The question though in many consumer's minds is if this is worth shelling their hard earned cash on or would it be better to simply stick to the current market leaders and what they offer. That's what we'll mention in our final analysis at the end of this article.
Nokia Lumia 1020 at a glance
- General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz; HSDPA 42.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps; LTE bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 LTE Cat 3 100Mbps down, 50Mbps up
- Form factor: Touchscreen bar
- Dimensions: 130.4 x 71.4 x 10.4; 158 g
- Display: 4.5" 16M-color WXGA (768 x 1280 pixels) ClearBlack AMOLED capacitive touchscreen; PureMotion HD+, 2.5D sculpted Gorilla glass 3; Super sensitive touch
- Chipset: 1.5GHz dual-core Krait processor, Adreno 225 GPU, 2GB of RAM
- OS: Windows Phone 8
- Memory: 32/64 GB of built-in storage;
- Still camera: 41 megapixel camera with 6-element ZEISS lens, OIS, 3x zoom, xenon and LED flashes
- Video camera: 1080p video recording at 30fps with two Rich Recording mics; 1.2MP front-facing camera with 720p video
- Connectivity: dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, stereo Bluetooth 3.0, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, HERE Drive+ free worldwide navigation, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC
- Battery: 2,000mAh
- Misc: Nokia-exclusive Pro Camera app, FM Radio, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor; available in Yellow, White or Black
- Accessories: Snap-on camera grip with built-in 1,020mAh battery and tripod mount, Snap-on Qi wireless charging cover
At first glance, you'll notice quite a couple of things that stand out with regards to the Nokia Lumia 1020 - Its 41MP Camera, which you'll most definitely as it protrudes at the back of the phone. It is this particular feature that Nokia is banking all of its marketing campaign on.
This sets the bar quite high for industry standards of 8MP cameras. With the 41MP camera, Nokia Lumia 1020 devices can take much larger pictures and grasp more details. One thing to take note of though is that the pictures are exactly saved as 41MP, they are saved as 34 or 38 MP images, depending on the ratio that you choose. The Nokia Lumia 1020 also creates a duplicate 5MP image that you can use to share on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. I can just imagine the wait time for users if they didn't have this option when uploading of photos.
The advantage of having the 41MP camera is that users will be able to capture images quickly and zoom in and crop without loosing picture quality. This is something that most smartphones wont be able to do. It's not just the hardware that makes the Lumia 1020's camera standout. Its software is also robust and easy to use. Users can quickly and easily adjust camera settings from within the Nokia Pro Cam, the default camera app for the Lumia 1020. You can change your exposure levels, ISO, shutter speed and white balance with ease. The debate though is that this can take some time learn to use, but you'll see how these settings when adjusted affects the photo quality real time. Auto setting is also quite adept making the Nokia Lumia 1020 an amazing point and shoot camera. The Xenon flash is also a big plus when taking night time photos and thus giving the Nokia Lumia 1020 an even greater edge in terms of camera quality.
The only downside to The Nokia Lumia 1020's features is the lack of app support. Unlike IOS and Android users are only limited to Facebook and Twitter when it comes to sharing of photos. That isn't quite the fault of Nokia as it runs on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 OS. It runs on a dual core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 processor which works quite efficiently at ensuring that the Nokia Lumia 1020 stays snappy like most top of the line smartphones. It has lots of storage space as it is packing a 32GB internal memory, downside though is that it doesn't have a microSD card for added storage.
Overall, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is quite an amazing point and shoot smartphone hands down. The Windows 8 OS works well with that of the internal hardware of the Nokia Lumia 1020 making it run as smoothly as how one would experience with most top of the line smartphones that are now currently out in the market, most of which are on a quad core/octa core chipset. Downside is that you have quite a limited number of methods as to how you can share those photos with - which isn't the fault of Nokia. What Nokia has faulted on though on my opinion is the lack of a microSD card as additional storage. The internal memory is quite big considering industry average but with a 41MP photos plus the 5MP duplicates it saves, memory will run out quite quickly. Especially for those camera trigger happy people like me. Another quirk that I would like to take note of is the non-removable battery. At 2000mAh, snapping pictures with the Nokia Lumia 1020 will be limited to how much power you have on charge. Being able to swap batteries on the go like a regular point and shoot camera can have quite a strong advantage market-wise.
My personal opinion is that the Nokia Lumia 1020 is a point in the right direction in terms of effort with regards to the Nokia Lumia line, but unfortunately it falls short on things that make it worthy as a full fledged smartphone or a point and shoot camera. The 41MP camera that is sports is undoubtedly a tempting offer, even for one that craves for smartphone tech such as myself, but with the concerns mentioned above the Nokia Lumia 1020 falls dangerously short of getting most consumers to shell out cash to purchase this Ultimate Camera Smartphone. I am hoping that with the next generation of the Nokia Lumia, these things will be taken into consideration, irregardless of whether they stay on the Window's platform or not.
Till Next Time...
-Metz-
