While it hasn’t been getting the publicity of the latest handsets from Apple or Samsung, Nokia has been quietly pumping out excellent smartphones for a couple of years now. We named the excellent Nokia 6.1 as our favorite budget smartphone, and we’ve been consistently impressed by the quality coming out of the Finnish company recently. December 5 saw the release of the Nokia 8.1, a new midrange device with plenty of power, Android 9.0 Pie, and a very reasonable price tag — but it, unfortunately, won’t be coming to the U.S. Here’s everything you need to know about the Nokia 8.1.
Updates
The Nokia 8.1 lands in the U.K.
It’s great news if you live across the pond and you love Nokia’s reinvigorated approach to smartphones — the Nokia 8.1 came to British shores on Friday, January 25. It will be available in two color combinations: blue/silver and steel/copper, and will cost around 380 British pounds. If you’ve been holding off on buying a new midrange phone, then the Nokia 8.1 is a great choice to give you plenty of power that doesn’t hit your bank balance too hard.
Design and display
You’ll be able to pick up the Nokia 8.1 in a selection of attractive colors, including blue/silver, iron/steel, and steel/copper. Nokia has built on its previous designs, using an extruded 6000-series aluminum frame with a dual anodizing process that emulates the much-loved look of the Nokia 7.1 Plus. The notched display is a 6.18-inch LCD running a Full HD+ resolution and comes with PureDisplay HDR screen technology.
Specs and battery
Break it open (on second thought, don’t do that), and you’ll find Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 710 processor inside. This processor offers up to 20-percent higher performance than the previous Snapdragon 660, and promises a 35-percent improvement in graphic speeds. It comes with a multi-core A.I. Engine and A.I. optimization, and support for AR core applications and Bluetooth AptX for high-quality wireless sound. Nokia even claims the processor’s efficiency means the Nokia 8.1 will sport a two-day battery life. We’ll be sure to put that to the test.
Software and special features
Like most of Nokia’s recent phones, you’ll find Android One on the Nokia 8.1 This means you’ll get an amazingly clean interface that’s pure Android at its best. That should mean super-smooth, fast performance, and fast updates. You’ll also find Android 9.0 Pie on here, making the Nokia 8.1 one of the few phones to have adopted Google’s latest OS already. As per Google’s assurance, you’ll get three years of monthly security patches and two major OS updates for the Nokia 8.1 — so you’ll get Android Q and Android R.
Camera
It’s blessed with a decent set of Zeiss-tuned shooters. There’s a primary 12-megapixel lens with an industry-leading 1/2.55-inch super sensitive sensor with large 1.4-micron pixels. What does that mean? It should mean some exceptionally detailed pictures. You’ll also find optical image stabilization (OIS) and a wide aperture here. The secondary lens is a 13-megapixel one that allows for portrait-mode shots, and also offers Nokia’s celebrated Bothie feature. There’s also a massive 20-megapixel selfie lens around the front, and Nokia has promised excellent low-light performance.
Release date and price
The bad news is that there’s no sign the Nokia 8.1 will be released in the U.S. However, European readers will be able to pick up the Nokia 8.1 from mid-December, with prices starting from 400 euros.
Updated on January 25, 2019: The Nokia 8.1 arrived in the U.K.
