If you think the 8-megapixel camera on the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S III is good enough, get a load of this: Nokia quietly released to the country its latest baby, the Nokia PureView 808, which packs a whopping 41-megapixel camera in a slim smartphone body.
Meant for mobile photographers who are always on the go, the PureView 808 comes with the 41-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens armed with Nokia’s proprietary PureView imaging technology, which took the Finnish phone company five years to complete and perfect.
Created to be the successor to the company’s previous magnum opus for photo enthusiasts, the Nokia N8, which was touted as the best cameraphone during its time, the PureView 808 is able to capture even the tiniest details of any moment.
Nokia Philippines let InterAksyon take its newest smartphone offering for a spin at its Makati office on Wednesday, and judging by the sample shots we took with its camera, the PureView 808 sure is a promising addition to Nokia’s family of phones that can rival even the highest-end camera models out in the market today.
But first, some specifications: The PureView 808, which started development some five years ago, measures 13.9 millimeters at its thinnest point, but bulges to 17.95 millimeters at the top portion due to the bulk brought by the powerful camera.
It weighs around 169 grams, is covered by a polycarbonate material that provides the necessary grip when taking photos, and features a ClearBlack, AMOLED 4-inch display.
As can be gleaned in the comparison shot below, the 41-megapixel camera works well with taking in the fine details of the shot, reducing pixelation and producing the sharpest image possible in some areas even when zoomed in thoroughly.
But even the default 8-megapixel setting is good enough for mobile photography, as pixels are condensed to fit the basic resolution.
Above: A shot of the Makati skyline taken using the Nokia PureView 808's camera.
Nokia Philippines Corporate Communications Manager Nikka Singson-Abes said the initial stocks they brought to the country have since been sold out, with plans to bring in more stocks in the coming weeks. She said they didn’t really expect the demand to be that high.
As for Nokia’s future phones getting the same high-megapixel PureView treatment, Abes said they are definitely looking into integrating the same technology with their high-end smartphone lineup, such as future versions of the Windows Phone-powered Lumia phones.
Yet despite the glowing reviews the PureView 808 has already received, particularly in its stellar image capturing capabilities, the phone falls short in some crucial areas that have become critical for smartphone models today.
For one, the phone runs on the company’s proprietary Symbian Belle mobile operating system, a dated OS that has not caught on with the general market psyche that has been flooded with Android- and iOS-powered phones.
And since it runs on Symbian, users would be getting a limited number of applications to run on the system. Instagram, for one, a really popular photography application on Android and iOS, isn’t available on Nokia’s platform.
Lastly, the 16GB storage space is wanting especially for users who are heavy on photography, considering that file sizes for images captured using the 41-megapixel camera could range from 7MB to as high as 12MB. The option to expand the memory via a microSD slot is, therefore, a welcome addition.
Still, for the increasingly mobile Filipino user, the Nokia PureView 808 proves to be a welcome alternative to lugging around a heavy dSLR or even a point-and-shoot compact camera, as it is able to hold its own against some of the digital camera models today.
The unit comes in Black, Red, and White colors, and will have an internal memory of 16GB expandable to up to 48GB. It will retail for only P26,550 in the Philippines — a steal, if you ask us, if only for the fact that you can have a powerful camera on the go for just a minimal price.
