A Nokia Worth Attention, But Not for Why You'd Think

The new Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone is worth paying attention to, but not for the reason you've heard.

The key figure in Nokia's ads and marketing is 41 -- as in, the number of megapixels of the Lumia's camera. That's a crazy number, triple what any other manufacturer except Nokia itself with its 808 PureView (which runs the old Symbian operating system, as opposed to the Lumia's Windows Phone 8) has ever put into a smartphone.

The thing is, the number of megapixels, while important, is vastly overrated in evaluating smartphone cameras. Where it matters most is in maintaining sharpness at large sizes. Now, when was the last time you printed a poster from a photo taken on your phone?

In fact, photos that pixel-dense can be a problem in real life; they take up lots of storage space and don't lend themselves easily to sharing.

So now that we've disposed of that, here's what's important about the 1020: the camera.

Nokia has included several features not found on many phones, including an optical image stabilizer and backlit sensor, which make an appreciable difference in picture quality. The 1020 is particularly good in low-light situations or those with complex scenes, such as a night baseball game with areas both brightly lit and pitch-black.

The Lumia also includes several apps and features that give photographers who know what they're doing a level of control not typical for smartphone cameras.

The default camera app, Nokia Pro Cam, provides settings for ISO, shutter speed, white balance and manual focus, among other things. Another Nokia app, Smart Cam, captures a series of shots and identifies the best one, while allowing you to do such tricks as erasing a moving image or choosing the best faces -- eyes open, everyone! -- in a group shot.

There are other nice aspects of the Lumia 1020 besides the camera. Its screen, 4.5 inches, is neither too big nor too small; its 1280 by 768 resolution, while not the highest around, is more than sufficient. At 5.6 ounces, it's not exactly featherweight, but is noticeably lighter than earlier Lumias that tended toward the bricklike.

And while Windows Phone 8 hasn't exactly set the app-developing world afire, it remains an attractive and capable operating system, augmented here by not only Nokia's camera apps but by its Here service, a rival to Google Maps.

Still, none of those other features are enough to justify the Lumia 1020's premium price -- $299 on a two-year contract from AT&T for a model with 32 gigabytes of storage. For that kind of money, you have to be the kind of user who'll be able to extract maximum benefit from its camera-related features. Point-and-shooters need not apply.[via]