Nokia Lumia 1020 full Review

Can a brilliant camera alone save the once-great
brand?
We check out the simply astounding camera on
the new Lumia 1020… but does it forgive
Windows Phone 8?
There's no doubt that Nokia knows how to make
a phone, and with the 41MP sensor on the Lumia
1020, we're pretty excited.
There's a new level of RAM inside, a decent 32GB
of memory (with larger sizes on the way) and the
whole device has been slimmed down to an
almost impossible level when you consider how
much technology has been packed in.
There's the obvious elephant in the room: it's
still running Windows Phone 8, which many will
see as a negative, thanks to a lack of apps and
power compared to its counterparts.
It's a notion that's a little unfair, given that while
it does have a processor that graced handsets
from last year, Nokia and Microsoft have put a
lot of effort into making an OS that plays well
with a CPU without requiring the heavy lifting of
a quad core option.
It still struggles when taking pictures and saving
them instantly, but the time isn't horrendous and
seems in keeping with what you'd expect when
making photos of around 15MB.
The design of the Nokia Lumia 1020 is
something of a marvel when considered in
context. It's a lot thinner than last year's 808
Pureview, yet does that while packing in more
technology, thanks to the addition of optical
image stabilisation.
This new OIS actually uses ball bearings and
little motors to keep things all shapely, which
Nokia claims you can hear working when you
wiggle the phone around when taking pictures.
Beyond that, it's mostly a Lumia 920 / Lumia
925 with a large sensor bolted onto the back. It's
got a large and bulbous rear, as you might
expect given the large sensor and lens elements
needed for Pureview, but it's not bad when
lobbed in the pocket. As you can see by this
picture, the fingers do cover the sensor when
you're using the phone normally, which does feel
a little uncomfortable and may lead to smudges,
but it's not terrible thanks to the thinner overall
dimensions of the phone.
It's as impressive a piece of kit as anything else
in the Lumia range - that Puremotion HD+ screen
is OK, but at WXGA resolution it's a long way
from Full HD, which is one of the few easily
demonstrable areas where Android's HTC One
and Samsung Galaxy S4 excel. The screen is
good in outside light and such, but we'd still
rather see something sharper here.
The camera functionality is something we'd have
trouble saying too much about, as there's simply
so much excellence under the hood when you
quickly snap a photo or two. We'll talk about a
few of the negatives: for instance, the camera
app is curiously sliced up into three. You've got
the standard Windows Phone 8 app, the new
Nokia Smart Camera, and the even more nascent
Nokia Pro Camera, all of which have very
different functions.
You've also got the issue of speed of snappery:
the Lumia 1020 does take a while to take and
process a picture, but given we're looking at
options that top out at 15MB with an incredible
level of detail, the pace of photography doesn't
feel too bad.
There's a whole world to play with in the Pro
Camera app, and most of it is easy to use and
understand. The manual focus element was our
favourite, allowing you to set the focal length of
the Lumia 1020 with a simple wiggle of the
finger. You can easily open up all these options
by sliding the camera button to the right, which
was a rather neat trick.
The picture quality is just bamboozling. On stage
CEO Stephen Elop showed off some pictures
taken from a helicopter, and zooming in to show
fine levels of detail. These came out looking
rather noisy and blurry at full zoom, which we
encountered when playing with photos on the
device itself.
However, it's only when you get REALLY close up
does this effect show itself, and most of the time
you can easily zoom in most of the way on a
picture and see more information with pin-sharp
clarity. You also get the option of reframing the
picture when you've taken it, so whether you
want to change the aspect ratio, move the image
around or just rotate you can do so to get a new
snap.
Want to try again? Even after saving you can
head back in and re-open the original image, with
all the information stored right there. The
oversampling technique is really effective, and we
really like that you can take 5MP snaps from the
full 38MP option for Facebook sharing and the
like. It's odd you can't seem to save the photos
you've re-framed, but it's still a nice feature, and
you might be able to log your crops somewhere
else in the phone.
Video quality deserves a nod here, as it's simply
awesome. The same oversampling technique has
been used to good effect, and a video of some
bees which was zoomed into during the filming
was simply mind-blowing - the image below is
from about a foot and a half away, which shows
just how much detail can be captures.
Nokia Lumia 1020 review
While we're in love with the Pro Camera
functionality, Nokia appears to be persisting with
this idea of putting the name of the app, be it
Pro Camera, Smart Camera or Cinemgraph under
each photo to allow you to open the app. It
seems a bit too much to ask people to do this,
as it's not an intuitive gesture and doesn't seem
to be overly obvious.
It would be far more useful as a menu option, or
just grouping all these app together under one
program, although Nokia hinted to TechRadar
that this was a technical limitation rather than
anything else.
We did notice one nice little touch though: your
most recent snap, when using the camera in Pro
mode, is shown in a little 'Chat Heads' style
circle in the top left-hand side of the screen, next
to the icon to look through all your gallery at
once. It's always good to review your snaps on
the go, and this provides an easy way to do so.
Nokia Lumia 1020 vs the Samsung Galaxy S4
Zoom vs Nokia 808 Pureview
We managed to get our hands on the Samsung
Galaxy S4 Zoom while playing with the Lumia
1020, and the differences between the two were
startling. From the ugly design of the Zoom to
the lower-power innards, there was no doubt the
Lumia 1020 was head and shoulders above
Samsung's favourite cameraphone. It's not a
strictly fair fight, as the Zoom is a lot cheaper
than the new Nokia flagship, but its decision to
go with an optical zoom has ruined it in the
design stakes.
The Nokia Lumia 808 Pureview, on the other
hand, was a lot more impressive when compared
to the new device. If you've used a Pureview in
the past, we suggest you go back and pick it up
again - we remember it being a lot more chunky
in the hand.
It's still shown up by the svelte Lumia 1020,
which also doesn't have the problem of being
forced to run on Symbian, and there's no doubt
that the power of the camera in the new Lumia is
a real winner compared to last year's technology.
Accessories
There were two options on offer when it comes
to accessorising your Nokia Lumia 1020, and the
first is one we can see most people purchasing
to get the most out of their new device.
The battery and grip for the Lumia 1020 is
something that adds a huge amount of heft to
the device, but at least brings the battery up
from a paltry 2000mAh to 3020mAh, and will be
a must-have for the power user. It's a fairly
cheap-feeling chassis cover, but when snapped
on offers a real amount of grip, and the cheap
feeling translates into a lower weight than you'd
expect. It's being sold for $79 (around £50)
which is a lot for a piece of plastic and battery,
but like we said: worth it.
The other accessory is the wireless cover, which
we're a little confused by. Does Nokia like
wireless charging or not? Like the Lumia 925
before it, there's no inbuilt use of the technology,
so you have to plop on a lightweight cover. It's
snug and brings an element of colour to
proceedings, although there are black, white and
yellow options to match your device.
Beyond that, the rest is very much the same fare
we're used to seeing from Nokia on its devices.
There was a noticeable uptick in the speed with
which web pages loaded, which we put down to
an upgraded amount of RAM. However, the rest
of the phone was still as snappy as ever, the
animations making it hard to move from one app
to another, but that's a limitation of Microsoft's
OS, not Nokia's.
The Here functionality, which allows you to get
transport info, sat nav tracking, commute
information and a huge mapping application that
is only bettered by Google Maps, and is a real
USP at the lower end of the Lumia range. For a
device that could be rather costly, we'd expect
such a thing, but there's no doubt that it works
well.
Early verdict
We really, really like the Lumia 1020 as a device.
Yes, it's more camera than phone, but the
balance is a lot more even than before, and it will
really appeal to all of those who want to make
sure they get the best out of their everyday
memories. It's going to irk all of those that
bought the Nokia Lumia 925, as that phone was
being sold on its camera credentials too, and
now this is a much better version with more RAM
- albeit with a larger rear section.
But talking about it in those terms does it a
disservice, as the Nokia Lumia 1020 is a phone
that makes you want to go out there and start
snapping as many things as you can find - which
was the same way we felt about the HTC One
and its Ultrapixel camera.
This is the other end of the scale, taking massive
technology and shrinking it right down to make
something really unique on the market. There's
no doubt it would have benefited from a memory
card slot (the 808 had one Nokia, so your
argument that it's not needed reeks of covering
for Microsoft which doesn't want them on its
phones so people will use SkyDrive).
The Lumia 1020 is a phone that will give people
pause in their phone shop before deciding which
handset to get... they may not buy one, but it's a
move in the right direction for Nokia and it needs
all the help it can get in growing its brand back
to the high times of before. This just may be the
phone to start that shift properly.