Final – Nokia Lumia 1020 vs Sony Xperia Z1 #SmartFone13

final-smartfone-13After two rounds of really close battles between 8 smartphones, we have come to the finals of the SmartFone 13 championship for the best smartphone of 2013. Two devices have made it to the finals and they are – Nokia Lumia 1020 and the Sony Xperia Z1. Both the phones are awesome on their own and have beaten two other capable smartphones to reach this stage, which removes even an iota of doubt on how great these two devices are. Both being the companies’ respective flagships are packed with innovations as well as top class features. But which one do you think is the best of the two? Do you think one of them is good enough to earn the title of “Best Smartphone of 2013”?

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Nokia highlights Refocus and RAW with great camera samples

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Apart from the marquee product launches of the Lumia 1520, the 1320 and the Lumia 2520 Windows tablet, two other announcements stood out from the Nokia World event, and the both were related to Nokia’s forte – imaging. The company announced a new imaging app for its Lumia smartphones called the Nokia Refocus, and also announced that the Lumia 1020 and the upcoming Lumia 1520 will be getting RAW support. With these announcements, the gap between Nokia and other companies in the imaging department became way wider than it is already. Especially with RAW, which is considered a landmark announcement for serious photographers who like to play around with the whole sensor’s data. Refocus too, kindled the “shoot first, focus later” mantra that the Lytro popularized. What you see above is a new sample from Nokia highlighting just that, and here is a fully interactive sample of the same picture above, using which you can change the focus –

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Nokia’s Refocus app for the Lumia 1020 and the 1520 lets you focus after you have taken the photo

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Lytro camera made one innovation really popular. It allowed people to refocus a photo AFTER taking one. This provided really nice possibilities for people to not care about focus and just look at composition. But the Lytro had a few drawbacks like low resolution images and proprietary controller, but then we saw news of Oppo planning to release the first MEMS camera with auto focus so fast that it could take 6 full resolution images in a split second with different focus points. But guess who is doing it first, with just an app? None other than Nokia. After launching the Lumia 1520, the Lumia 1320 and the Lumia 2520 devices, the company has let loose a lot of new camera related features for its PureView devices. The Refocus app is one them. Yes, they just announced that the Nokia Refocus app will be able to let you change the focus after you take a photo, or you can keep the complete photo in focus. Just like the Lytro camera.

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Nokia Lumia 1020: Reinventing Zoom

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Much has been written and said about Nokia’s PureView technology but at the core, it all comes down to the amalgam of optics and software algorithms to create a compelling solution. We saw this first on the Nokia 808 PureView and this has been further tuned and improved on the newly launched Nokia Lumia 1020. In its quest for perfection, there have been a few questionable and some very welcome tweaks to the winning formula of the Nokia 808. Over the past few days we got to test out the photography capabilities of the device and get our queries answered by Marc Olsson, Product Manager at Nokia. Here’s our attempt to demystify the camera technology on the Nokia Lumia 1020 for you.  Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020: Reinventing Zoom”

Nokia Lumia 1020 wins the Blind Test for the Best Smartphone Camera of 2013

It’s been a week since we started our blind test polls for the “Best Smartphone Camera of 2013” and we have decided to reveal the line up and the results today. Why today? Well there are a couple of reasons for that. One, You, the readers have unanimously voted for Lumia 1020 as the best of the lot. Two, today is 10-20-2013(MM-DD-YY), and Nokia have decided to name this the International Mobile Photography day. So, we couldn’t find it any more befitting that the results be announced today. So, here you go, the line up and the results of our “Best Smartphone Camera of 2013” polls and all the full resolution samples.

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Nokia India to offer free image prints for Lumia 1020 users starting October 20th

10.20 International Mobile Photography Day

Nokia has named October 20th as International Mobile Photography Day, and recommend mobile users to snap a photo  on the first International Mobile Photography Day that is dedicated to capturing all those once-in-a-lifetime, unexpected moments. Nokia launched the Lumia 1020 in India recently, which is the world’s first smartphone to feature a 41-megapixel camera sensor along with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). To mark the occasion, Nokia India announced a special initiative for its Indian consumers and photography enthusiasts. Continue reading “Nokia India to offer free image prints for Lumia 1020 users starting October 20th”

Nokia Lumia 1020 goes on sale in India for Rs. 47222

Nokia Lumia 1020 is finally on sale in India from the official Nokia Shop, as they promised last month. It was announced back in July and was launched in India last month. It went on pre-order in India for Rs. 49,999 last week. The Lumia 1020 is the first Windows Phone smartphone to feature a 41-megapixel camera sensor. It also has 6 lens optics similar to the Lumia 925 and also comes with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) that was first introduced in the Lumia 920. The Lumia 1020 has Xenon flash to shoot better images in low lighting condition and also LED flash for video recording. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020 goes on sale in India for Rs. 47222”

Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera Samples

Nokia Lumia 1020 is currently being hailed as the king of smartphone photography and not many people can deny that fact. With the upcoming transition over to Microsoft, Nokia won’t exist as an independent company anymore, but they signed off in style with Lumia 1020 and its amazing 41MP PureView camera. All this PureView craze started off when they announced the Nokia 808 PureView Symbian smartphone with a 41MP camera and this was PureView Phase 1 according to Nokia. Then later that year, Nokia announced a Windows Phone PureView device  ie The Nokia Lumia 920. Although this one did not have a huge 41MP sensor, it came with impressive low light photography and OIS(Optical Image Stabilization). This was dubbed as PureView Phase 2 by Nokia.

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With the Nokia Lumia 1020, Nokia nailed it by combining the PureView Phase 1 and Phase 2 into a single camera module. The camera sensor on the Lumia 1020 is a 41MP sensor that comes with OIS and captures impressive low-light photos. While we work on a more in-depth piece on the photography capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 1020, here are some camera samples for your perusal. You can click through to see the full resolution version of each image. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments section!  Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera Samples”

Nokia Lumia 1020 Leather Case Hands On

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Amongst the many accessories that Nokia launched along with the Lumia 1020, like the Wireless charging shell and the Camera Grip we already went hands on with, there was another limited edition accessory that made its way into the list, albeit very silently for any one to notice. And that accessory, as revealed by our friends at the PureViewClub is the Limited Edition Leather Case for the 41 Megapixel Lumia. We were in Hong Kong recently, and were really lucky to get our hands on it. So, here’s a photo walkthrough of the case, with our hands on impressions.

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Nokia Lumia 1020 up for pre-order in India for Rs. 49999

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Nokia launched the Lumia 1020, the company’s latest flagship smartphone in India last week, but they did not announce the pricing. Nokia said they would announce the price only on October 10th, a day before the launch, now the phone is available for pre-order from the official Nokia Shop for Rs 49,999. The Lumia 1020 has a 4.5-inch (1280 × 768 pixels) AMOLED capacitive touch screen ClearBlack display with Pure Motion HD+ technology. It is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and runs on the latest Windows Phone 8 OS with Amber update. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020 up for pre-order in India for Rs. 49999”

Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera Grip and Wireless Charging shell launched for Rs. 7,500 and Rs. 3,200 respectively

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The Nokia Lumia 1020 has finally launched in India today, at an event in New Delhi. The 41 Megapixel PureView camera had been doing its victory lap as one of the best camera phones around the world and it has finally reached destination India, alas without a price tag. But along with the Lumia 1020, accessories were also launched, namely the Camera Grip and the Wireless Charging shell. Weirdly enough, the accessories have been priced, with the Camera Grip coming at Rs. 7,500 and the Wireless Charging shell coming in at Rs. 3,200. Out of the two, the camera grip is almost a must-have for a photography enthusiast, you can check out our unboxing video to find out why –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTZ08GOLfQw

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Nokia Lumia 1020 launched in India, available from October 11th

Nokia Lumia 1020 India launch

Nokia has finally launched the Lumia 1020, the company’s latest flagship smartphone as they promised, but they did not announce the price of the device yet. The Lumia 1020 is the first Windows Phone device to feature a 41-megapixel camera sensor. It also has 6 lens optics similar to the Lumia 925 and also comes with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) that was first introduced in the Lumia 920. The Lumia 1020 has Xenon flash to shoot better images in low lighting condition and also LED flash for video recording. Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 1020 launched in India, available from October 11th”

Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera Grip Unboxing

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The Nokia Lumia 1020 was shown off as the best camera on a smartphone at the announcement in New York. Our initial impressions of the device echoed the same thoughts but what makes it an even greater camera is the accessory that released along with the device. Yes, the Nokia Lumia 1020 launched along with a unique camera grip accessory that enhances the usage of the Lumia 1020 as a camera. You might have note in our unboxing that we definitely wanted to own the accessory soon, and that we did. Here’s an unboxing of the camera grip in video –

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTZ08GOLfQw

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Nokia Lumia 1020 Yellow & Black headed to O2 UK in September, 64GB variant might be coming too

O2 UK have updated their coming soon page to show they’ll be stocking the Nokia Lumia 1020 in Yellow from next month. The Lumia 1020 will also be available in Black from O2 and will run on their 4G network, which launches on August 29.Another piece of related news is that O2 UK might be carrying a 64GB version of the Lumia 1020 too in addition to the usual 32GB which is currently on sale in the US.

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Nokia Lumia 1020 US retail price revealed, but what will it cost in India?

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If you just can’t get enough of the Nokia Lumia 1020, here’s more juicy information about the 41 megapixel camera phone. One of the most important factors of any phone launch is the pricing and it has been revealed on the show floor that the Nokia Lumia 1020 will go on sale in the US on July 28th, exclusive to AT&T at 299$, but what if it wasn’t? What would be its price if it was sold unlocked or off contract? The above image answers that exact question. Yes, it might cost 650$ unlocked, but that’s not going to happen due to the exclusivity. But then, the Lumia 1020 is a global phone too right? So what might be the cost in India when it launches here? Read on to find out.

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