Hands-on Nokia 8 review: First impressions

Performance

The Nokia 8 is powered by Snapdragon 835 - the chipset of choice for an Android flagship, assuming the maker does not produce its own chips. It has 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage and it's running pure Android 7.1.1, of course.

Android O is in "advanced stages of development", so this should be among the first phones to get it. We still let it compete in the benchmarks, more for variety than anything - while the Nokia 8 can go head to head with the top flagships, the 6 can't really.

But never mind that for now, we want to commend HMD on how cool the Nokia 8 runs. The heat pipe and graphite shield must be doing some work as we re-ran multiple benchmarks in quick succession and the phone didn't even feel warm. Seriously, we can't tell where the chipset is by feel (usually, it's obvious on phones with poor heat management).

In terms of benchmarks, there's not much to tell. Snapdragon 835 phones cluster together and the results are within the margin of error. Only the Exynos-powered Galaxy S8+ and the S821-based LG G6 break away slightly from the group.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 5
  180331
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  178674
• HTC U11
  177343
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  177326
• Nokia 8
  175872
• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  174070
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  168133
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  144223
• LG G6
  143639
• Huawei P10
  126629
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  47495

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 6
  4402
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  4363
• OnePlus 5
  4300
• Nokia 8
  4215
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  4127
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  4038
• HTC U11
  3877
• Huawei P10
  3393
• LG G6
  2291
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  978

HMD had stuck to the 400-series Snapdragons for its mid-range offerings, so the jump to the 835 chip feels like night and day. Not that we had any doubt the Nokia 8 will wipe the floor with the 6.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  6754
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  6719
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  6629
• OnePlus 5
  6604
• Nokia 8
  6568
• HTC U11
  6393
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  6301
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  5460
• LG G6
  4175
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  2841

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  1986
• OnePlus 5
  1932
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  1929
• Nokia 8
  1925
• HTC U11
  1919
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  1915
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  1836
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  1832
• LG G6
  1767
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  665

On the graphics side, the Adreno 540 has to push QHD graphics - that's 1,440 x 2,560px - but it was born to do it. And with no customizations to the UI, apps feel super snappy.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S8+
  43862
• Huawei P10
  39433
• OnePlus 5
  38844
• Motorola Moto Z2 Force
  38615
• Xiaomi Mi 6
  38541
• Sony Xperia XZ Premium
  38507
• HTC U11
  38399
• Nokia 8
  37593
• Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SD 835)
  34951
• LG G6
  30507
• Nokia 6 (Global version)
  7516