Nokia 8 Sirocco hands-on: Android One goes sexy and expensive

The most expensive Android One phone yet, and a darn good looking one at that.

Nokia is riding a solid hype machine with tens of millions of phones sold in 2017 and a resurgence of affinity for the brand name. But it’s all been on the back of very affordable phones, ranging from $200-400 where it’s all about value and not necessarily getting a combination of the best possible specs, design and materials.

The Nokia 8 Sirocco, announced at MWC 2018, changes all of that. It’s a €749 phone, which takes aim at some of the best-selling phones from the biggest companies out there. Consequently, it launched just an hour before Samsung’s new Galaxy S9, which is almost the exact same price — now that’s stiff competition.

When I pick up the Nokia 8 Sirocco, I immediately get flashbacks of the Galaxy S6 edge and S6 edge+. It’s extremely thin, and with curved glass on both sides the edges come down to an even finer point. It also has a 16:9 aspect ratio display, so it’s rather wide feeling in this ocean of 18:9 phones. So just like the Galaxy S6 edge+, it’s honestly a bit awkward to get your hand around it. Nokia wore the fact that the Sirocco is 95% glass on the outside as a badge of pride, but it means you basically have nothing of substance to get your hands on. And as an added consequence, the volume and power buttons on the right side are quite shallow and tough to find and press without looking — all in the name of style, I suppose.

Nokia’s designers were clearly given freedom, and used it well.

The phone built every bit as well as I’d expect for €749. The stainless steel body gives the phone a solid, consistent feel throughout and the glass is perfectly sculpted. Using what I’m sure are not full-production devices here at MWC 2018, everything was tight and well manufactured. No matter what angle or distance you’re at, the thing is just gorgeous. Nokia’s designers were clearly given the liberty to try new things, and took it.

Having not used the phone for long I can’t say for sure, but I’m worried that the pOLED display can live up to the same scrutiny we apply to other phones of this price range — particularly ones with curved sides that show off OLED flaws with colors and viewing angles. Looking at the phone straight on you see a pretty significant color shift on the sides where the curves are tightest. I wonder how great the display is overall compared to the Nokia 7 Plus, for example, which has a traditional IPS LCD that looks great.

Android One pairs well with this level of hardware — and I think it’s a differentiator.

Having an Android One software experience is a huge benefit of this phone from my perspective. The other Android One phones I’ve used to this point have been great, and I’m sure the software absolutely flies when paired with a Snapdragon 835 and 6GB of RAM. And speaking of specs, Nokia goes pretty well all-out here with lots of extras that are great to see: 128GB of storage, 3260mAh battery, Quick Charge 4.0, Qi wireless charging and IP67 water resistance. There’s a pair of Zeiss-branded cameras on the back, with a 12MP 1.4-micron sensor and f/1.75 lens as the primary and a 13MP 1-micron sensor with f/2.6 telephoto lens as the secondary — I’ll reserve judgement there until I’ve used the phone longer, but that’s one area where Nokia has to absolutely nail it if it wants to charge this much for a phone.

And that’s the really big question. Nokia’s rebirth under HMD Global has been a success, but it’s all been at lower price-point phones that can get by with having a few issues on account of their overall great value. When you’re charging the same amount for the Nokia 8 Sirocco as the latest Galaxy S9, you’re playing a dangerous game — one that other companies have lost in the past few years. But I sure do welcome Nokia’s attempt, and the 8 Sirocco is a wonderful phone.

This case turns your iPhone into a modular device

The modular phone trend hasn’t taken off as fast as companies like Motorola would have hoped, what with devices like the Moto Z and Moto Z Force not exactly being a hit. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t others trying to mimic that style, even if they aren’t doing it with their own phone. Here’s where Bay Area-based startup Vibes Modular comes in, as it has built a smartphone case that turns your non-modular iPhone or Android device into one that is. So far, the company has a made a Bluetooth speaker and an external charger that attaches to its cases (compatible with 30 different phones), and in the future it plans to roll out a small projector and a drone.

The speaker module itself is waterproof, has a microphone for conference calls and lasts up to 12 hours. Being waterproof is neat because that means you can remove it from the case and take it into the shower to listen to some tunes or make a call, if you’re into that sort of thing. As for the charger attachment, Vibes Modular says it can charge most iPhones and Android smartphones “up to three times,” and it also comes with a micro USB port that lets you charge a second device.

You can get the Vibes Modular case for $40 in black or white colors, with the speaker and charger modules priced at $100 and $200, respectively. If you decide to buy into the startup’s ecosystem, it says the projector and drone should be coming later this year.

Catch up on the latest news from MWC 2018 right here.

Watch Nokia’s MWC 2018 event in under 10 minutes

It’s good times for Nokia. Or rather HMD Global, the Finnish company that now owns the beloved Nokia brand. After a successful holiday season the phone maker has marched into Mobile World Congress with a bevy of new devices in tow. The Nokia 8 Sirocco is a stylish-looking Android flagship, while the Nokia 8110 Reloaded is a throwback to the classic 90s slider. For the average consumer there’s also the entry-level Nokia 1, mid-range Nokia 6 and 6-inch Nokia 7 Plus. For a full rundown of the company’s announcements, check out our 10-minute press conference supercut.

Catch up on the latest news from MWC 2018 right here.

Galaxy S9 US pre-orders focus on trade-in deals

Now that Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9+ are official, American carriers are tripping over themselves to offer launch details ahead of March 2nd pre-orders… and trade-in deals are a common theme this time around. T-Mobile, for instance, is promising $360 off the price of the S9 or S9+ if you turn in an eligible phone (typically a high-end Apple, LG or Samsung phone from the past couple of years). Verizon, meanwhile, is offering between $100 to $350 in credit if you hand in a qualifying phone from Apple, Google, HTC, LG, Motorola or Samsung. Comcast’s relatively new Xfinity Mobile is getting in on the action as well, with promises of at least $200 and as much as $450.

There are other promos, as you might expect. Verizon is offering $100 off a Gear S3 smartwatch if you activate it on a 2-year plan, and promises a $150 prepaid card if you’re switching networks. Xfinity Mobile, in turn, is offering a $250 prepaid card to anyone who buys a Samsung phone and opens a new line between now and March 22nd.

Regardless of who you choose, it’s obvious why providers are encouraging trade-ins — as with the S8, the S9 isn’t cheap. AT&T is offering the S9 and S9+ for a respective $26.34 per month and $30.50 per month on a 30-month Next plan, which works out to $790 and $915. Verizon is pitching the duo on 24-month plans, with the S9 going for $33.33 per month ($800 outright) and its S9+ sibling going for $38.74 per month ($930). Sprint is promising very similar deals at $33 and $38 per month ($792 and $912) with two years of payments. T-Mobile may offer the sweetest deal of the major carriers so far. You can buy the S9 for $30 per month on a 24-month installment plan ($720 outright), and the S9+ for a similar monthly rate if you pay $120 up front ($840 full price).

Xfinity Mobile hasn’t outlined its prices as of this writing.

These aren’t the best bargains we’ve ever seen (there are no buy one get one offers, for example). Moreso than we’ve seen in some years, this is about encouraging loyalty in a market with stiff competition. They want you to either upgrade or make a firm commitment to dropping your existing carrier, and they’re willing to spend a lot to make that happen.

Source: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint

Netflix lands sci-fi movie from ‘Planet of the Apes’ director

Netflix’s sci-fi adaptations are about to expand beyond the likes of Altered Carbon and Lost in Space. Deadline has learned that Netflix has secured the rights to Life Sentence, a movie take on a Matthew Baker short story about a future where authorities wipe the memories of criminals instead of sending them to prison. Matt Reeves, the director of the two most recent Planet of the Apes movies, is producing the title. It’s not known when the movie would premiere, but apparently that’s not the big story — there was reportedly a fierce bidding war.

Reeves apparently had to contend with offers from conventional studios like Fox, Universal and Warner as well as Amazon and newcomer Apple. The choice came down to the format, according to sources. Apple and its production partner Gaumont would have made Life Sentence as a TV series, but Reeves preferred the movie format and thus headed to Netflix.

The battle underscores just how much the video entertainment industry has changed in recent years, or even months. Where streaming services previously had to make do with studio leftovers (and are still happy to go that route), they’re now fighting with and sometimes prevailing over traditional companies. It’s not hard to understand why. Streaming reduces the pressure to dilute a project and target the widest audience possible, since producers aren’t competing for limited theater space or fretting over opening weekend box office numbers. Netflix and its peers only care about overall viewership and how it grows the subscriber base — they can take chances on relatively niche productions knowing that there will probably be enough of an audience to justify the cost.

Via: io9

Source: Deadline

Samsung Unveils Galaxy S9 Series Smartphones With Dual Lens Variable Aperture Camera and AR Emoji

Samsung on Sunday unveiled its latest Galaxy S9 and S9+ flagship smartphones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, showcasing the handset’s new dual-lens camera, stereo speakers, and AR-powered emoji. The new smartphones take the same general design as the Galaxy S8 devices, with slightly slimmer bezels on the top and bottom.

The headline feature of the S9 and S9+ is a 12-megapixel dual lens camera, boasting the first variable aperture system built into a smartphone, which promises better results in low light conditions and hardware-based shallow depth of field effects. Samsung’s new photography computation also shoots 12 photos in three groups of four and then combines them at the pixel level to eliminate noise and boost detail.

The S9 features variable dual lens 12-megapixel cameras with dual optical image stabilization, while the S9+ features a variable aperture lens paired with a second 12-megapixel lens with a fixed aperture. The S9 Plus also includes a new slow-motion mode that can shoot at 960 frames per second, which can turn a 2-millisecond recording into six seconds of video. For comparison’s sake, Apple’s iPhone X shoots at a maximum of 240 frames per second.

In U.S. models, the S9 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, but in other regions, including Europe, the smartphone is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos chip. Samsung has combined the face and iris recognition features into a new system called Intelligent Scan, which uses the best biometric sensor for the given situation. The fingerprint scanner on the back now sits below the camera module rather than alongside it. Like the S8 devices, the displays on the 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch models are Quad HD+ and Super AMOLED, respectively. Also, there’s a headphone jack.

The inevitable comparison of Samsung’s new AR-based emoji will be Animoji on iPhone X, which map users’ facial expressions onto cartoon facades using Apple’s TrueDepth camera technology. However the Galaxy S9 diverges here by creating 3D personalized characters more akin to Bitmoji or Nintendo Mii avatars, which can then be shared as GIFs.

The S9 comes with 4GB of RAM while the S9+ has 6GB of memory. Both versions come with a base 64GB storage (user expandable up to 400GB via the Micro SD slot). In the U.S., the S9 starts at $720, with the S9+ costing $840. Pre-orders for both models begin on March 2 and the phones start shipping on March 16.

Tags: Samsung, Galaxy S9
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