Snapshot of the future
Thought the megapixel race was over? Nokia
plainly has other ideas – it’s squashed a whacking 41MP into the 808’s camera
sensor and attached some lovely Carl Zeiss optics on the other and. Pretty
next-gen, right? But the phone itself is running Nokia’s Symbian OS rather than
Windows Phone 7 as seen on Lumia handsets. In use, Symbian is remarkably like
an older iteration of Android, with sliding home screens, widgets, and
drag-and-drop icons – though the app store has much less to offer. With its outdated-feeling
OS and super-modern camera, the 808 is an curious fusion of old and new.
Shoots to thrill?
The camera app itself is over-complicated,
but there’s no denying the quality of its stills. Those extra pixels are handy
– taking photos ar 5MP in ‘PureView’ mode ‘oversamples’ the image, mashing
seven pixels into one for sharper, more detail-filled images. Sliding a finger
down the screen allows you to zoom in on your subject without losing detail, as
it just uses a smaller chunk of what the whole sensor sees. Full-res shooting
(actually either 34 or 38MP, depending on the aspect ratio) gives you the
freedom to crop extensively after the event or blow up your shots to mega
dimensions. Sadly, the Nokia is let down by its other half. Mudding through the
usual smartphone duties it feels unfinished, with niggles and glitches never
far away. Given that you could get a good phone and better camera for the same
price, we can’t recommend it.
Stuff says 3/5
Remarkable camera bolted on to a remarkably
creaky OS.
Roughing it
This is not how $ 779.5
phones are supposed to look. The PureView is solidly made and has a nice rough
finish, but it’s heavy and lumpy, and rarely feels comfortable in the hand.
Shutterbug
The dedicated shutter button can wake the
808 and take a shot within two seconds. Snaps look punchy and colorful on the
screen, but text is a little jagged
Nokia
808 PureView
Shooting star
A closer look
There’s plenty of detail to get stuck into,
as you might expect from a 41MP snapper. That said, you’ll get equally good
photos from a $ 436.5 camera such as the Canon S100.
And who needs a 41MP photo?
Bright eyes
In darker situations the ‘PureView’ camera
mode uses all all those extra pixels to suck up more light. Results are
impressive, but the Nokia does struggle somewhat to balance shadows and
highlights.
Video star
We’d like better image stabilization and an
option for 50 or 60fps shooting, but with a steady hand the 1080p @30fps video
is full of detail and the f/2.8 aperture gives it superb depth of field
effects.
Best
for convergists
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Tech specs
Price: $ 779.5
Camera: 41MP, 1080p@30fps
Screen: 4in, 260 x 640, Amoled
Storage: 16BG + microSD
Connectivity: 3.5mm out, Bluetooth 3.0,
DLNA, microHDMI, microUSB, NFC, Fi-Fi
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