Is it a smartphone or a camera? Well, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is a brilliant smartphone and an awesome camera. The Lumia 1020 is a smartphone running Windows Phone 8 operating system and packing in a 41-megapixel camera within a sleek and stylish form factor.
Apart from the delicious 4.5-inch display with 1280-by-768 resolution, the front face of the phone features a camera and the earpiece for your calls. The front facing camera is 1.2 megapixels and can record in 720p video. The real use for this second camera is for video calls, especially over Skype that is built into the phone, now that Microsoft owns Skype.
Design-wise, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is quite a lot like the Lumia 920, but with a matt finish. The phone;s body is made of polycarbonate, like most phones in the Lumia series, and hence it is a bit chunky and heavy phone. But then, when you take into account the 41-megapiel camera built into a slim body, the little bit of extra chunk is no longer an issue.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 weighs 158-gms and measure 10.4mm thick, making it significantly less slim than its three key rivals – the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Apple iPhone 5S and the HTC One. Having said that, the Lumia 1020’s screen comes packed with Clear Black Display and PureMotion HD+ technologies, and hence the screen works well in direct sunlight. The screen also has Gorilla Glass 3 protection, making it strong as well as very usable.
At the bottom part of the device you have the normal Windows Phone capitative keys seen on all phones. These are for going back a step with the back arrow, a Windows button to take you back to the main screen at any time and finally a search button with quick access to Bing. This is for normal searching plus location, music and barcode scanning.
When you turn the phone around, you come face to face to the phone’s biggest feature – the 41-megapixel camera. With the Lumia 1020, Nokia seems to have thought of everything related to the camera feature. The PureView technology in the sensor not only gets a massive amount of information captured due to the 41-megapixels, it also is great for low light conditions, something that was also found on the Lumia 925.
Nokia has also added a Xenon flash which is something we have loved on previous Nokia phones such as the N8 and the 808 PureView. This Xenon flash makes all the difference in poor lighting conditions and helps you capture some amazing photos.
The Lumia 1020 also features optical image stabilisation, a backside-illuminated image sensor, 6-lens optics, and 3x high resolution zoom. It’s also possible to zoom into images after they have been taken without losing any detail. Images captured using the PureView lens is simply superb with near-perfect colour reproduction and astounding low-light performance.
Taking high-quality snaps is as easy as pointing and clicking. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a wealth of easy-to-use settings and parameters. The Lumia 1020 has the most comprehensive imaging suite we’ve tested on a phone and you can spend hours tinkering with the settings. Images can be edited using built-in apps such as the Smart Camera, Cinemagraph lens, Panorama lens, Bing vision, PhotoBeamer, Creative Studio, Glam Me and Pro Camera. All these features are both intuitive and fun to use.
Specs-wise, the Lumia 1020 is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and 2GB of RAM. Nokia currently offers the Lumia 1020 in two storage varieties: 32GB and 64GB. However, expandable memory support is missing, but that is compensated by bundling in 7GB of free SkyDrive storage, which is really handy for storing images and documents.
Connectivity features include all the latest standards including 4G, 3G, Wi-Fi, NFC, and so on. The Nokia Lumia 1020 packs in a 2000mAh battery. We managed to get a battery backup of approximately a day with intensive usage. With normal usage such as texting, calls, imaging, gaming, and web browsing, you can look at something around 14 hours of battery life, before charging the Lumia 1020 again.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is an awesome device. It has an excellent camera, brilliant apps targeted at aspiring shutterbugs, a good overall design, and good battery life and performance. Hence, the Nokia Lumia 1020 is recommended, if you are on the market for a brilliant smartphone that also packs in excellent camera features.
Price: AED 2650
Specifications:Primary camera sensor size: 41 MP, PureView
Camera Flash Type: Xenon Flash
Display size: 4.5-inches
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4
Operating System: Windows Phone 8
Maximum 3G talk time: 13.3 hours
Wireless charging: Yes, with accessory cover
Weight: 158-gms
Display features: PureMotion HD+, Brightness control, High brightness mode, Refresh rate 60 Hz, Sculpted glass, Easy to clean, Nokia Glance screen, Lumia Color profile, Wide viewing angle, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, Sunlight readability enhancements
SIM card type: Micro SIM
RAM: 2 GB
Internal storage: 32GB
Free cloud storage: 7GB
