Paul Briden 31/07/2017 - 11:56am

The Nokia 8 is finally arriving on August 16

We finally have it - we have a date for when the Nokia 8 flagship will arrive; August 16.

It's been a long old wait - Nokia and HMD announced their revival of the Nokia brand and Android-based intentions months ago now, and we've seen multiple mid and low-tier handsets launched since then which have given us a tantalising glimpse of what's to come. And, of course, we've seen a great mass of rumours and leaks on a supposed flagship; the crowning glory of the range.

Event invitations have been sent out for the August 16 date. TechRadar reports that the invites read; "HMD Global invites you to an exclusive gathering to unveil the next milestone for Nokia phones."

According to new details the Nokia 8 will have an RRP of around €520. The word comes from a Romanian website, reporting on a leaked internal document from Vodafone's Romanian branch. The document contains a table showing the pricing of several devices, including the Nokia 8, which is listed at €517.42; bearing in mind that this price may fluctuate between EU member states it could be anything between €515 and €520 across the continent. Either way, it's a good indicator of the approximate price bracket being closer to €500 than a previously rumoured RRP just shy of €600.

For a long while now there have been many rumours surrounding the HMD/Nokia flagship and much of it has been confusing. It's been variously the Nokia 8, Nokia 9, Nokia E1, and Nokia P1, and at times it hasn't been clear whether they've all been the same phone or multiple different editions.

It was previously thought both Nokia 8 and Nokia 9 handsets were in development - we wondered if we would see the Nokia 8 as a sort of high-mid-ranger, or a lower-tier flagship with slightly reduced specs from the Nokia 9 as a true leading model. But things have changed and it's now believed that the Nokia 8, and only the Nokia 8, will come out as the lead model. The Nokia 9, it seems, isn't even a thing, other than perhaps a codename or one naming option that was on the table during development.

One thing, however, was clear: this handset was the one everybody has been waiting for. In fact, I’d say there’s as much hype around this phone as there was for LG’s G6 and the OnePlus 5, which is pretty good going for Nokia, considering it’s been out of the limelight for a good long while now.

Most recently, as rumours began to coverage on the idea that one flagship was coming and it was called the Nokia 8, we also saw several leaks of the design emerging.

The phone has been pictured in dark blue, silver, and copper/gold, with only a blue/gold edition not yet seen from the range of colours already rumoured. The leaked images also confirm a dual-sensor camera, which carries Carl Zeiss branding following HMD's announcement of a partnership with the optics firm.

Like the Google Pixel, Nokia’s Android phones will run a stock version of Android, meaning there will no custom ROM on top of the software, which, for me, is a big USP for these handsets.

HMD has also stated that it wants to work closely with Google in order to get Android updates out as soon as they’re available. In this respect, given the price of some of Nokia’s other handsets, one could say the company is aiming to become the new Nexus phones of the Android space.

To recap on the specs, the leaks says it will feature an all-metal build, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 13MP camera sensors in the dual-camera setup, 4GB or 6GB of RAM, and a 5.3in QHD touch display.