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Tuesday 14 August 2012

Nokia 808 PureView final


Price: The phone is retailing for somewhere around £500 ($780).

Pro

That 41-megapixel sensor: Normally I use an iPhone, and while the images are OK, you always feel you are compromising on quality. That is not the case with the 808. Using the macro setting, it was possible to see individual hairs on a grasshopper (see photo above). From glaring midday sun, to late evenings, the phone handled the lighting excellently.

Ease of use: This cameraphone has more controls than a Eurofighter if you want them, but for Facebook snappers, its automatic point-and-shoot setting was quick and handled everything thrown at it. You can shoot from the lock screen almost instantly. Autofocus worked quickly and, in most circumstances, was accurate. Out of 200+ images shot over 10 days, fewer than a handful were out of focus — including those shot in low-light and even from a moving car.

Control: If you are the kind of person who revels in ISO settings, you can indulge yourself in those options fiddling with not only ISO, but exposure compensation, color rendition and a host of other settings.

Zoom: Depending on the resolution, you can get a very impressive zoom. Most other phones sacrifice quality when you zoom; not so with the 808. Of course the zoom is not in the same league as a digital SLR. but it’s head and shoulders above other cameraphones.

Video and sound: In over 100+ HD videos, the quality of both sound and video was excellent, and generally considerably better than comparable footage shot on the iPhone (an iPhone 4 not a 4S). The sound quality was surprisingly good.

Conclusion

How good is this phone? With its Symbian OS, the answer is not very. Symbian fans  — and there a still many around — will rally to defend the aging OS but it really doesn’t cut it any longer. For the average user, the 808 isn’t really a contender.

But if Nokia is able to ship a Windows Phone version, then we are in a very different place. A Windows Phone can trade blows with both Android and iOS and hold its own. It is a modern, if rather eccentric, operating system.

How good would a Windows Phone powered PureView cameraphone be? Good enough to consider dumping my iPhone (Microsoft would have to up their game on the app front) for it. As a journalist, it could potentially be the ultimate tool. Journalism aside, a Windows Phone powered PureView would be a heck of a device for those who want just a bit more from their photography.

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