The headline spec is that the brand new camera sensor inside it is composed of 41 million pixels, however as you might have surmised, this handset doesn't take full 41-megapixel stills. Instead, it oversamples — taking the image data from seven neighboring pixels and consolidating it into one pixel's worth — and generates pictures roughly 5 megapixels in size. That's still plenty of dots for most uses, and the image quality you can obtain from such a system is frankly ridiculous. Nokia showed me poster-sized samples captured with the 808 PureView (printed entirely unprocessed) that basically had zero noise in them.
Physically, the camera module is quite an imposing beast, measuring approximately a centimeter in width, height and depth. That's the reason for the massive hump on the back of the 808 PureView — in the hand, it feels bulkier than the similarly photo-centric N8, although the devices do differ quite significantly in design. The 808 has a larger 4-inch screen with nHD (640 x 360) resolution and features a more ergonomically-minded case, rounding its edges and offering a softer, grippier surface. The key specs on the processing side of things include 512MB of RAM and a 1.3GHz single-core SoC.
If you're thinking that such a low-res display won't cut it in the modern smartphone world, things get worse once you look at the operating system: it's Symbian Belle. Nokia can say as much as it wants about the steady rate of improvement in Symbian, it's still not an OS we'd recommend any sane person use for extended periods of time. You can notice lag in basic UI navigation and scrolling, which immediately hampers the user experience. There are instant sharing options to Facebook and Flickr in the camera app and the accompanying gallery app does a fine job of browsing through pictures quickly, but overall the software remains this phone's biggest problem.
On the positive side of things, you're getting 1080p video at a quality unlikely to soon be matched by another phone plus the best set of optics yet seen on a smartphone (according to Nokia). The lens for the 808 PureView has been co-developed by Nokia and Carl Zeiss, who have been working together for a long time. Ultimately, the 808 looks likely to be a fantastic cameraphone, but a niche device for those looking for smartphones with extra capabilities.
The best news of all, then, may well be Nokia's assertion that it would be "reasonable to expect" other platforms to get in on the PureView action. Windows Phone would be the most obvious beneficiary should Nokia opt to follow through on these words and use its giant new sensor on another mobile platform.
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BELOW IS THE ARTICLE FROM OFFICIAL NOKIA WEBSITE:
Nokia 808 PureView – revolutionary camera technology; great smartphone
The Nokia 808 PureView features a 41-megapixel sensor with our
highest performance Carl Zeiss optics to date and Nokia’s brand-new
pixel oversampling technology.
Sorry, did you just say 41-megapixels?
Yes, that’s right. But this combination isn’t about shooting pictures
the size of billboards! Instead, it’s about creating amazing pictures
at normal, manageable sizes. There’s a combination of benefits.
The technology means that taking typically sized shots (say, 5
megapixels) the camera can use oversampling to combine up to seven
pixels into one “pure” pixel, eliminating the visual noise found on
other mobile phone cameras. On top of that, you can zoom in up to 3X
without losing any of the details in your shot – and there’s no artificially created pixels in your picture, either.
Otherwise, you can use ‘Creative Shooting Mode’ to capture images at
high resolution – 38 megapixels; then reframe, crop and zoom to find the
best “picture within the picture” after the image has been shot and
before saving it at convenient sizes for sharing and storage.
The oversampling technology also allows for significantly improved
low light performance than previous camera phones, Compared to a typical
optical zoom camera used at full zoom, the Nokia 808 PureView captures
over 5x more light. Under normal lighting conditions, performance is
also enhanced, as this combination allows for faster shutter speeds,
reducing the effects of camera shake.
Video star
The excellent camera performance also extends to video. The camera
allows for 1080p recording at 30fps, with 4X lossless zoom thanks to the
big sensor and powerful image processing which handles over 1 billion
pixels per second. At lower resolutions, the capabilities of the zoom
increase, with 6X at 720p and up to 12X lossless zoom in nHD (640 x 360)
recordings. Of course great video is nothing without great audio.
Here the Nokia 808 PureView also sets a new standard. The Nokia 808
PureView is the world’s first video recording device to allow recording
without distortion at audio levels as high as 140db, beyond the
capability of human hearing. This allows you to even in the harshest of
environment capture stereo CD-like audio quality.
It’s also a smartphone
Outside the camera, it’s also a great smartphone, of course! Inside,
it’s got the latest Nokia Belle operating system with Feature Pack 1
enhancements. These enhancements allow improved performance,
personalisation and entertainment options, with a new browser, the
latest Nokia Maps and an improved notifications bar. One other great new
feature is that the phone can deliver content recorded in surround
sound to any stereo headphones, using technology from Dolby.
The screen is a four-inch, ClearBlack AMOLED display underneath
Gorilla Glass, allowing for a big clear view of what’s going on, under
any lighting conditions. Inside, there’s a 1.3GHz processor to keep
everything humming. There’s 16GB of internal user memory, with support
for MicroSD cards up to 32GB to contain all the pictures and video
you’ll be shooting.
The device is remarkably pocketable considering how much there is
inside. It’s only slightly larger than the Nokia N8 while the total
weight, including the battery, is 169g. Talk time (over a 3G network) is
rated at 6.5 hours, with a standby time of up to 540 hours.
SAMPLES:
FULL HD VIDEO SAMPLE:
http://youtu.be/_SqWoQm9ZhQ
PIC SAMPLE:
SAMPLES:
FULL HD VIDEO SAMPLE:
http://youtu.be/_SqWoQm9ZhQ
PIC SAMPLE:
- http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/photo/capoeira-in-rio-captured-with-nokia-808-pureview.jpg
- http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/photo/climbing-in-south-africa-captured-with-nokia-808-pureview.jpg
- http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/photo/climbing-in-south-africa-2-captured-with-nokia-808-pureview.jpg
- http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/photo/streetview-in-rio-captured-with-nokia-808-pureview.jpg
