nokia 1020 Original Window Phone 8 NOKIA Lumia 1020 Unlocked WCDMA Dual-core 4.5″ HD 1080P 41.0MP 32GB WIFI GPS 3G Mobile phones

Nokia Lumia 1020 review: View from the top

Introduction

PureView is on its way down in history and while we loved the Nokia 808, it will be the Lumia 1020 that makes the name more than a footnote. With a modern OS and improved design of both the camera and the phone itself, the 1020 is Nokia’s – make that Microsoft’s – best bet at having the best mobile camera ever made.

This is probably what Microsoft was actually buying. Windows Phone handsets are getting lost in the high-end and it’s the Lumia 1020 that can raise the platform above the rabble of Androids and successive iPhones. The basic design has been around since the Lumia 800 (the Nokia N9 even), but nothing in the world can make a more decisive difference than the PureView camera.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 might as well be Nokia’s loudest bang on its way out (along with the to be announced Lumia 1520 phablet). And we’ll probably see the history repeat itself much like with the Nokia N9, where the last product of a lineup is always the greatest.

With 41MP resolution, the 1020 camera has twice as many pixels as its nearest competitors. Three times as many if you want optical image stabilization. And the sensor is four times as big as most smartphone sensors and more than twice as big as the second-biggest sensor. The 808 PureView had a bigger sensor, but it has since retired and it didn’t have the stabilization and bright aperture to begin with.

But we shouldn’t let our focus on the camera detract from the smartphone experience. The Nokia Lumia 1020 equals the best of the (admittedly not very populous) Windows Phone world and the opposing BlackBerry world. And with Microsoft’s tight control on the hardware allowing for optimizations not possible on Android, the 1020 shines throughout, not just in terms of camera.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• Quad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
• 4.5″ 16M-color PureMotionHD+ AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 1280 x 768 pixels; Corning Gorilla Glass 3; Nokia Glance
• 41MP PureView sensor (38MP effective), 1/1.5″ sensor size, 1.12µm, ZEISS lens, Optical Image Stabilization, xenon and LED flashes
• 1080p@30fps video recording; 4x lossless digital zoom
• 1.3MP front-facing camera
• Windows Phone 8 OS with Nokia Amber
• 1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset, 2GB of RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band
• GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS support
• Free lifetime voice-guided navigation
• 32GB of inbuilt storage; 64GB Telefonica/O2 exclusive version
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
• Wireless charging with optional accessories
• Built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port
• Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and file transfers
• SNS integration
• Xbox Live integration and Xbox management
• NFC support
• Digital compass
• Nokia Music
• FM radio