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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kyuu - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Even though no OEM has currently taken advantage of it, I could've sworn that WP8 already has support for removable microSD storage.michaelljones - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
It does, but it doesn't treat it that way you'd think of like Android does. There are ways to make it save all your pictures, audio, etc. to the SD card, but it's not seamless.michaelljones - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Oh, and there ARE OEM's taking advantage of it. My wife's VZW Lumia 820 has a removable back and removable SD card. She just never takes it out. *shrugs*kyuu - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Ah right, sorry. I forgot that Nokia's non-flagship phones have removable microSDs. Damn, I really can't fathom why they view that as a lower-end feature that can't be included in their flagships.michaelljones - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Form over function. Thank Steve and the fruit company.4wayhandshake - Sunday, July 14, 2013 - link
WP does support removable storage but it has issues -- even WP 7 supported it.For example, since there's not native file manager you can't relocate files. You cannot control where apps are installed, so there no way to install them there either. If you can't relocate apps or control where they store their data, what good is it?
MS needs to fix these issues before it's really of use.
jeffkibuule - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
It's the stock Android camera UI Google has always wanted to build, done right!juicytuna - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
How big is the sensor? I'm hearing it's been reduced from 1/1.2" to 2/3" which explains the significantly slimmer bump than the 808. If that is the case, I wonder what it means for the image quality.michaelljones - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
Nokia lists it as 1/1.5". http://www.nokia.com/global/products/phone/lumia10...Drazick - Thursday, July 11, 2013 - link
This looks amazing.Probably should be everyone's next smartphone.