Video: The truth about Nokia 8 Sirocco

As it was speculated in the comment sections of various articles (and by us also), Nokia 8 Sirocco seems to really be a flagship planned for 2017 release. Yesterday, on 12th March, EUIPO registered and full published the design patent under the design number 003833573-0001 representing the device we now know as Nokia 8 Sirocco.

From the sketches, one can clearly see the super thin sides, the edge display, the dual-lens camera on the back and other details from Sirocco, like no headphone jack. The designer of the device is HMD’s Head of Design Raun Forsyth, according to EUIPO.

Nokia 8 Sirocco design patent sketches

The thing that kind of confirms the speculation about Nokia 8 Sirocco being 2017’s Nokia 9, even though we will never get an official story about that, is the filing date. The design patent for Nokia 8 Sirocco was filed on 31st March 2017 or almost a year from the date the device was actually announced. Just comparing the time with Nokia 8110 4G, that was announced in February and protection for design was submitted in October, it is clear that something happened that caused the delay of the 8 Sirocco or 9 (2017).

If we go back to 2017, we can remember that the first devices HMD announced in Q1 2017 were the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 scheduled for release in Q2 2017. A little after MWC, a rumor was floating around about HMD announcing two or one higher end model in June, and later in September at IFA2017. Considering that HMD didn’t manage to ship the 3, 5 and 6 globally (“on day one in all markets” – as ex-CEO Nummela said) during Q2, but instead that time frame extended to late Q3, even Q4 in some countries – the devices in pipeline were probably suffering the same delay.

Nokia 9/8Sirocco housing from October 20th 2017

The Nokia 8 was announced in August 2017, 2 months after the first rumors (and also the date on the render) suggested and at a time when the 3, 5 and 6 were available in a considerable number of markets, and the 8 was launched in a matter of weeks on key markets. The Nokia 8 design was filed for protection to EUIPO on 2nd February 2017, which means that both, the Sirocco and the regular 8 were devices HMD intended to announce from the early start of operation. We don’t know if just the delay of the 3, 5, 6 caused a chain reaction that postponed everything or maybe there were technical issues in manufacturing the Sirocco’s attractive body. If you remember, the first image from Foxconn factories leaked in October, when we saw the Sirocco’s backside, but in a blueish color that looks different from Sirocco’s announced black color (and the position of ZEISS logo is obviously different).

Anyway, I am glad HMD announced this design masterpiece, with all the problems they possibly had manufacturing it, and I think they made a good decision to brand it as an 8 Sirocco, instead of going with Nokia 9, which should suggest being a class better from the Nokia 8, and we know that’s not true. It’s a shame the 8 Sirocco lacks some features like OIS, but it still will attract customers looking for attractive devices and it surely will promote HMD’s industrial design capabilities.

While we were in Vienna at HMD’s CEE press event, our chief (Marin) did a short interview with a Croatian YouTuber Mislav Bušić, the video producent for our partner site Mob.hr. In the video, the background story about the 8 Sirocco was discussed, and Marin speculated, basically, that it is the 2017’s Nokia 9. The video is in Croatian, but we did make subtitles for it in English so you’re free to watch. Additionally, we apologize for the sound and picture quality, because we had limited time to do this video in Vienna. Also, this guy (or his equipment) is responsible for the strange sound of our hands on videos and you can find him on YouTube here. Video follows down below.

YouTube

You can read more about our hands on with Nokia 8 Sirocco (and other announced Nokia devices) in our massive hands on article here.

Ps. Sorry for the clickbait in the title (of the video, too), but that is the modus operandi of YouTubers nowadays.