Nokia has deviated from the norm with the release of Pureview 808 last June. While leading phone developers have concentrated on coming up with phones that feature the fastest mobile browsing experience, the Pureview 808 is the first phone of any kind to offer a whopping 41 megapixel camera. Clearly, this camera was built by the Finnish brand with a specific target market in mind.
The Specs
The Pureview is built with taking excellent pictures in mind using its main feature, its camera. Like many Nokia phones, this is a Symbian handset, featuring the Belle OS, which runs on a 1.3 GHz ARM 11 central processor and 512 RAM. This OS promises to make the unit more responsive and appealing with regards to design.
It has a 4-inch AMOLED, capacitive touchscreen display which is perfect for exhibiting those detailed photos that were taken from its camera. The built feels sturdy and is mostly made of polycarbonate material. It is quite heavy at 169 grams, which is understandably so, given the weight and width that the high-powered camera has. Typical of Nokia handsets are the 3.5 mm jack and HDMI ports that are found on the Pureview as well.
The Pros
Presently, this is the best camera phone in the market because it can deliver detailed and high quality photos with its Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens. Nokia does outperform others when it comes to phone cameras. It also comes with a photography software that is excellent for both amateur and professional photographers.
Also, aside from its monstrous cam sensor, the Nokia Pureview 808 has a durable feel because of its weight. Others might not fancy this but those who love heavily-built phones, the 808 is a good choice.
Outside, although it is made of plastic, it looks tough, has a good finish and is quite arresting on white. It comes in two other different colors: red and black. The responsiveness of the touchscreen is also a big improvement from the Nokia N8.
It also has a very good standby and talk time for a smart phone and running Symbian applications will not easily drain the battery.
The Cons
The reason why the Pureview’s 32gb expandable memory is listed under this section is because this is not enough to store many photos that were taken using its higher camera sensor. Also, this phone works on Symbian, which is allegedly going to be shelved in place of Windows OS, Android or other future possible operating systems sooner or later.
Another downside for this phone is that with its mind-blowing camera features, the operating system cannot handle too much pressure and the device is prone to crashing.
Also, Symbian offers less applications compared to Android and IOS, so this definitely not a good choice for people who are dependent on applications.
It also has a smaller display as compared to other phones that it is being pitted against like the HTC Titan II and Nokia’s very own Lumia 900.
The Verdict
Nokia Pureview 808 is a breakout from the usual high-speed browsing and is obviously for photo-loving individuals with its hair-raising cam features. However, Nokia falls short of making the mobile phone photography an easy experience since the operating system is not enough to handle processing of this magnitude.
Many people feel like the mammoth camera sensor was only added to attract people and keep them from buying phones with excellent processing speed and capacities.
However, this phone also cements Nokia’s prowess in creating phones with the best cameras and with its looming shift to Windows operating system, this could change the landscape of the industry because it will make Nokia phones a lot more competitive.
Personally, I think that a Pureview phone with a higher memory (expandable and RAM), faster CPU, a Windows OS and a bigger screen size will definitely take the market by storm.
