Nokia Lumia 1020 Full Review !! Best Camera On A Smartphone.

Design  

If this looks familiar to you, then you shouldn’t be surprised in the very least, since the Lumia 1020 employs all the characteristic design elements of its predecessor(s). By now, the unibody polycarbonate design of the handset is pretty much expected, but instead of sporting a glossy chassis, it has this strange matte finish to it – making it less prone to smudges and fingerprints. Unfortunately, seeing that it’s packing one hell of a beefy camera in its rear, it’s profile is nowhere as bulimic thin as some of the other flagship devices out there.

Honestly, the hump in its rear makes it a bit awkward holding and using the device at first, but after some adjustment, it doesn’t become too much of a nuisance – albeit, it still feels a bit alien. Sure, it’s top heavy due to all the hardware stuffed into its camera housing, but when we think about a 41-megapixel camera, we’re surprised how light it really is, especially over the 808 PureView. Overall, the handset still has an appealing design seeing that it very much looks like a smartphone first with an impressive camera attached to it – as opposed to being designed as camera first, with the smartphone part being secondary.

Much like other flagship Lumia smartphones, this is packing the same set of buttons and ports around its body – they include the familiar trio of capacitive Windows Phone buttons, microUSB port, 3.5mm headset jack, noise-cancelling mic, standard mic, power button, volume control, and two-level shutter key.

Without question the star of the show, the Lumia 1020 is most notable for its mind-boggling 41-megapixel PureView camera – you know, that noticeable bulge in the rear. Knowing that it’s the single most prized feature of the handset, Nokia made sure to arm it with some serious technology. For starters, it features a 1/1.5” sensor, which is actually smaller than the 1/1.2” one in the 808 PureView. Now don’t let that fool you, mainly because its size is what helps to keep the Lumia 1020 far more admiring in size than its far cousin. Rounding things out, it also packs along a six-element lens with ZEISS optics, second-gen optical image stabilization (OIS), backside illuminated sensor, 3x lossless zoom, LED flash, and a Xenon flash.

Display

We really can’t blame Nokia with this one, just because it’s limited to what the Windows Phone 8 platform is able to handle at the moment. Sharing the same exact displays found in the recent Lumia 928 and Lumia 925 models, the handset’s 4.5-inch 768 x 1280 PureMotion HD+ display with ClearBlack technology is beginning to sound stale. At the very least, we want a 1080p display, just to keep it in the same company as other high-end models on the market. Despite the fact that there’s no improvement with this particular display, it’s still pleasant looking with its iridescent color reproduction, deep black color, and wide viewing angles. And at the same time, its resolution is effective enough for us to make out even fine text in the web browser – albeit, it’s obviously not as sharp as the competition.

Camera

Taking a glance at today’s flagship smartphones, they’re all packing some fantastic cameras that would easily make them point and shoot replacements. Some emphasize low light performance, while others manage to shine thanks to their exorbitant amount of shooting modes and control. Well folks, you get the best of both worlds with the Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41-megapixel PureView camera, but on top of that, it’s gunning to capture the absolute best details on any camera phone out there. Let’s find out why that’s the case! 

Technology:

The Nokia Lumia 1020 actually has a very large by smartphone standards, but it’s still a smaller sensor than the one in the 808 PureView. While the one on the 808 measures 1/1.2” in size, the 1020 has a 1/1.5” sensor. What this means is that you have less space and smaller pixels. Without the oversampling, the

 physical size of pixels on the Lumia 1020 is 1.12µm compared to the larger 1.34µm on the 808.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 has some key advantages that come with that smaller sensor. The most obvious is the physical size of the device, it’s much slimmer than the chubby 808 PureView. Next, the small size made it possible for Nokia to include optical image stabilization (OIS) that allows for longer exposure times and ultimately better video and low light shots

Image Quality 

When taking shots with the Lumia 1020, it produces two sets of images, which tends to add some delay between each shot. To be precise, it saves a sharing-friendly 5-megapixel sample, and the higher 38-megapixel one. Frankly, it’s amazing at how much of the scenery that the Nokia Lumia 1020 is able to capture with its higher resolution sample. There’s nothing compromised whatsoever with the results, which particularly are best seen with snapshots taken with plenty of lighting. Details are astoundingly sharp, enabling us to view even some details that are sometimes softened the further back they are in the background. Better yet, it excels with macro shots as well, seeing that its focus can hone in on one particular point in the shot – thus, producing a pleasing bokeh effect to the background. In terms of color reproduction, we can’t complain either about its accuracy, as it’s able to cast a very neutral stance.

Under low lighting situations, the only time we find it struggling is when it’s completely pitch dark outside. Sure, its optical image stabilization helps to minimize blurring, but it’s not something we can entirely escape. Essentially, its details tend appear more soft in tone, but it’s able to significantly brighten up the shot – much better than what we see with comparable shots taken by the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4. However, when photos are taken when there’s a bit of lighting present, it’s able to draw out more sharp looking details with its shot, and at the same time, its Xenon flash casts a potent lighting to cover everything evenly – and without over or underexposing certain areas. Frankly, its quality is unrivaled at the moment!

Battery 

During our first day of using the Nokia Lumia 1020, we were totally shocked by the poor 10 hours of battery life it was able to churn out. However, we soon realized that the culprit behind the poor result was due to Windows Phone’s ‘glance’ feature, which discretely displays the time whenever the handset times out. After disabling it, we’re able to push the smartphone into the 18 hour mark of normal usage. It’s not bad per se, nor is it class leading – so it’s pretty much close to average.

Conclusion:

If you haven’t noticed it yet, we’re a society that inherently loves to record our lives in digital imagery. Naturally, people are just inclined to snap photos, even random things they come across, just because they want to have that memory ingrained into their minds. Ever since the first set of camera phones hit the market, we’ve seen people take their devices to capture the moment – raw and uncut, ready to share with friends and acquaintances.

Needless to say, the Nokia Lumia 1020 would’ve been a device thought to be impossible a couple of years ago, but here we are checking out a smartphone with an insane 41-megapixel camera attached to it – plus, it’s considerably better looking in design than the 808 PureView. Let’s cut to the chase here folks, this is hand down, without question, the absolute best camera phone on the market. It’s undoubtedly a point and shoot replacement in every way imaginable, seeing that it delivers in its features set, quality, and precision control, to capture the utmost best photos. Unlike the 808, the Lumia 1020 greatly benefits with Windows Phone’s always sprawling ecosystem, which at times might put off power users, but heck, it’s still able to please a wide audience.