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Nokia's flagship phone lacks the luxury touch

It's packed full of powerful tech, but the flagship Nokia 8 doesn't have the lure of a truly premium phone.

Andrew Lanxon
Andrew is CNET's go-to guy for product coverage and lead photographer for Europe. When not testing the latest phones, he can normally be found with his camera in hand, behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food. Sometimes all at once.
Andrew Lanxon
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1 of 15 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

Nokia finally has a premium, flagship phone in the form of the Nokia 8. While it's packing a powerful processor and a funky dual camera setup, this Android Nougat phone doesn't have much else to get excited about.

The model we photographed here is the high-gloss blue version, which looks pretty special, but the phone is more commonly found in a standard matte finish, which looks almost identical to the Nokia 5 -- which costs hundreds less.

It's on sale now in the UK for £499. While there are no firm details on whether it'll hit the US or Australia, Nokia has said that it's keen to launch the phone in both regions. That UK price converts to $675 or AU$840, though we have seen it sold via a third party on Amazon.com for $699.

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The highly polished, all-metal body has a real luxury look. It's a shame that the matte model removes that premium aesthetic.

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3 of 15 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

There's a 5.3-inch display on the front with a 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution. It's pin-sharp and bright. 

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4 of 15 Andrew Hoyle/CNET

The glossy back gleams beautifully. Nokia says the phone is "splash-proof" but not properly waterproof. That means you'll need to keep it strictly away from the poolside, but sending a quick text in a light rain shower shouldn't be too bad.

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There are two camera lenses on the back. One of the cameras shoots in colour, the other only in black and white.

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Both cameras shoot video in 4K resolution and there are a variety of cool camera tricks to play around with.

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It charges over USB-C.

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With a top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, image editing is a breeze for this phone.

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It has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage as standard, which you can expand with microSD cards of up to 256GB in size.

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It runs Android Nougat, which Nokia has left pretty much untouched.

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You can take photos with both the front and back camera to combine them into a single, split-screen image, or you can livestream that split-screen view directly to YouTube or Facebook.

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That's definitely Android Nougat, not the new Oreo.

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The home button doubles as a fingerprint scanner, which works quickly and accurately.

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The glossy body is a fingerprint magnet.

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Keep a cleaning cloth handy if you want it to look its best.

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