Nokia 8.1 Review

HMD Global has now announced Nokia 8.1 in Australia, officially. The latest and coolest addition to Nokia’s 8 Series is now available with immediate effects via Australia’s well-known online stores and a plethora of retailers including JB Hi-Fi.

Well, Nokia 8.1 neither a successor of Nokia 8 (2017) nor Nokia 8 Sirocco. However, it’s sitting in between Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 8 – equipped with latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 Chipset, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of onboard memory and gorgeously aligned 12MP + 13MP camera lenses outback and 20MP camera lens out front. Sporting 6.18-inches Full HD+ IPS LCD alongside a wide notch which can be hidden later on. Let’s find out more in our Nokia 8.1 Review below!

Nokia 8.1 Release Date

The handset released back in 2018 and is available worldwide now from an extensive range of different retailers. February 21st, 2019 was an official Nokia 8.1 Release Date in Australia and one can now get their hands on one through JB Hi-Fi and Officeworks.

Nokia 8.1 Price

As far as Nokia 8.1 Price in Australia is concerned, Aussies can grab one after spending AU$699. That makes it a mid-range smartphone in eye-catching price as compared to a lot of the competition. Chances are Nokia will be releasing a new range of devices at MWC 2019 in upcoming weeks including flagship-level Nokia 9 PureView.

Nokia 8.1 Specs

The Nokia 8.1 Specifications include IPS LCD 6.18-inches (1080 x 2280 Pixels), Android Pie 9.0 based on Android One, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, micro USB 2.0, rear-mounted Fingerprint scanner and five sensational colours to choose from. The Nokia 8.1 also includes:

• Operating System: Android Pie 9.0 Android One
• Display Size: 6.18-inches IPS LCD (1080 x 2280 Pixels)
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 710
• GPU: Adreno 616
• Cameras: 12MP + 13MP Rear and 20MP Front
• RAM & ROM: 4GB & 64GB of Onboard Memory
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and micro USB 2.0
• Battery: 3500mAh Non-removable
• Sensors: Rear-Mounted Fingerprint, Compass, Proximity, Gyro, and Accelerometer
• Colours: Blue, Steel, Iron, Silver, and Copper

Nokia 8.1 Design

The Nokia 8.1 has a stylish dual-tone design with an aluminum frame of 6,000 series and a glass sculpture. The chrome trim that we have already seen on Nokia 7 Plus enhances the aesthetics of the handset and makes a comfortable grip with the softened edges with optimum weight distribution. The Nokia 8.1 has a certain flair without the odd choice of design.

The sandwiches of glass and metal are amazing. Even if the smartphone has a feeling of durability, the glass back means that when placed on flat wood or glass tales, the phone is quite slippery. The Nokia 8.1 is absolutely gorgeous in the reddish-purple steel sound and looks as premium as any smartphone in the flagships.

Nokia 8.1 Display

With a 19:9 aspect ratio and 802 PPI, Nokia 8.1 houses a Full HD+ IPS based 6.18-inch edge-to-edge display. The 8.1 is packed in a bigger screen with a notch and the minimum bezels than even the Nokia 7 Plus.

It is a high-density HDR10 – conforming display, known as a pure display, with 1500:1 contrast. It’s a crisp and bright display offering vivid colours and excellent levels of contrast. There are great viewing angles as well. It’s a pretty fucking good LCD panel, but it doesn’t fit into AMOLED display colour saturation.

The Nokia 8.1 offers great outdoor legibility in the sun, as bright as 500 nits, and the new Android 9 pie adaptive gleaming feature automatically changes your configurations to your preferences for screen light.

Nokia 8.1 Performance

A new Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 Chipset works as a brain of Nokia 8.1 along with a 4GB RAM. The older Snapdragon 635 was used by its predecessor. Not surprisingly, Nokia 8.1 outshines its predecessor in a Geekbench 4 multi-score test – scoring 5838 to Nokia 7.1’s 4551 points. The Honor 10 is worth noting for the same amount of money that all of them have a score of 6514. However, such synthetic test scores, like Nokia 7.1, really do not reflect what the Nokia 8.1 is like every day.

Basic measures such as bringing a keyboard can make the phone stutter, which makes the user experience jarring and frustrating. It may be a delay when swiping apps, which may let you think for a while that an app crashed entirely, only for a split second to return to life afterward.

According to some online sources, a gaming performance of Nokia 8.1 is a good surprise in view of its regular use shortcomings. There were no problems running ARK: medium graphics survival and maximum resolution, smooth frame rates were displayed.

Nokia 8.1 Camera

Nokia 8.1 comes with a 12MP main camera sensor with an aperture of f/1.8 – partnered with 13MP depth sensor with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). This gorgeous combination of sensors leads to better images in low-light condition.

The handset captures some pretty awesome shots with impressive colour saturation and good detail. In low-light, on the other hand, captures bright and coloured images as well without much noise. The portrait shots are also great and edge-detection is good as well.

Out front, it’s sporting a solid 20MP adaptive selfie camera with an aperture of f/2.0 and pixel binning technology that helps you capture better images in low-lights.

Nokia 8.1 Battery and Internals

Nokia 8.1 is available with 64GB of onboard memory that can be expanded further up to 400GB using a microSD card. Nokia has also shared 6GB of RAM with 128GB of onboard memory variant which will be available outside Australia.

A 3500mAh non-removable battery is being supported with 18W fast charging and thanks to it’s Stock Android, new Chipset along with battery optimization, one can easily go through an entire day of battery life with a heavy usage without running out of battery. And for moderate users, it could even last for two days with ease.