Reviews
Marin Perez
00:00, Jul 24 2013
The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a great camera, but is that enough?
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Typical Price:
$299.99
Pros:
Best camera we've ever seen on a phone, good overall smartphone, great AT&T network
Cons:
A bit bulky, Windows Phone 8 ecosystem is still lacking a little
Verdict:
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is built for those who want the best pictures and don't mind missing out on a few apps
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a Windows Phone 8 handset that sports a whopping 41-megapixel camera. While those specs sound amazing, we'll see if the camera actually lives up to the hype. Besides, is having a great camera enough to make the Nokia Lumia 1020 a good overall device?
Nokia Lumia 1020 vs. DSLR
Nokia Lumia 1020 vs. iPhone 5
In our normal reviews, we generally go through the hardware, software and then the camera. The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a special case because if you're considering it, you're likely interested in the camera. Let's just dive into what we all want to know: Does the Nokia Lumia 1020 camera live up to the hype?
Camera
The Nokia Lumia 1020 has the best camera I've ever seen on a smartphone...with a slight qualifier.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a 41-megapixel camera that can capture 5-megapixel images, as well as a 34-megapixel camera (38-megapixel shots too, depending on your aspect ratio). The 5-megapixel image utilizes oversampling (this is explained here) to try and reduce the noise and create better shots.
There's a magic mixture of hardware and software to produce really nice shots. The Nokia Lumia 1020 camera has six lenses inside, optical image stabilization -- ball bearings and a mini motor assist with this -- and an f/2.2 aperture. Of course, you have the Carl Zeiss name on it and the PureView technology to help.
The Nokia Pro Cam is the default shooting app and it allows you to dive into things like white balance, focus, aperture, shutter speed and whether the flash is used or not. It's a much richer experience than we're used to on Windows Phone and this type of granularity is appreciated.
The interface is also nice, as the capture button is on the right and switching to the video camera is just a quick swipe. You can also throw on other lenses (photo apps) with the tap of a button. The granular camera controls are in a panel on the top and once you hit that, a dial appears on the right side to let you tweak your settings.
The Nokia Pro Cam comes with the automatic mode as the default and for most of you, that will be more than enough. I was impressed with the quality of shots that came out without having to really dive into settings.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is best for when you just want to whip your phone out of your pocket and snap a great picture. The Nokia 1020 can also record some great-looking 1080p HD video with loss-less zooming. Nokia is also promising a "Rich Recording" feature, which will help you capture clearer audio than other types of smartphones but I haven't had a chance to really put that to the test. I'll update this when I do.
When the Nokia Lumia 1020 was introduced, the tagline was "Zoom reinvented" and that's because the Nokia Lumia 1020 enables an incredible new way to zoom with your pictures. Sure, the loss-less zoom is pretty solid and you can pinch the screen to zoom before you hit the capture button but you don't have to do it that way. The Nokia Lumia 1020 lets you zoom after you've taken pictures and it produce incredible results.
Here's a wide shot of a nearby park. (Note, these images have been resized and are the 5-megapixel versions. To view full resolution samples I've taken with the Lumia 1020, please go here.
But wait, what's that in the left corner? With the Nokia Pro Cam app, you can zoom in and crop on your device. Normally, the results would be a mess for this type of shot but I was surprised with the result.
That amount of detail and clarity from a cropped image is pretty impressive. It gets even more impressive when you consider that these were the 5-megapixel versions. When you download the full resolution shots onto a computer and get to do some editing, the results are downright stunning.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 also comes with the fantastic Creative Studio photo-editing suite, the Nokia Cinemagraph to create images where some parts are moving and you can add a variety of new apps and lenses. We're still waiting for some key apps to hit the market place but hopefully those are on the way soon.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is also very versatile with different lighting situations. Photographs come out really well in nearly any type of lighting and the low-light shooting is phenomenal. The cool thing is that you don't have to be a good photographer to get good shots but the Nokia Lumia 1020 has such a nice camera that you'll want to get better. Read through the tutorial and learn some of the basics, it could lead to some jaw-dropping shots.
Standard lighting conditions:
Somewhat murky lighting:
Close up macro shot:
Close-up, low lighting with Xenon flash:
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a great camera but there are still a few things that can we can complain about. The overall shutter speed isn't as quick as devices like the iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy S4. There's a legitimate reason for that (the oversampling takes time) and you can use the Nokia Smart Cam app to take burst shots if you're trying to capture something quickly but the shutter speed is still worth pointing out.
The ability to zoom in after you've taken a photo to "find" new pictures is really great but the Nokia Pro Cam app appears to do destructive editing, so you'll lose the original. That's something to keep in mind when you first pick it up and are trying to play around with that feature.
I'd also argue that some of the 5-megapixel shots on the Nokia Lumia 1020 can be outdone by the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S4. That's nothing to be ashamed about because both have fantastic shooters. The thing is, when you factor in the full-resolution photos the Lumia 1020 also has, it blows away the competition. AT&T also includes a free 20x30 poster that will be printed and sent to you from SmileBooks.com.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is clearly the most exciting smartphone for anyone who loves photography. If that's not you right now, the Nokia Lumia 1020 may make you love photography.
Hardware
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is very much in line with what we've come to expect from Nokia design-wise over the last few years. The latest Nokia flagship is made of the same material as the Lumia 920, the two are almost identical in dimensions but the Lumia 1020 is noticably lighter. The 41-megapixel camera module does pop out a little bit and detracts from the overall slimness but it's a freaking 41-megapixel camera; some sacrifices had to be made.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is made of polycarbonate and it feels great to hold. The curves bring a somewhat organic feeling to the handset and it's quite nice, even if we've seen this before. It's still thick compared to other handsets like the iPhone 5 and you can't shake the tank-like feeling but it's by no means unwieldy or ugly.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 sports a 4.5-inch, AMOLED Puremotion HD+ screen (holy branding, Batman!) and it's more than good. Colors are extremely rich, the Windows Phone 8 platform really pops on this screen, the touch targets are great and the Gorilla Glass 3 material means that it can stand up to a beating. Unlike other screens, you can use your Nokia Lumia 1020 when you're wearing gloves and it even works well in direct sunlight.
The 1280 x 768 resolution isn't as high as we're accustomed to with our flagship devices and I'm giddy thinking about how beautiful the Lumia 1020 photos would look on a proper 1080p HD screen. Alas, that's not quite possible on Windows Phone 8 right now, so you have to deal with the hand you're given.
It's not a bad screen but there are better ones out there.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 3.0, a 2000mAh battery, hotspot capabilities, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It's tough to really complain about these because the Nokia Lumia 1020 runs extremely smoothly but if I had to nitpick, I wouldn't mind a more powerful processor and Bluetooth 4.0.
I thought about complaining about no expandable storage -- especially because of the larger file sizes of the Lumia 1020's shots -- but you can easily get by with cloud-storage solutions. Microsoft's SkyDrive will give you 7GB of free storage and the Nokia Lumia 1020 comes with 50GB of free cloud storage from the AT&T Locker service.
I'm more of a Dropbox man but these are viable options to augment your phone's storage. Just be sure to make sure you only upload over Wi-Fi or else you may go over your data cap.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 has the speaker on the bottom and it gets pretty loud for speaker calls and music. There's not much distortion even at the highest volumes.
The right spine has the power, volume rocker and camera buttons and these work well. The microUSB slot is on the bottom while the standard headphone jack and SIM slot rest on the top. No complaints with either of these.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 comes in three colors: white, black and a canary yellow. I have the yellow unit and it's a bright canary yellow that will undoubtedly draw attention. It's not too garish or eye-piercing but if I had my druthers, I'd pick the black one. All three have a nice matte finish.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 isn't the skinniest phone on the block but it's well-designed and packed with enough power to satisy all but the pickiest of you.
Software, Coverage and Battery Life
The Nokia Lumia 1020 runs Windows Phone 8 and it's delightful software that may have a few issues for some of you.
Windows Phone 8 is a beautiful and fresh operating system. If you've ever used Windows 8 or the Xbox, you'll be right at home with the live tile interface on the Nokia Lumia 1020.
Every app is represented as a customizable tile that can update with information or icons. Your mail app can display a number to show you how many messages you have and your Peoples tile can flash your friend's face to show they've updated their social network.
Windows Phone 8 is also a very stylish platform, as I first thought it looked like a living high-gloss magazine. That means there are always a lot of neat transition animations between your screens and some visually-appealing layouts for many apps and services. It's easy to pick up but if you're coming from iPhone, Android or BlackBerry, there may be some transition pains.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 works extremely well with Microsoft's services and it comes preloaded with Office and Xbox Live software. Google and other emails work with the Lumia 1020 but I've found that Outlook generally works the best. The Internet Explorer browser is also pretty good but I would love a bit more competition from third parties. Bing is the default search engine and you can't change that.
Nokia also includes a few of its own apps on this such as the aforementioned Nokia Pro Cam app. We can't wait for that app to eventually come to other Lumia devices down the road because it's fantastic overall. The Nokia HERE suite is also here and the Maps, Transit, Drive and City Lens are pretty useful, although I kind of wished those were rolled all into one.
AT&T also has its fingers in the Nokia Lumia 1020 pie and the coolest one is the AT&T Locker with 50GB of free cloud storage. You also get the FamilyMap, AT&T Address Book, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Radio, the myAT&T monitoring app and AT&T Mobile TV. I don't find many of these that useful but at least it's very easy to delete them permanently from your phone.
The combination of hardware and software optimization really shine with the Nokia Lumia 1020. The phone performs extremely well, as apps run quickly and games look fantastic. There's a very pleasing look and feel to the software on the Nokia Lumia 1020.
I still have some fundamental issues with Windows Phone, as I still would like to see a unified notification center and the ability to kill apps when you're in the multitasking mode. I also think that some of the style can get in the way. I'd rather the phone move to the next app quicker instead of having me wait for a fancy transition animation.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 also suffers from the weak Windows Phone 8 app ecosystem. This phone is just crying out for Instagram but it's not available and there's no word on when it will be coming. You can also not expect official apps from Dropbox, Google or that hot new startup service you've just fallen in love with.
To be fair, the app story is getting much better. Vine, Flipboard and others will be on Windows Phone 8 soon and the media and music selection is great. You can buy songs from Microsoft or just use the free Nokia Music for mix radio stations. Netflix, Hulu Plus and Microsoft's video store should be able to handle your video content needs.
The AT&T 4G LTE network is great in terms of coverage and speeds here in the San Francisco Bay Area. AT&T has come a long way and it's network is now arguably the fastest around. Voice quality on the Nokia Lumia 1020 was also pretty good but you can tell that the person is using a cell phone, I was told.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a 2000mAh battery and I haven't had a chance to properly put it through its paces. I'm confident it will provide a full working day based on a single charge but I'll update this section in a few days with the real-world results. AT&T is promising up the 12.5 hours of talk time and up to 12(!) days of standby time.
The Final Take
If you want the phone with the best camera on the market, the Nokia Lumia 1020 should be your next phone. The cool thing about the Lumia 1020 is that it offers great photos even if you're not a photo buff. If you are, it also gives you the tools to have a camera that definitely outclasses many standalone digital cameras.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 isn't just a one-trick pony, as it's also a nice Windows Phone 8 device. It's fast, fluid and will really fit into your life if you use a lot of Microsoft services. The software on the Nokia Lumia 1020 is just fun to use and you can also be productive with it.
On the down side, the phone is not the thinnest handset around and there are a few other smartphones which outclass it in terms of raw specs. Heavy Google or Apple users may have a difficult time adjusting to Windows Phone 8 and some of you may be turned off an app ecosystem that's not as strong as the iPhone or Android.
At $299 for the 32GB model, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is the same price as the equivalent iPhone 5 but you're getting a much better camera, particularly if you're willing to manually offload the pictures.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a good phone with a great camera ... how can I not recommend it?
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is available for preorder now and it will hit retail stores July 26. It costs $299 with a two-year contract and $659.99 outright. Find out more at AT&T's site.
Specifications
Length
5.13 inches
Weight
5.56 ounces
Thickness
0.41 inches
Width
2.81 inches
Screen Size
4.5-inch AMOLED PureMotion HD+
Network
AT&T
Internet
4G LTE
Operating System
Windows Phone 8
Battery Standby
2000 mAh
Browser
Internet Explorer
Built-in Memory
32GB
Camera Resolution
41 megapixels
Designer Lens
Carl Zeiss
Video Resolution
1080p
Flash
Xenon
Nokia
Windows Phone
Nokia Lumia 1020