HMD Global announced the Nokia 8.1 in Dubai last week and the company is now all set to bring the new affordable premium smartphone to India. The company is scheduled to hold an event in the country later today to announce a new Nokia smartphone and it is largely expected to be the Nokia 8.1. The phone will replace the Nokia 7 Plus in the country as it highlights a premium design, PureDisplay screen and a new Snapdragon 710 chipset.

The Nokia 8.1 has an Average Retail Price of 399 euros (approx Rs 31,900). In India, however, we expect HMD to launch the device at a more aggressive pricing to take on the competition. The Nokia 8.1 price in India is expected to fall somewhere in between Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000. To recall, the Nokia 7 Plus was launched in India at Rs 25,999.

Nokia 8.1 specifications

The Nokia 8.1 is a dual-SIM smartphone that offers a premium all-glass design. Much like the Nokia 5.1 Plus, the Nokia 8.1 also offers a wide notch and a chin. The front and back of the device gets a glass protection. The phone’s frame is a Series 6000 aluminium with dual-tone diamond cut edges. The Nokia 8.1 is expected to be offered in three colours – Blue/Silver, Steel/Copper, Iron/Steel.

The Nokia 8.1 sports a 6.18-inch display with a FHD+ (2246×1080) resolution and 18.7:9 aspect ratio. It also gets the PureDisplay screen technology that was first introduced with the Nokia 7.1. PureDisplay essentially means to offer higher contrast (1:1500) and a sharper display along with HDR10 support. The LCD panel also offers brightness up to 500 nits.

Powering the Nokia 8.1 is a 2.2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 710 chipset coupled with 4GB of RAM. It is offered with 64GB of inbuilt storage with support for storage expandability up to 400GB via microSD card. As of now, we are not sure if HMD will offer another storage and memory variant of the Nokia 8.1. The Nokia 8.1 packs a 3,500mAh battery with 18W fast charging support and a promise of two-day battery life. The Nokia 8.1 is an Android One device much like every other Nokia phone this year and this one ships with Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box.

The Nokia 8.1 get Zeiss-powered cameras. The rear camera system includes a 12MP + 13MP configuration. The primary sensor gets a 1.4 micron pixel, OIS, EIS and 2PD support. The secondary sensor will offer depth sensing. It also comes with a 20MP front-facing camera. The Nokia 8.1 supports connectivity options like Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/ AGPS + GLONASS. The handset measures 154.8×75.76×7.97mm and weighs 178 grams.