially means it's flexible. However, it does have the same resolution as the standard Nokia 8. 

Both phones feature Corning Gorilla Glass 5 as the finish, with the Sirocco having it both front and back as we mentioned earlier. Nothing has been mentioned about Mobile HDR compliance for either handset.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco pulls curved pOLED and stainless steel into its svelte sexy frame image 1
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Nokia 8 vs Nokia 8 Sirocco: Camera

  • Nokia 8 offers dual-rear Zeiss lens cameras
  • Slightly different arrangement on the Sirocco
  • Both have a Dual-Sight camera mode for simultaneous image and video from front and rear snappers - BOTHIES! 

The Nokia 8 comes complete with dual 13-megapixel rear cameras, along with a 13-megapixel front camera, all of which feature Zeiss lenses. The rear cameras are made up of one RGB sensor and one monochrome sensor, like the Huawei P10, and they offer an aperture of f/2.0 and phase detection autofocus, as does the front camera.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco adopts the 12/13 megapixel dual-camera unit of the new Nokia 7 Plus, which should prove to be a decent improvement. This new camera system gives you twin Zeiss lenses, a normal lens (1.4µm pixels, aperture of f/1.7) and a zoom lens.

Again, Nokia's own camera app is used on the Sirocco. Nokia launched a Dual-Sight camera mode on the Nokia 8, which enabled you to use both the front and rear cameras simultaneously in order to capture a photo or video of both yourself and the subject to then upload to Facebook or YouTube. Nokia dubbed these bothies which was, er, a little annoying but kinda accurate.

This feature remains on the 8 Sirocco, while there's also a Pro camera mode, portrait mode and quick-tap 2x optical zoom. 

Nokia 8 vs Nokia 8 Sirocco: Hardware

  • Both have USB Type-C
  • No headphone jack on the Sirocco
  • Upgraded Quick Charge tech and bigger capacity on Sirocco

Both of these phones come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 platform rather than the incoming Snapdragon 845. But you're still going to get very decent performance from the 835 so we don't think that's too much of an issue. 

On the Nokia 8 you get 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage while the Sirocco beefs that up to 6GB and 128GB respectively - flagship specs indeed. 

The Nokia 8 comes with a microSD slot for storage expansion but there is no mention of a microSD slot in the Sirocco. And there's no headphone jack in the Sirocco while there is in the standard Nokia 8. 

In the standard Nokia 8, battery capacity sits at 3090mAh, is non-removable and charged via USB Type-C with Quick Charge 3.0 supported (4.0 on the Sirocco). The Sirocco beefs the size up to 3260 mAh. 

Nokia 8 vs Nokia 8 Sirocco: Software

Originally the Nokia 8 shipped with Android Nougat with Google Assistant but the Android Oreo 8.1 upgrade is now available for it. The Nokia 8 Sirocco comes with Android Oreo out of the box. And that's not just any Android Oreo, oh no - it's Android One so it's pure Android. That means no bloatware.

Nokia 8 vs Nokia 8 Sirocco: Price

The Nokia 8 is on sale for €599, which is around £550. The Nokia 8 Sirocco release date is April 2018, priced at €749, around £660. 

Nokia 8 vs Samsung Galaxy S8: Conclusion

The Nokia 8 didn't set the world alight last year, but the Nokia 8 Sirocco rectifies many of that handset's shortcomings.

It's a really nice design, is thinner, it has a bigger screen, there's upgraded tech inside, the camera is better, it's OLED...in fact the only thing that some could moan about is the lack of headphone jack and the fact the design is quite like Samsung's curved-screen handsets.

Of course, the proof is in our upcoming review, but we think on paper it looks really very good. 

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