At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia announced the 808 Pureview, a flagship Symbian device with a 41-megapixel camera. In addition to superior still imaging technology, the Nokia 808 PureView, also includes full HD 1080p video recording and playback with 4X loss less zoom and the world's first use of Nokia Rich Recording.
This is the first smartphone to feature Nokia PureView imaging technologies, bringing together high resolution sensors, exclusive Carl Zeiss
optics and Nokia developed algorithms, which will support new high-end imaging experiences for future Nokia products.
optics and Nokia developed algorithms, which will support new high-end imaging experiences for future Nokia products.
It is hard to ignore a chance to play around with the world's first camera phone with a 41MP sensor.So when we got a chance for a hands-on experience, you can be sure we were not lagging behind. The808 PureView looks similar to its predecessor, the N8. The front is dominated by the 4-inch bright touch display, while the back highlights the camera lens. Here the 41MP stands out on the embossed lens cover that hides the sensor.
The device does feel a bit plasticky and is slightly heavy to hold. The camera interface looked different from the existing Nokia phones as the side row was dominated by shortcut keys and a drop down menu appeared for automatic and manual settings. Obviously, the first thing we checked out was its camera. As clarified by Nokia, the phone captures images at 5 MP resolution, despite its 41MP sensor. Photography is quick, as soon as one is through, the camera is ready for the next click. Double tapping an image zoomed in to show us the clarity. But unfortunately, we cannot share the sample pictures as the smartphone didn't have the latest software.
There was something else that caught our attention. The sound output of the Nokia 808 PureView was superb. Undoubtedly, one of the best in the industry. The Agneepath trailer, captured in Dobly Digital Plus, sounded superb over the headphones as well as the speaker. The handset is also Dobly Headphone compatible, a special software designed for the Nokia device that can decode the content recorded in Dobly Digital and play it in multichannel. There is also a Dolby on/off mode, usually seen in laptops. While turning off the Dolby icon, there was a noticeable downscale in the sound. Nokia claims this Dolby headphone option works well with any stereo headphone be it the one bundled in the pack or a Bose unit or even over a home theatre system. The output over the speaker was also praiseworthy but not similar to on the headphone. While playing with the settings, we could not locate the equaliser settings, but we doubt we will ever need one.