Why Nokia 8 Sirocco could spoil Samsung Galaxy S9's party
The calendar's biggest trade show for smartphones and more, the Mobile World Congress 2018 is underway, and we have already seen a number of big name devices being announced to global audiences. Sony has been in the thick of things after announcing the Xperia XZ2, while Vivo vowed the audience with its Apex concept phone that has a "half-screen" fingerprint scanner and a retracting selfie camera.
Despite this, the biggest announcements so far remain the unveiling of the Nokia 8 Sirocco and Samsung's flagship offering for 2018, the Galaxy S9. The two phones have been the talk of the town all through the week, and for good reason.
While Sirocco is the flagship of a five device line-up by Nokia launched with the aim of gaining control over the market, the Galaxy S9 represents a device that carries on its shoulders the weight of expectations of the current market leader of the smartphone market.
Both devices are very similar, yet differ greatly when it comes to paper specs and overall experience they offer. Let's compare them and understand what each brings to the table.
Design and display
In terms of design, let's start off by stating that both the phones are solid and attractive options and tick pretty much all the right boxes. While the Galaxy S9 comes with the same design seen on the Galaxy S8 line-up, it's the Nokia 8 Sirocco that tries to do something new by adopting a refreshed design involving curved glass melting into the phone's steel body from all sides.
The S9 sees a minor change in design at the back with the fingerprint scanner now moving to just below the camera sensor instead of being on the left of it. Samsung claims it has also reduced the top and bottom bezel slightly to make the phone more edge to edge.
On the front, the two device sports the same display that was found on last year's phone. Like the Galaxy S8, the Galaxy S9 has a 5.8-inch AMOLED display and an 18:9 aspect ratio.
Unlike the S9, the Nokia 8 Sirocco is not an incremental upgrade on its predecessor. The device brings with it not only a new design, but a bigger and better display. On the front, there is a 5.5-inch Quad HD pOLED curved display that looks absolutely beautiful and a lot more premium than last year's Nokia 8. Adding to the premium feel of the phone is the lack of a physical button on the front.
The curved display flows seamlessly into the steel frame of the phone which again merges a glass sheet at the back which houses cutouts for the phone's dual camera set-up and fingerprint scanner.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco, no doubt, is the most good looking phone that the company has designed under HMD Global, but owing to its over 95 per cent glass body, the phone could also prove to be the most fragile device they have created yet.
Under the hood
For a flagship device, what lies under the hood is as important as the smartphone's outward appearance. This is especially true for these two phones.
In terms of paper specs, Samsung's Galaxy S9 takes a slight lead over Nokia's offering as it brings to the table the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC - the Indian variant of the phone will be powered by the Samsung Exynos 9810 SoC. The phone will be available with 64GB/128GB and 256GB storage variants with support for up to 400GB microSD cards. All three storage variants will come with 4GB RAM. There's also a 3,000mAh battery pack which keeps the lights going on.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco, on the other hand, comes with last year's Qualcomm SoC - Snapdragon 835. The SoC though still good enough to get you through most tasks you throw at it, is not as great as the one on Samsung, and as such could turn out to be a big negative for Sirocco.
Apart from the SoC, the phone brings with it 128GB of storage data and 6GB of RAM. The battery pack on the device is also bigger - 3,260mAh than that on the Galaxy S9.
Camera
During the unveilings, both smartphone makers focused heavily on the camera modules on the two phones. The S9 gets an improved 12-Megapixel Dual-aperture camera that Samsung is touting to among the better cameras available in the market.
According to The Verge, the camera sensor can switch between "a very bright f/1.5 to a smaller f/2.4 depending on exposure conditions. The bright aperture lets in 28 percent more light than the S8’s f/1.7 lens, and the f/2.4 aperture is said to help prevent overexposure in bright scenes, such as a sunny outdoor day".
The S9’s camera also includes second-generation dual-pixel autofocus tech for faster and more reliable focusing, improved multi-frame noise reduction for a claimed 30 per cent better low-light performance, and the ability to record slow-motion video at up to 960 frames per second (at 720p resolution).
The Nokia 8 on the other hand also features an improved camera set-up with the device now sporting a 12-megapixel +13-megapixel dual camera set-up at the rear with 2X optical zoom and the ability to shoot images with depth of field effects. However, the Nokia 8 does lose out when it comes to the front camera set-up as it only brings a 5-megapixel camera as opposed to the 8-megapixel one on the S9.
Key features
Both the devices come with a number of key features. The Galaxy S9 comes with nifty tricks up its sleeve such as wireless-charging and Samsung’s AR emoji, which converts facial expressions into humanoid cartoons that can blink, look around, and smile. These AR emojis can also be sent to other users during text conversations.
Apart from this, the phone also comes with updates to Samsung's Bixby which can now use the phone's camera to offer live translation features, the ability to recognise the buildings and other places in a frame. The feature, however, will be available only to a select regions for now.
Words can't say what your face can. Tell volumes of your own stories with a camera that turns you into an emoji. #GalaxyS9. Learn more. https://t.co/1HCinmcKeR pic.twitter.com/vCBEXj2koq
— Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) February 25, 2018
There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack along with the a USB-C port on the phone, unlike the Nokia 8, which only features a USB-C port for music and charging needs. However, the lack of a 3.5mm port may not be missed on the Nokia 8 so much as it also brings with it wireless-charging capabilities.
Nokia's also included its "Bothie camera" on the Sirocco.
Why Nokia 8 Sirocco could spoil Galaxy S9's party
The more affordable phone from the Galaxy S9 line-up is being expected to sport a price tag that's in excess of Rs 60,000. According to an India Today Tech report, Galaxy S9 will start at Rs 62,500 for the base 64GB storage version going all the way to Rs 71,000 for the top-end 256GB storage version. Reports also suggest that the Galaxy S9 along with the S9+ could be launched in India as early as March 6, and will start shipping to buyers starting March 16. It is interesting to note that this will be the fastest that a Galaxy device has been introduced in the Indian market.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco, on the other hand, could come at a far affordable price than that of the Galaxy S9. While the Nokia 8 was announced for 649 euro price, the Nokia 8 Sirocco gets a 100 euro bump on that.
This could also see the Indian pricing of the phone being hiked and the phone crossing the Rs 45,000-mark.
This price would thus see it crossing the mid-segment flagship price point, but would still leave it looking favourable in front of the Galaxy S9 which brings similar specs and a similar design to that of the Nokia 8 Sirocco. Plus add to that the fact that Sirocco is an Android One device running a pure build of the OS and is promised to get future updates before the Samsung S9.
Overall, the Nokia 8 Sirocco with its features and specs is more than a worthy match for the Galaxy S9, but its price tag which is expected to be more affordable than the S9 could see it spoiling the Galaxy S9's party.