HMD Global has slashed the price of its flagship smartphone Nokia 8 (review) and mid-range smartphone Nokia 3 in India today. The Nokia 8, which was retailing for Rs 36,999 earlier is now available at Rs 28,999 after the price cut, while the Nokia 5 3GB RAM variant has received a price cut of Rs 1,000 and available at Rs 12,499. This news is tweeted by Mumbai-based retailer Mahesh Telecom, but the price drop on both the smartphones is not yet effective on e-commerce portals.
HMD Global is selling the Nokia 8 exclusively on Amazon India, and the price of the device on Amazon is still Rs 36,999. And the Nokia 5 3GB RAM variant is available on Flipkart at Rs 13,499, and the price is still the same. Maybe, the e-commerce portals will reflect the price drop in the next few hours, but as of this writing, the price drop is not effective yet.
This is a much-needed price drop from HMD Global, especially for the Nokia 8. After this price cut, the Nokia 8 is the cheapest smartphone with Snapdragon 835 SoC. And yes, at Rs 28,999, the Nokia 8 is worth a buy. We have been using the Nokia 8 for more than three months and impressed with the performance of the phone.
In addition, the Nokia 8 is one amongst the few smartphones to run Android 8.0 Oreo at that price. While Motorola has the Moto X4 at Rs 24,999, Honor has Honor View 10, and OnePlus has the OnePlus 5T running Android 8.0 Oreo in the similar price range. But to be noted, the Nokia 8 will soon become the non-Pixel smartphone to run Android 8.1 Oreo as the beta version is already out to the public.
Coming to the Nokia 3, HMD Global recently introduced the Nokia 5 3GB RAM variant in the Indian market at Rs 13,499. Earlier, the Nokia 5 with 2GB of RAM was available at Rs 12,899. The 3GB RAM variant will now retail for Rs 12,499, and it offers Snapdragon 430 SoC, 5.2-inch HD display, and also started receiving the latest Oreo update.
In the budget segment, the Nokia 5 is the fourth smartphone to boot Android 8.0 Oreo, with the other ones being the Xiaomi Mi A1, Honor 9 Lite, Nokia 6. The Nokia 3, still is an overpriced product, but the price cut made the Nokia 8 a better option than the competition. Also, HMD Global is working on a new camera application which will tweak the camera performance on the Nokia 8.
