Nokia 8 allows users to take “bothies”

Finnish phone maker HMD Global yesterday announced the Nokia 8, its latest smartphone to use the once market-leader Nokia's brand name, and its first handset aimed at the more premium side of the market - in Europe, at least.

It mostly looks like a rather typical flagship phone in most respects, featuring a strong chipset, a sharp display, dual cameras, and the like, according to commentators.

The one unusual feature of the Nokia 8 is what HMD calls ''Dual-Sight,'' which allows users to shoot photos and videos using the front- and rear-facing cameras simultaneously, resulting in a split-screen view.

HMD call images taken with this camera mode ''bothies.'' A ''Live'' icon in the top corner, according to HMD, allows the Dual-Sight mode to let users stream their ''bothies'' - split-screen videos using the phone's front and rear cameras, to social feeds like Facebook and YouTube directly from the Nokia 8's camera app. According to commentators, it was a firm show of support for live video, which has overtaken social media in recent years.

HMD is not the first phone maker to offer this as both Samsung and LG have had the feature on flagship phones since years. It is the livestreaming component that is the real big change in the Nokia 8.

According to commentators, the Nokia 8 marked the culmination of efforts to bring the Finnish telecoms brand back to the mainstream handset market, which got underway six months ago with the remake of the classic Nokia 3310 feature phone.

''We know that fans are creating and sharing live content more than ever before, with millions of photos and videos shared every minute on social media,'' said Juho Sarvikas, HMD chief product officer, The Irish Times reported. ''People are inspired by the content they consume and are looking for new ways to create their own.''

The 7.9 mm-thick smartphone matches the specifications of top-end rivals, but lacks the super-slim bezel designs of the best devices from 2017.