(Update: silver version) Evan Blass gives us a first look at the upcoming Nokia 8

Update, July 18: Evan Blass had “one more thing” to share about the new Nokia flagship. Here’s the silver version of the device:

Original post, July 17: After teasing us with a close-up image of a dual-lens camera, which was assumed to be from an upcoming Nokia device, the infamous blogger and phone leaker Evan Blass has finally given us an official render of the upcoming Nokia 8.

Nokia, the brand that was once essentially omnipresent, was ill-prepared for the smartphone era and lost its competitive edge in the Android vs. iOS war. Many thought Nokia would disappear into oblivion forever, and that’s why the announcement that a Finnish startup called HMD would be making Android-powered smartphones under the Nokia name was so surprising. We’ve already seen devices like the Nokia 3, 5, and 6 launch in several markets, the last of which sold out in just one minute in China.

However, things started to get even more interesting when a video surfaced in May, showing a mysterious unannounced Nokia-branded smartphone. Shortly after, we saw alleged photos of a prototype of this high-end device. Rumors claimed that Nokia would launch at least one more phone – something more high-end – dubbed the Nokia 8 or the Nokia 9 (or even both). Well, according to Evan Blass, it’s the Nokia 8 that we’ve been seeing the past few months, and it’ll be the company’s first Android-powered flagship device.

As you can see, the design seems to match what we saw before: in the promo video as well as in the images published by FrAndroid, we saw the exact same dual-lens set-up on the back of the phone. As expected, the Nokia 8 will come with two rear-facing cameras with Carl ZEISS optics. It should also feature a 5.3-inch QHD screen as well as a Snapdragon 835 processor. Indeed, it looks very similar to the three Nokia smartphones that are available right now, except it has a home button which presumably doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

I have to say, if the Nokia 8 does launch with these alleged specs, it might be a very impressive smartphone in terms of performance. However, in an era where $600+ smartphones are going more “futuristic” – bezel-less, new aspect ratio, unique materials, and so on – the Nokia 8 looks like something out of its old Windows phone days. So the question is, how much will Nokia ask for this device? (and unfortunately, according to a leaked document by a Scandinavian retailer, it’s not going to be cheap). And will there be a Nokia 9 that might be more in line with what we’d expect from a 2017 flagship?

We will see very soon as Evan Blass claims the phone could be unveiled as early as July 31.

Would you spend over $600 on the Nokia 8? Do you think Nokia will ever be able to compete with companies like Samsung and Apple? Let us know!