The much awaited Mobile World Congress 2018 is already over and in the coming month we will see the various phones from different brands flooding in the several markets. One such brand ready to take a big step is Nokia. The company has unveiled the curtains off from the Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 7 Pus in the big event. Talking about the optical quality, dual camera setup being one of the major highlights of both the smartphones, here’s a detailed review about these fully loaded “camera phones” after putting them to the test.
We’ll begin with Nokia 8 Sirocco which is the company’s latest flagship smartphone. The phone boasts a bold new sleek design, better RAM and internal storage, dual camera setup and impressive hardware specs. The impressive dual camera setup is the hot show-something which was missed in Nokia 8.
The Nokia 8 Sirocco incorporates a better dual camera setup: 12-megapixel standard sensor of aperture f/1.7 with optical image stabilization (OIS) support, and a 12-megapixel sensor with a telephoto lens and f/2.6 aperture in comparison to Nokia 8 twin 13-megapixel sensors (monochrome and RGB) of aperture f/2.0. The exclusively added telephoto lens brings 2X lossless optical zoom feature, along with the ability to add DSLR-like bokeh effects to your photos- a pure delight for shutterbugs!
Here’s a glimpse of few shots clicked by this smartphone in outdoor conditions where the weather was cloudy, windy and a little bit snowy! The first picture captured is a standard shot whereas the other one is clicked using a 2X optical lossless zoom.
As you can see the images are crisp and a proper blend of colors, contrast and other contributing factors.
The photos are slightly better and brighter thanks to auto-white balance. The details can be seen properly even after 2X optical zoom. So overall it’s a good cam for outdoor photography. While trying our hands on the portrait mode, it offers decent background blur and able to capture a good photo with enough light but at times the color gets slightly softer.
Now coming to the front shooter, the phone offers a 5-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calling. It comes with f/2.0 aperture lens and supports 1080p video recording.The phone is incorporated with 5-MP front shooter which can actually capture some decent clicks but at times the picture looks slightly overexposed. So that was a bit depressing as this is the company’s much-talked flagship smartphone.
Nokia 7 Plus
Now next we have on the platter is Nokia 7 plus. It is a comparatively affordable phone as compared to Nokia 8 Sirocco. The HMD Global has made sure that this phone also comes with same camera configuration as the company’s flagship smartphone Nokia 8 S. The only difference between the optical quality of both the phones is the lack of optical image stabilization in the primary lens of Nokia 7 Plus. The good part is this phone too comes with Zeiss optical setup.
Talking about the rear camera setup, the photo quality, and color accuracy is appreciated. There is nothing much to complain about rather “it is a perfect camera at this price segment”.
Here’s a sample of the 2X lossless zoom click and you can note that the details are clearly visible in the photograph. Just look at the words written on the car’s door which can be read easily. Even the smaller details like reflection and mild snow are visible-so that’s impressive!
The rear camera also comes with a portrait mode and as noticed in few pictures clicked during initial trials the standard photos look a little overexposed with colors getting a bit washed out. While using the portrait mode, the photos come out to be slightly better with softer colors than the standard clicks. The background blur is decent and works pretty well too.
Coming to the front shooter, the phone comes with a 16-Mp sensor with an aperture of f/2.0 and Carl Zeiss Optics on board.The other feature is: it supports portrait mode for the front camera too which was missing in Nokia 8 Sirocco. The front shooter was able to capture some good photographs with close to accurate skin tones and colors- thus a perfect selfie click!
The portrait mode works well for the front camera too and is able to do some great job around the edges. The background of the pictures is adequately blurred keeping the major subject in apt focus.
On a final note, the HMD Global’s Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 7 plus is far better than the predecessors in looks and camera performance. I hope the company will make more refinements to the software and improve camera algorithms before the final launch in the global markets. The company has made sure that both the phones feature a good design and hardware onboard-smartphones that consumers have been looking for!