HMD Global unveiled the flagship Nokia 8 smartphone, which it claims delivers no fewer than three world firsts to Android devices in terms of imaging and sound quality.
The vendor named a collaboration with imaging company Carl Zeiss as the first major innovation for Android devices. The second, related, feature is the simultaneous use of the smartphone’s front and rear cameras in “a split screen visual for both photos and videos.”
HMD Global coined the term “bothie” to describe the feature – referring to the use of both cameras as compared to the single camera used in selfies.
— Nokia Mobile (@nokiamobile) August 16, 2017
Users can live stream the bothie natively and in real-time to social feeds including Facebook and YouTube.
While Samsung and LG have used double-camera modes on flagship phones before, the live streaming element of the Nokia 8 is new.
HMD Global’s chief product officer, Juho Sarvikas, said: “People are inspired by the content they consume and are looking for new ways to create their own.”
The front and the rear-facing cameras on the Nokia 8 feature Zeiss optics after HMD Global in early July renewed a long-standing relationship between the Nokia brand and Carl Zeiss.
HMD Global said the third innovative feature on Nokia 8 is the use of OZO Audio, which involves the use of three microphones “with exclusive Nokia acoustic algorithms to capture audio with immersive 360-degree spatial surround sound.”
Availability
The device features a seamless aluminium unibody and runs Qualcomm’s SnapdragonTM 835 Mobile Platform. It will be available in polished blue, polished copper, tempered blue and steel for a global average retail price of €599, and will be rolled out during September.
The new phone will face competition from two hotly anticipated devices: the latest iPhone, which is expected to launch in September; and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, set to hit the market next week.
Nokia 8 is the most high-end phone so far from HMD Global, which was set up in 2016 and revived Nokia’s classic 3310 feature handset earlier this year.
In July, Arto Nummela, CEO of HMD Global, stood down “with immediate effect” and “through mutual agreement”.
