We’re here at the Nokia office today for a short hands-on session of the company’s 41-megapixel 808 PureView smartphone. Announced at Mobile World Congress, this particular smartphone is one of the most unique devices to come out of Nokia’s stable so far, considering that it’s megapixel count is considerably higher than some cameras and DSLRs.
The overall size of the 808 PureView is 123.9 x 60.2 x 13.9mm, which bulges out to 17.95mm once you get to the sensor. The 808 PureView is around 169 grams, which is considerably heavier than most other smartphones out there especially at the sensor end. The body is a polycarb deal with a fine textured finish which feels a bit weird at first. The 4-inch screen uses a AMOLED ClearBlack display which has a resolution of 640 x 360, which is a bit disappointing, given the display type used. We think it’s a limitation of the Sybian Belle OS on the device itself, as Nokia’s Lumia range of smartphones have higher resolution displays.
The entire appeal of the 808 PureView is the 41-megapixel sensor, which if you can recall is the biggest one in any smartphone out today. The focal length for the 808 PureView is 8.02mm – when compared to a 35mm focal length, it’s equivalent to 26mm at 16:9, and 28mm at 4:3. Shooting the 808 PureView is easy, and there are several shooting modes available for users, as well as the option to control the shooting type and resolution used. We did notice during shooting that the 808 PureView showed us that we were only taking pictures at 38-megapixels and not 41. That’s because while the 41-megapixel sensor is square, no one really takes square pictures – some parts of the sensor gets cropped out depending on the aspect ratio you use.
That doesn’t mean that the shots aren’t great – in fact, we’ve added some of the shots below for you guys to check out. And even though the 808 PureView runs on a single core 1.3GHz processor, the overall user experience wasn’t terrible – in fact, it was pretty good, with the device being responsive during our time with it. Obviously our time with it was only limited, but for what it is, the device ran pretty well.
(Click the pictures below to see it in the full resolution)
