Nokia Announces Lumia 1020 - 41 MP PureView and Windows Phone (Update: Hands On and Video)
by Brian Klug on July 11, 2013 10:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Nokia
- Mobile
- Lumia
- lumia 1020

Today at Nokia's Zoom Reinvented event, the handset maker announced the newest member of its Lumia family of Windows Phone devices, the Lumia 1020. The handset includes a PureView 41 MP system and 6-element optical system with optical image stabilization, making it similar to the PureView 808. The Lumia 1020 is Nokia's new flagship with the most advanced imaging that Nokia has to offer. I've put together a table with the specifications that have already posted
Camera Emphasized Smartphone Comparison | |||||||
Samsung Galaxy Camera (EK-GC100) | Nokia PureView 808 | Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom | Nokia Lumia 1020 | ||||
CMOS Resolution | 16.3 MP | 41 MP | 16.3 MP | 41 MP | |||
CMOS Format | 1/2.3", 1.34µm pixels | 1/1.2", 1.4µm pixels | 1/2.3", 1.34µm pixels | 1/1.5", 1.12µm pixels | |||
CMOS Size | 6.17mm x 4.55mm | 10.67mm x 8.00mm | 6.17mm x 4.55mm | ||||
Lens Details |
4.1 - 86mm (22 - 447 35mm equiv) F/2.8-5.9 OIS |
8.02mm (28mm 35mm equiv) F/2.4 |
4.3 - 43mm (24-240 mm 35mm equiv) F/3.1-F/6.3 OIS |
PureView 41 MP, BSI, 6-element optical system, xenon flash, LED, OIS | |||
Display | 1280 x 720 (4.8" diagonal) | 640 x 360 (4.0" diagonal) | 960 x 540 (4.3-inch) | 1280 x 768 (4.5-inch) | |||
SoC | Exynos 4412 (Cortex-A9MP4 at 1.4 GHz with Mali-400 MP4) | 1.3 GHz ARM11 | 1.5 GHz Exynos 4212 | 1.5 GHz Snapdragon MSM8960 | |||
Storage | 8 GB + microSDXC | 16 GB + microSDHC | 8 GB + microSDHC | 32 GB | |||
Video Recording | 1080p30, 480p120 | 1080p30 | 1080p30 | 1080p30 | |||
OS | Android 4.1 | Symbian Belle | Android 4.2 | Windows Phone 8 | |||
Connectivity | WCDMA 21.1 850/900/1900/2100, 4G, 802.11a/b/g/n with 40 MHz channels, BT 4.0, GNSS | WCDMA 14.4 850/900/1700/1900/2100, 802.11b/g/n, BT 3.0, GPS | WCDMA 21.1 850/900/1900/2100, 4G LTE SKUs, 802.11a/b/g/n with 40 MHz channels, BT 4.0, GNSS |
Quad band edge, WCDMA 42 850/900/1900/2100 LTE bands 1,3,7,20,8 |
From the outside, the Lumia 1020 looks a lot like the Lumia 920 but with a different camera module. The PureView system inside the 1020 takes either 16:9 and 4:3 pictures alongside a 5 MP oversampled version, rather than the either-or approach that the PureView 808 took. Nokia has also gone to its own camera application called Nokia Pro Camera which offers manual controls beyond the stock camera application from WP8. The Lumia 1020 also is compatible with an optional camera grip that includes a 1020 mAh battery, tripod mount, and two step camera button. There's also a wireless charging back add-on.
On the network side, the Lumia 1020 variant I've seen specs for have quad band GSM/EDGE and WCDMA, and LTE bands 1,3,7,20,8. Obviously the AT&T version coming will have LTE bands 4,17.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 will be available starting July 26th for $299.99 with a 2 year agreement, and preorders on att.com will start July 16th.
We're going to get hands on with the Lumia 1020 shortly.
Update: Just got to play with the Lumia 1020. It's thinner than expected, and doesn't have much of a camera bulge at all. Nokia's camera application is buttery smooth and has excellent manual controls. I'm impressed with how easy it is to get around and quickly dive into custom exposure time, ISO, focus, and so forth, and reset those changes to default. It's somewhat similar to the Galaxy Camera, but whereas that UI was somewhat slow occasionally, the Lumia 1020 is very smooth and fast.
The camera grip feels very solid, not flimsy at all. The two stage camera button is communicative and works just like the button on the device and activates the application if you hold it down just like one would expect. I can see the camera grip being a popular accessory for people who want to extract every bit of camera from the Lumia 1020. I played with the rest of the camera UI and gallery, and on the whole it's essentially what you'd expect – like a better PureView 808 but running Windows Phone. On the whole smoother and more refined, in the chassis of a 920. Shot to shot latency is a bit long, but that's expected given the gigantic image size and processing, I suspect it might get faster if you disable the full size image storage and only keep the 5 MP oversampled versions, which there is an option for.
Source: Nokia
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melgross - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Why do you think so many other makers offer trivial amounts of flash? It's because flash for phones and tablets is EXPENSIVE! Just go and look at the better cards for cameras. You'll find that 32GB cards can cost as much as $100.This crap about flash costing $10 is a joke! That's the cheapest flash, which is designed for storage that doesn't change much. It has a very short life if you keep writing and erasing it. It's also extremely slow.
jjj - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
You actually have no idea what you are talking about and, while not very accurate (many pay less than that), you can easily go google for an isuppli teardown and see how they price it. If that's not enough and you dig deep you can find comments from execs from NAND makers about how much the NAND in phones costs.michaelljones - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
What it 'costs' and 'what someone will pay for it' are two different things.Bob Todd - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Your point is entirely irrelevant considering the BOM estimates are based on what the companies PAY for the components, not what it costs to manufacture them.kyuu - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Wrong.sherlockwing - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
HTC One 32GB is $200 on contract, I rest my case.Stoli89 - Saturday, July 13, 2013 - link
HTC One...caught using Nokia HAAC microphones for HTC's "Distortion Free Recording"...supply stopped by European court as it was deemed to violate Nokia Rich Recording's exclusivity. HTC Distortion Free Recording now under ITC review for patent infringement.HTC One Ultra pixels = 2.0 microns at 4 MP resolution
Nokia Lumia 1020 Super Pixels = 3.2 microns at 5MP resolution
Bob Todd - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Ignoring the fact that we know how much the flash costs from the BOM estimates that teardowns provide, Apple's own pricing disproves your theory. Yes, faster NAND is more expensive than slower NAND. But Apple charges $100 for a 16GB increase in NAND. And Apple charges the same $100 for a 64GB increase in NAND (from 64GB to 128GB). Apple isn't in the habit of losing money, so there is margin built into every one of those bumps.Winterblade - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
It's a midrange because of the specs, mainly it's not Full HD and it does not have the latest SoC, that being said, WP8 it's not nearly as demanding as android, or at least that's the impressión I got from playing with a lowish end Lumia that was butterly smooth (at least the OS navigation part :P).Kudos to Nokia for being able to cram that sensor in a such a slim body, now we only need a Lumia PureView phone with interchangeable lenses.
jjj - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
The great part about the low end Lumias is that they use Krait cores and that's why they are fast. Nokia is hold hostage by M$ not supporting anything else so they got to pay a bit more and use Krait even in the low end but the upside is that the phone is actually nice.