It’s getting very difficult to keep track of the names Nokia decides to give its phones — mostly numbers. With closely related and decimal point name variants, you’d think the world has run out of anything else to name a gadget. The Nokia 8.1 was called the X7 in China but is 8.1 here in India though the 8.1 won’t give you much of a clue as to what the phone is about.

A look at the device, however, will. It’s a glass and metal-framed smartphone, which isn’t unusual, of course, but it’s elegantly built and classy looking. The variant I saw was a dark wine or burgundy that is very subtle and interesting. The back looks really nice with the Nokia logo, strangely in landscape, and the camera in top centre with a round fingerprint sensor under it. There’s nothing else but the tiny Android One logo underneath. It has a very clean and crafted look. The glass back doesn’t take on finger smudges as badly as others I’ve seen, but you’ll have to use a case anyway.

The sides of the smartphone have a burgundy frame that goes into steel that looks particularly nice and hi-tech on this flat phone. There are a couple of other sedate colours, but the burgundy looks nice and unusual, making for a change.

If there’s one problem with the design of this phone, it’s that the camera sticks out rather a lot. But what’s in there is what Nokia is most proud of — Zeiss optics. But Nokia is also proud of its 6.1-inch display and they call it PureDisplay on account of its ability to support HDR 10 content. It has a wide dynamic range, colour accuracy and the ability to switch to high resolution when called for.

The display has a notch — a wide one at that. I don’t know how and when the workaround that was the notch on the iPhone X went on to become a coveted feature on Android phones.

I refuse to agree that it looks nice in any way, especially when it takes up most of the space where there was once a bezel. Other than that, the Nokia 8.1 looks fine on the inside as well, with a merciful absence of bloatware typical of Chinese companies.

It’s based on Android One running on Android 9 Pie with none of the heavy customisation others use. Perhaps this contributes to the fact that it works smoothly enough on the Snapdragon 710, a new processor, and although not as snappy and smooth as some of the top-tier phones, does very well for itself indeed.

The 710 is meant to bring things like tough camera tasks, artificial intelligence and even high-end gaming and augmented reality to mid-range phones. Incredibly, the Nokia 8.1 only has a 4 GB RAM with 64 GB storage (with a microSD card slot), which is a configuration that way cheaper budget phones have shot past now.

The phone has a 3,500 mAh battery, which performs averagely and gets you through the day on moderate reasonable usage. Over time, the AI on the phone is supposed to get the battery to adjust to your usage and give better life.

The main camera on this phone is a dual camera set with a 13 MP primary IMX363 sensor with f/1.8 aperture and 1.4 micron pixels, and a 12 MP secondary sensor. The cameras support both optical and electronic image stabilisation. The camera app is simple enough but tends to lag sometimes after taking a photo. One also has to become accustomed to the way the cameras handle shots. One invariably gets good detail, even in low light. You can take the photo of a close object with lots of small text on it and you’ll find it can still be read even with dimming light.

Get into proper night shots however and the cameras don’t stand up to the promise of delivering stellar images in darker conditions, especially with anything at a distance. Outdoors in daylight, photos are nice and vivid but brighter lights and colours can get blown out.

Selfies from the 20 MP front camera can also get blown out or overexposed if the light is too direct on the face. Videos come out smooth, thanks to the stabilisation.

With the OnePlus 6T creeping into the premium segment with its prices, the Nokia 8.1 doesn’t quite have as much competition as it could have had they kept their prices down. But a bunch of lower-priced phones, especially the Poco F1 and the Zenfone 5Z offer tremendously higher specs and amazing performance with cameras that more than match up.

Price: ₹26,999

Pros: Great build, flagship look and feel, clean software experience on Android 9, smooth performance, Zeiss optics on camera, OIS present

Cons: Only 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage, notch far too wide, images often blown out in brighter light

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