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Nokia has finally married its 41-megapixel PureView camera technology with Windows Phone. The result: Nokia's Lumia 1020, a smartphone that essentially looks like the Lumia 920 with a big, powerful camera on its back.
The Finnish company debuted its 41-megapixel camera in its Symbian PureView 808 smartphone last year. The phone went on to win an award from the Technical Image Press Association for "Best Imaging Innovation" and received the "Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet" at Mobile World Congress 2012. And yet, almost nobody bought the thing. Probably because it was running on Symbian, a basically defunct, legacy OS that Nokia had already publicly given up on. And in the U.S., the phone was only available unlocked for $700 (it's gotten cheaper since release).
The PureView 808 did, however, generate a ton of publicity, so it's no surprise that Nokia wanted to port the camera over to its flagship Windows Phone line. And where the PureView 808 was a bulky, strange piece of hardware, the Lumia 1020 looks just like a Lumia 920 from the front. It has a 4.5-inch AMOLED display and is available in black, white and a bright yellow, a signature of the Lumia line. Flip it over and you'll see something new: a slightly protruding, circular camera with a Xenon flash, backside illuminated sensor, Carl Zeiss optics and an f/2.2 lens. Unlike the PureView 808, the camera isn't sticking out as much. Nokia has thinned out the handset and the camera enough so it isn't too hefty or awkward.
And like the HTC 8X, the Lumia 1020 has a wide-angle lens on its front-facing camera -- a bonus for the selfie-obsessed.
Where the Lumia 1020 really shines is in its camera software. A new Pro Camera app gives you the ability to change white balance, shutter speed, ISO and focus. All of these adjustments let you capture decent photos in various lighting situations. The smartphone camera also includes the company's image stabilization technology, and has the ability to shoot photos in a "dual capture" mode, which lets you capture images in different resolutions at once. Another benefit of such a high megapixel camera is the ability to zoom into images without seeing grain or noise. The Lumia 1020 supports up to 6x zoom in 720p.
For those shooting video, image quality isn't the only concern. The phone also features high-performance microphones to record audio to match the HD video. To make sure all of the processing legwork runs smoothly, the Lumia 1020 packs 2GB of RAM. Though it's a fairly common spec to see in high-end Android devices, it's a first for Windows Phone handsets. Storage is standard at 32GB, with an additional 7GB on SkyDrive.
For the super, smartphone photographers, Nokia offers a Camera Grip shell. It has a physical camera button, extra battery and tripod-mount support, transforming your phone into a complete camera replacement. And much like its other Lumia phones, Nokia will offer wireless charging covers for the Lumia 1020.
The former mobile giant clearly wants to grab the attention of the high-end market. So far, it hasn't been able to gain enough momentum with its Lumia line, due in part to a general lack of Windows Phone adoption. But if the Lumia 1020's camera performs as well, or better, than the PureView 808 camera, then it's going to be the best smartphone camera on the market. And it won't have an old OS and bulky frame to hold it down. Nokia is also making its imaging SDK available to developers today. Already, Nokia has gotten Hipstamatic on board for an exclusive Lumia 1020 app called Oggl PRO. And though it's no Instagram, it does have a backdoor to the Facebook-owned photo sharing app, allowing you to post to the social network, as well as Facebook and Twitter. This could be the hardware Nokia needs to sway buyers and app developers to its and Windows Phone's corner.
The Lumia 1020 will be available for $300 starting July 26 from AT&T. Keep an eye out for our follow-up coverage and full review coming soon.
