N8’s successor: Nokia launches Nokia808 camera mobile

The phone is the first to feature PureView technology.

KARACHI: After back to back launches – including a global handset launch from Pakistan – of mid-to-low end feature phones, Nokia shifted gears back to the smartphone market. The world’s largest mobile phones vendor unveiled a topnotch product Nokia808, a smartphone featuring extraordinary imaging capabilities – with Nokia ‘PureView’ technology – here on Friday.

Powered by Symbian Belle Feature Pack 1, the high resolution camera phone is expected to sell at $550 and will hit Pakistani market by the end of this month, as stated by Head of Communications and PR for Nokia Pakistan and Afghanistan Adeel Hashmi, during a preview event for selected journalists and bloggers.

“This device is for people who are creative and want to experiment,” Hashmi pitched, adding that the device offers better performance in low light conditions, more spontaneous capture and faster and easier sharing.

The 808 is the first smartphone to feature Nokia’s PureView imaging technologies – a combination of a large, super high resolution 41 megapixel with high performance Carl Zeiss optics. The smartphone has the ability to capture and condense up to seven pixels of information into one perfect pixel, a process called pixel oversampling. The main attractions of the phone are better image quality, lossless zoom, and superior low light performance.

The entire focus of the official presentation, in the preview event, remained on Nokia’s PureView technology and camera functions of the smartphone, suggesting it has been made specifically for the camera lovers wanting to capture high resolution photos and videos for immediate sharing. The feelings, both bloggers and journalists had from the event were as if the event was about an upcoming camera, and not the smartphone.

Unlike typical smartphones, the accessories that come along with the smartphone are also meant for camera – Nokia808 buyers will get the camera mount and tripod for free.

The PureView technology also allows users to look into smaller details in a picture, Nokia’s Product Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan Imran Khan said during a demo session. “You can not only capture the big picture but also pin point small details and this is what this technology is all about,” he added.

The device comes with default settings mainly for spontaneous pictures; its 16:9 viewfinder can capture up to 30 frames per second – the higher shutter speed allows one to freeze fast moving objects especially on sports mode. The device also offers portrait mode and creative (manual) mode for controlling camera functions – iso and shutter speed.

It has a huge 41 megapixels camera sensor, eight times larger than typical smartphones; Khan said, adding that the sensor captures seven times more details than a typical smartphone – twice the information any consumer centric digital camera (including digital SLR camera) can capture. The device, however, is not compatible with 3D imaging nor offers panoramic view feature, Khan said while responding to a question.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2012.