this is the culmination of the recent spate of cameraphones which have sought to replace dedicated compact cameras. The HTC One brought us a big sensor with larger-than-normal pixels (they’re the biggest on the market) for more accurate light measurement. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom built a whopping 10x optical zoom on to the back of the phone: great for shooting pictures but a little bit galumphing to hold to your head. The Sony Xperia Z1 packed an oversized 20.7-megapixel sensor into a surprisingly svelte frame. And now the Nokia Lumia 1020 puts the biggest sensor yet into a phone.
At 41 megapixels, the 1020’s sensor is remarkable. We’ll get to its photographic chops in a minute but the first surprise is that the phone is so thin. Though there are slimmer blowers on the market, the 1020 is entirely manageable in the hand, unlike the Nokia 808 Pureview which preceded it by a year or two which was a hefty beast. The 1020 has a noticeable bulge on the back where the lens and flash sit. Both are big and dominate the phone’s styling, especially on the matte yellow finish version as the lens element is black.
The phone is also available in white and black, but it’s the lemon yellow version which catches the eye. Because it’s matte, it doesn’t feel like it’ll slip out of your hands too easily, either. The 1020 is very much in the same design language as the other Lumia phones, and it looks good. The snazziest in the range is the 925, but this ain’t bad. Even so, it’s big and not the lightest handset around.
Nokia Lumia 1020: Camera
But it’s the camera you want to hear about, right? After all, this is a phone that is specifically designed to appeal to those with a strong photographic interest. Without that, you’ll probably pick the 925 with its skinnier profile and still-more-than-competent 8.7-megapixel camera.
Like the Sony Xperia Z1, the idea of the high-resolution sensor is that it makes up for the lack of an optical zoom. Digital zoom just crops the centre of a frame so you lose resolution as you zoom in. But with this many pixels available, the Lumia 1020 allows you to do this and still maintain decent resolution. Lossless zoom, they call it, and though we don’t think that’s a great name, the results are strong.
There are several ways to use the camera. The default option is the Nokia Pro Cam app which launches with a long press on the hardware shutter button. This is a capable app which sorts everything for you in its auto mode or lets you take over a lot of control manually, including white balance, flash and more.
Then there are the filters in the Nokia Smart Cam. This includes several features that take multiple shots in quick succession. With these in the can, you have several special effects available, including Cinemagraph which lets part of the still shot show all the multiple images, so a busy street can be frozen but for one person sauntering happily along in the corner, or a fountain can splash merrily in an otherwise still shot of a city square. You can use Smart Cam to remove someone who’s photo bombed you by combining the multiple images to brush them out of your final pic.
All very good, but the more shots you take, the more it’s apparent that the Lumia 1020 isn’t perfect. You won’t find a cameraphone with better resolution images, but the phone is let down by shutter lag which blights some images. For a posed portrait this may not matter, but sporty pictures for instance may miss the moment.
And the time it takes between shots isn’t great, either. To be fair, there’s a lot of data to be written from the sensor to the phone’s memory, but you may find you’re waiting too long between shots. The camera shoots two images at the same time, one at 5-megapixel and one at full resolution. The 5-megapixel one is easier to share. So no wonder it takes time.
Video recording is very strong, though, and looks tremendous. For many, the shutter lag and wait between shots just won’t matter, and the results will be enough to justify these downsides to many more. But it means the camera though remarkable, lacks some versatility.
Nokia Lumia 1020: Performance
Beyond the camera, the 1020 is a capable and effective smartphone. Windows Phone is an elegant and fresh interface that is great to use, even if it takes some getting used to. And though the number of apps available is growing like weed, there are still some crucial apps missing from the marketplace.
This is a shame because there are great things on offer on this phone. Like Nokia’s excellent mapping which work without a data connection – ideal in the very place you want a data-free map: when you’re abroad. Or Nokia Music, which is a decent, free-to-use app that deserves attention.
And the phone’s processor, that shutter lag apart, is fast enough to keep the whole enterprise shuffling along happily enough. Battery life is decent, unless you’re snapping all the time in which case the optional battery pack and camera grip is a worthwhile extra.
Nokia Lumia 1020: Verdict
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a remarkable cameraphone that only misses out on a fifth star because of annoyances like shutter lag and the time the phone takes between shots to get ready. But even so, the results are so impressive, with stupendous amounts of detail, good colour balance, strong contrast and excellent sharpness, that many users will forgive those faults. It’s better than many standalone cameras and is simple to use, even if you don’t set it to auto. The filters and effects are fun and enjoyable, too.
Beyond the snapper, this is an eye-catching and highly usable phone. Windows Phone 8 may lack some apps but the ones it has look great and the operating system is fun and effective. Nokia’s specialities like the exemplary maps app and the splendid Nokia Music are strong enough to be central parts of the phone.
