HMD Global, the Finnish telecom company that re-purchased Nokia brand rights from Microsoft in 2016, has announced a slew of new phone launches today. The highlight of them all, is the company’s first 5G Phone, the Nokia 8.3 5G. Besides, a slew of other affordable handsets were announced, including Nokia 5.3, Nokia 1.3, and Nokia 5310 feature phone.
Even though Apple is still due to launch a 5G iPhone, most large Android makers have launched their 5G devices. HMD has been a little late to that bus. But the company says, that waiting has meant, that their Nokia 8.3 device is now compatible with more 5G bands than competitors. HMD went on as far as calling it the “first truly global 5G smartphone”.
In terms of specifications, there really isn’t much to differentiate from other similar Androids in this price range. The Nokia 8.3 5G features a 6.81-inch display that HMD says is able to adjust itself to your ambient lighting conditions, and it can also upscale SDR footage to HDR. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 765G and has a 4,500mAh battery. The phone has a built-in fingerprint sensor which is thankfully not an on-screen one. The sensor sits meticulously inside the power button, which just makes so much more sense!
Once again, just like most competitors, it is the camera that HMD focused most on. When it comes to rear camera setup, the phone has a quad-camera array. This combination consists of a main 64-megapixel sensor, accompanied by a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. On the front, the phone carries a single-lens 24-megapixel selfie camera.
HMD stressed quite a lot on the video shooting capabilities of this device. And it does sound impressive, at lease for now on paper. With the option of shooting in 4K, the ultrawide camera will also be able to film in 21:9. Additionally, to give a more cinematic feel to your videos, HMD says the phone will have algorithms to fake the look of a cinematic anamorphic lens with effects like lens flare.
The phone will also be able to shoot video in log format, which is the video equivalent of shooting RAW photos. This will hold significance for those who are looking to use the 8.3 5g as a primary video capturing device, with post-editing features. Log format will let editors customise the videos in great detail. For those who are simply casual video shooters, you can go ahead with some pre-installed color filtering options.
The Nokia 8.3 5G will retail for €599 (around $650 / ₹47,999) for the model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, or €649 (around $695 / ₹51,999) for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The phone is only available in polar night color. In India, the pricing will depend on the phone’s manufacturing, since government policies now provide significant discount on duties to locally built phones. HMD says the phone is expected to be available this summer.
