Finnish phone maker HMD Global on Wednesday announced the Nokia 8, its latest smartphone to use the once-dominant Nokia brand, and its first aimed at the more premium side of the market. (In Europe, at least.)
The device looks like a fairly typical flagship phone in most respects: It’s got a strong chipset, a sharp display, dual cameras, and the like.
The one unusual feature of the Nokia 8 is something HMD calls “Dual-Sight.” This lets you shoot photos and photos using the front- and rear-facing cameras at the same time. The result is a split-screen view that ideally looks something like this, according to HMD:
HMD is trying to call images taken with this camera mode “bothies.” As in, a selfie, but with images from both sides. I think we can all agree that the less said about this, the better.
You’ll notice there’s a “Live” icon in the top corner there: That’s because, according to HMD, the Dual-Sight mode lets you stream your “bothies” — split-screen videos using the phone’s front and rear cameras, in this case — to social feeds like Facebook and YouTube directly from the Nokia 8’s camera app. It’s a firm show of support for live video, which has overtaken social media in recent years.
It’s worth noting that HMD isn’t the first phone maker to do this: Both Samsung and LG have used similar double-camera modes on flagship phones from years ago. It’s the livestreaming component that’s the real big change here in the Nokia 8. To be clear, while this is neat tech, it does feel a lot like a gimmick. It seems safe to say that people haven’t been clamoring too hard for a better class of selfie. But for the niche of YouTube “reaction videos,” particularly those during sports events or concerts, it could make capturing a little easier. A little more functionality probably can’t hurt too much.
Whether that makes the Nokia 8 worth buying, though, is another question. Either way, please don’t say bothie.
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