In the domain of consumer electronics, there is this tradition to avoid first gen products. Don’t get me wrong; vendors invest a lot of resources for quality testing. But those automated testing might not be adequate to replicate real life usage scenarios (and we have recently seen an example!).
Improper quality control can directly affect end users. Not only physical damages, the Android community experienced faulty software updates that turned a perfectly working phone to a shiny paperweight by bricking it.
When HMD reintroduced the Nokia brand by launching Nokia 3, 5 and 6 back in 2017, initial receptions were polarized. While the inclusion of close to stock Android was praised by the critics, the build quality and pricing strategy attracted some criticisms.
HMD Global also launched Nokia 8 as a true flagship among their portfolio. While packing a number of flagship grade components like the Snapdragon 835 SoC or Zeiss certified dual 13 MP rear cameras, the phone featured a rather lackluster display.
When other OEMs were trying to minimize the front bezels as much as possible, the Nokia 8’s display bezels were quite enormous. Not only so, Nokia used IPS LCD screen on this phone instead of premium class AMOLED panels.
Reviewers pointed out the suboptimal color composition of the Nokia 8 display, compared to other similarly priced phones. Besides that, multiple users faced an issue where half of the screen became dead out of the blue.
I can’t help myself here: this ‘half of the whole’ thingy is pretty much poetic here – especially in this Avengers versus Thanos season. May be Thanos did experiment his snap on some Nokia 8 units before going against the Avengers?
Kidding apart, this particular issue is bugging Nokia 8 users since the release of the phone.
(Roughly) Couple of months ago. My Nokia experienced periodic freezing/lagging issue, the screen showed artifacts. Eventually the whole screen died. As I was in warranty, I had the phone repaired. (They changed the screen and the PCB).
Yesterday, similar issue happened again, except HALF of the screen gave it right away following lag and crashes. Upon digging through internet there appears to be many other users with the same issue.
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Just an issue I think you should be aware of Nokia, I bought a Nokia 8 in August (Australian variant) and about two weeks ago half of the display died in a vertical orientation (the right half). Not sure if anyone else has had the same issue, but it’s obviously a hardware issue as when I stopped using it for a while it would start working again.
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Among all the cases, the symptoms were pretty much similar. Some people noticed typical anomalies like image retention or ghost touches before experiencing the actual glitch. For others, the occurrences were random and unexpected.
Today, i have same experience with my Nokia 8. The right half of screen is gray static. When i try screenshot it, the picture didn’t have any gray static. May be this is hardware issue.
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Half the screen went nuts. The touch worked, the display didn’t. I gave the phone to Nokia Care the next day, and they’ll be changing the display again.
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Even after one and half years since releasing the phone, the Nokia 8 users are facing the same display failures. As a former flagship, the situation is far from being normal.
Repeated servicing, replacement and software updates are not at all helpful for solving the issues. The digitizer reportedly works fine in this condition, which indicates that the display panel or the connector is faulty.
Same problem here. TA-1012 like most here. Left hand side grey static that doesn’t show up in screen shot. And the digitiser works so if you can guess where an icon or keyboard key is you can still get some sense out of the phone.
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The infinite loop of repair, issue re-appears, again send for repair (I’m not playing with words!) continues, until the warranty period is ended.
A crazy, but plausible cause of this glitch has been found by the community. Allegedly the heat generated inside the chassis is damaging the display connector. Cooling the phone sufficiently could be an effective solution.
The issue is the touchscreen connection to the device with all the heat and uneven use of pressure will cause it to dislodged.
Well, someone did put their phone in freezer which solved the bug!
The Android community is not new to the freezer trick – a Nexus 5X owner successfully recovered data from their bootlooped phone after placing it under freezer and cooling it properly to bypass the bootloop due to thermal throttling.
Nevertheless, the fate of Nokia 8 users is uncertain as Nokia has neither posted any official statement, nor initiated any kind of product recalling.
Besides the non-working compass after Android Pie update, the screen failure issue is yet another reason to mark the Nokia 8 as the forgettable flagship from HMD.
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Kingshuk De
896 Posts
I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.
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