Hands On With the Nokia Lumia 1020 227
adeelarshad82 writes "Nokia's new phone, Lumia 1020, feels very similar in the hand to Nokia's Lumia 900 and 920, with one exception: it has a camera bump. The 41-megapixel uber-camera projects out very slightly as a black disc on the back. In terms of functionality, though, the camera provides for smooth zooming only a pinch away. However, it takes a noticeable amount of time to lock focus and save images. At one point during hands-on testing, the camera app crashed so hard that it required a phone reboot, which is hopefully just a pre-release firmware issue. The phone itself carries a brightly colored polycarbonate body that rolls around the edges to cradle a 4.5-inch, 1,280-by-768 screen. Lumia 1020 is powered by a dual-core, 1.5-GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 processor which plows through apps well. Speaking of apps, there's a ton of bloatware on here, as you'd expect from any AT&T device. AT&T adds four apps right at the top of the app list. Nokia Lumia is set to hit AT&T shelves on July 26th for $299."
Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
With a camera phone, I'd say that the time it takes "to lock focus and save images" is arguably far more important than the number of megapixels.
Even with DSLRS, we've long ago reached the point where the average person needs more MP than are available, and none of *them* are at the 41 MP count. They also have far better optics than what is almost certainly in this (Zeiss nametag or not), and it is well understood in that domain that the importance of glass far outweighs the importance of whatever body you happen to be using.
If the point was just to get better low-light performance by packing on more pixels and then binning them, I wonder why they didn't just design sensors with bigger photosites - at least then, reasonable save times and storage consumption would be a possibility. I know that camera novices get sucked into the MP marketing hype, but does anyone buy a phone for the MP in the camera ?
Is it just me... (Score:2, Insightful)
or has smartphone technology reached something of a plateau? I mean, I had a iPhone 3GS for years and I held off from upgrading until the 5 was released, thinking that there'd be a step change or paradigm shift of some sort. When the time came I left Apple because looking around it seemed that all of the top of the line handsets are basically the same. I don't exactly push the envelope with my phone useage, and despite what people say I don't know many that do. In terms of the core functionality and interface experience, I couldn't find much to choose between Apple, HTC, Nokia or Samsung.
The iPhone was fantastic back in the day. The touchscreen and build quality were a real step forward and set a new standard. But these day smartphones are just another part of the scenery. Any it's not as if they're really moving forwards. The handsets have gotten as small as they can practically be, and then bigger again. Most handsets use the same style screens. Sure, we get more processing power and what not, but seriously how many cores do you need to check e-mail and post to facebook?
I'm using a Lumia 900 right now. And I'n going to stick with it until the next device comes along that changes the game on the same scale as the iPhone 3G did.
shills... (Score:1, Insightful)
It's interesting how the inevitable Windows shills (posting anonymously or from very new accounts) are trying to take the "it just works" aphorism away from Apple. Do you think if you repeat it often enough in relation to Windows Phone, people will just forget what devices the phrase was tied to before?
Caveat, I don't do Apple or M$. (I don't like either of their business models.) But I can spot a slimy marketing technique.
Incidentally, speaking as someone who used to work in marketing for a very large company, if you're going to shill for a company, it's not enough just to say it's the greatest thing since internet porn. You have to say *why* it's better than Jenny McCarthy's centerfold, in some plausible fashion. Just to say "I bought a Windows 8 phone and now my eleven kids are fighting over it and they all want to upgrade their Apple 5's to this" doesn't carry much weight, and parenthetically, seems really unlikely.
Of course, this leaves the shill in the unenviable position of trying to come up with some verifiable advantage to Windows Phone 8.
Technical details and sample pictures (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're comparing a phone camera with a DSLR then it means it has already won. Anyway, here's more technical details.
Sample photos from the phone http://www.flickr.com/photos/87544844%40N00/sets/72157634597356196/ [flickr.com]
Review of the photo tech http://pureviewclub.com/2013/15270 [pureviewclub.com]
Whitepaper from Nokia on the tech http://i.nokia.com/blob/view/-/2723846/data/1/-/Lumia1020-whitepaper.pdf [nokia.com]
Sample photos from the predecessor http://www.flickr.com/groups/nokia808/ [flickr.com]
Nokia presentation showcasing the phone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_Q3bxo7vJI&hd=1 [youtube.com]
Re:yes, trolling (Score:2, Insightful)
In other words, everyone in the world is like your family and do not have different needs, likes and preferences. personally I could say exactly the same about Symbian in my family back when it was still actively developed. - it seems the guy you replied to (lets just assume that everything on the internet is true) gave it a try but still found it to be lacking. there was no hate in his post, infact i read it more like he was sad it didnt work as well as he hoped.
Re:Meh (Score:0, Insightful)
An experienced and frequent MS shill copy/pasting Nokia marketing bumf without even reformatting for readability?
You guys are getting lazy.
Then again, I guess it must be really disheartening peddling inferior crap for a living. You have my sympathy.
Re:Why hasn't Nokia crumbled yet? (Score:3, Insightful)
smart devices contribution margin:
2010 Q2 8,1
2010 Q3 9,3
2010 Q4 11,6
2011 Q1 6,2 (Symbian declared dead)
2011 Q2 -6,2
2011 Q3 -5,9
2011 Q4 -7
2012 Q1 -18,3
2012 Q2 -32,9
2012 Q3 -48,9
2012 Q4 -21,6
2012 Q1 -16,2
Re:Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it's a 1/1.5" sensor (3.93 crop factor) at its widest focal length and 1/4.5" at it's narrowest, with an f/2.2 lens, which means a relatively small ~3mm aperture which will necessarily yield muddy pictures, similar to most point-and-shoots?
Re:Meh (Score:5, Insightful)
A camera phone being similar to a point and a shoot is a good thing. Why compare it to DSLRs?