Nokia under the new owner HMD Global keeps pushing out new phones. The latest 5.3-inch flagship phone Nokia 8 will launch in Europe on the 18th of August based on a launch event invitation in London sent out by the Finnish firm. We were expecting Nokia 9 to be next in-line for the ambitious licensee of the Nokia brand. HMD Global, therefore, took the market and many analysts by surprise when it announced that the 8-series is next in line.

HMD Global has already released three models this year: the budget phone Nokia 3 that retails for about $250 in NZ, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6. In addition, we have previously written about the retro-phone that includes the classic Snake game.

The well-known tech leakster Evan Blass has already published images of Nokia 8 including specs. The phone features dual rear cameras with Carl Zeiss lenses and 13 MP resolution.

Specs

The device runs the latest Snapdragon 835 processor. There are either 4GB or 6 GB of RAM memory available.

The operating system is Android Nougat v7.1.

Pricing & availability

A European retailer already lists Nokia 8 at €589. This price corresponds to about NZ$945, which clearly positions it at the upper range of the market together with rivals such as Oneplus 5. There might be some challenges in promoting high-end and budget phone models at the same time, so it will be interesting to observe how HMD Global manages this marketing and positioning issue during the launch.

The phone is available in four colours: blue, gold blue, gold copper and steel.26