HMD Global has been busy with a number of new device unveilings over the past year. To date the company, which has the exclusive license to manufacture Nokia Mobile devices, has debuted close to 10 new offerings. The latest one is the Nokia 8, which the phone maker first unveiled in London on 16 August. Now three weeks later, the flagship smartphone is making its way to local shores, with the Nokia available from today (7 September) for a recommended price tag of R9 499 (RRP).

Along with being the first flagship device made by HMD Global under the new Nokia Mobile banner, the Nokia 8 also boasts a number of noteworthy specifications. The most significant of these may be the camera, which was developed by Zeiss Optics and touts a duals lens setup.

There's a 13 MP colour and 13 MP monochrome lens on the back, which is a similar orientation to Huawei's Leica-made smartphone cameras of late. Whether it will be able to match the performance of the Huawei P10 remains to be seen, but the Nokia 8 also has a few more tricks up its sleeve, with the "bothie" mode being one of them. With the 13 MP rear cameras supported by a 13 MP camera up front, the Nokia 8 will facilitate two 180-degree broadcasts for live streaming.

Shifting focus to the internal specs, the Nokia 8 boasts an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, as well as Gigabit LTE, and 4 GB of RAM. As such, it should be one of the more powerful flagship devices around when it lands locally today, as a launch exclusive on Vodacom. Other specifications to take notice of include a QHD 5.3" display (2560x1440), a splashproof IP54-rating, 64 GB of onboard storage and 3090 mAh battery. The other big feature of the Nokia 8 is its pure Android (7.1.1 Nougat) operating system, with Nokia Mobile promising quick and frequent updates.

As noted earlier, the Nokia 8 has been given a recommended price tag of R9 499, with it available on Vodacom's uChoose Flexi 150 for R449 p/m on a 24-month contract. HMD Global has stated that it will remain a Vodacom-exclusive at launch, and should be brought to other carriers in coming months.