The Nokia 808 PureView is the best cameraphone ever made. End of story. Now, how do you proceed from there? And why is this particular phone so hard to write about? How about because a picture is worth a thousand words and we just had a truckload of them in the mother of all shootouts? Or is it because 41 megapixels is more than five, eight, twelve, or the sum thereof, and theres no two ways about it?
Close, but no cigar. What couldve easily been an ode to Finnish awesomeness may be no more than a flash in the dark for struggling Nokia and the still-standing-against-all-odds Symbian. Thats what makes it hard and weve been there with the Nokia N9.
Nokia 808 PureView official photos
At different points in its history, Nokia has had the best-selling phone, the best business phone, the best gaming phone, the best cameraphone and the best smartphone. At one particular time, they even had all of the above in one go. Honest to god, if there ever was anything like the best are-you-kidding-me phone and the best gimme-a-break phone, they wouldve been runners-up at least. Yeah, they were that good.
And yes, the Nokia 808 PureView camera is that good. They wanted something to maybe, just maybe, match the most basic of compact digicams. And they did so well that it scared the living daylights (and the low light) out of a Micro Four Thirds camera.
There goes the Nokia 808 PureView.
Key features
38 megapixel autofocus camera with xenon flash and 1080p@30fps video recording
Two capture modes: 38MP/34MP full-res and 3MP/5MP/8MP PureView
Camera features: giant 1/1.2" camera sensor, mechanical shutter, ND filter, geotagging, face detection, up to 4x lossless digital zoom
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Penta-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
4" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
Nokia Belle OS with Feature Pack 1
Single-core 1.3 GHz ARM 11 CPU and 512 MB RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA and UPnP
microHDMI port for HD TV-out functionality
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
16GB on-board storage, expandable up to 32GB through the microSD card slot
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
DivX and XviD video support
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter
microUSB port with USB On-the-go support
Stereo Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP
NFC support
Smart and voice dialing
Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
Main disadvantages
Symbian ecosystem lags behind Android and iOS
nHD resolution wears thin on the 4" screen
The phone is quite bulky and heavy
Relatively limited 3rd party software availability
microSIM support
The 808 PureView has no business with cameraphones as we know them. It can look down at any of the smartphone flagships of the competition and make fun of their so-called advanced camera tricks. But guess what - it doesnt. Its so much better than that.
And of course the flipside is that the smartphone is not of the same order as the cameraphone. The Symbian-powered Nokia 808 PureView knows darn well it cannot match the quad-cores, HD screens and the app stores of the competition.
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Close, but no cigar. What couldve easily been an ode to Finnish awesomeness may be no more than a flash in the dark for struggling Nokia and the still-standing-against-all-odds Symbian. Thats what makes it hard and weve been there with the Nokia N9.
Nokia 808 PureView official photos
At different points in its history, Nokia has had the best-selling phone, the best business phone, the best gaming phone, the best cameraphone and the best smartphone. At one particular time, they even had all of the above in one go. Honest to god, if there ever was anything like the best are-you-kidding-me phone and the best gimme-a-break phone, they wouldve been runners-up at least. Yeah, they were that good.
And yes, the Nokia 808 PureView camera is that good. They wanted something to maybe, just maybe, match the most basic of compact digicams. And they did so well that it scared the living daylights (and the low light) out of a Micro Four Thirds camera.
There goes the Nokia 808 PureView.
Key features
38 megapixel autofocus camera with xenon flash and 1080p@30fps video recording
Two capture modes: 38MP/34MP full-res and 3MP/5MP/8MP PureView
Camera features: giant 1/1.2" camera sensor, mechanical shutter, ND filter, geotagging, face detection, up to 4x lossless digital zoom
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Penta-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
4" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
Nokia Belle OS with Feature Pack 1
Single-core 1.3 GHz ARM 11 CPU and 512 MB RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA and UPnP
microHDMI port for HD TV-out functionality
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
16GB on-board storage, expandable up to 32GB through the microSD card slot
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
DivX and XviD video support
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmitter
microUSB port with USB On-the-go support
Stereo Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP
NFC support
Smart and voice dialing
Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
Main disadvantages
Symbian ecosystem lags behind Android and iOS
nHD resolution wears thin on the 4" screen
The phone is quite bulky and heavy
Relatively limited 3rd party software availability
microSIM support
The 808 PureView has no business with cameraphones as we know them. It can look down at any of the smartphone flagships of the competition and make fun of their so-called advanced camera tricks. But guess what - it doesnt. Its so much better than that.
And of course the flipside is that the smartphone is not of the same order as the cameraphone. The Symbian-powered Nokia 808 PureView knows darn well it cannot match the quad-cores, HD screens and the app stores of the competition.
