The Nokia 8's camera belongs in 2015, DxOMark report reveals

The Nokia 8 was HMD's first flaghsip, and the first high-profile Nokia-branded smartphone to hit stores in years. While the device is capable—and comes with a very competitive price tag—its camera has received some flak for underperforming. In fact, "capable" seems to be the best that has been said of it in recent times. It may not even be worthy of that adjective, if DxOMark's opinion is anything to go by. The camera review platform has taken the Nokia flagship through its series of gruesome tests and found it, for lack of a better term, wanting.

According to DxOMark, the Nokia 8's camera is as underwhelming as it gets within its market space, as the device could only manage an overall score of 68. For some perspective, this is about par with devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5. The S5, a 2015 device, when tested using the older DxOMark protocols, recorded an overall total score of 75. That considered, we'd expect it to equal or even better the Nokia 8's score if tested on the same playing field.

The device scored a distinctly average 72 in photo quality, and a miserable 62 in video, with high levels of noise, poor autofocus, terrible zoom abilities, and an underwhelming bokeh being the major talking points.

The Nokia 8's camera performance is, of course, not overly surprising. It uses dual sensors but those sensors are the Sony's IMX258s that were released way back in 2015. No surprises, then, that it performs exactly like a 2015 flagship, some would say. 

Cheek aside, the sensors may not be the absolute best on the market but Nokia's software is just as likely to blame. Like most new companies—Essential comes to mind—HMD is probably still yet to develop software capable of high-end image processing. Sensors these days are good enough that software is usually the defining factor in smartphone camera performance. The Google Camera app, for example, is known for improving camera performance by several fold.

Good thing is, the Nokia 8 will likely see better photo-taking days. HMD is billed to release a new Lumia-based camera app soon, and that is certain to improve the Nokia 8's camera performance. By how much, though, nobody knows.

Of course, DxOMark's judgement shouldn't be taken as gospel, as several outlets have appraised the Nokia 8's camera and found it capable. If you have your eyes set on getting one, don't let this stop you.