Nokia Lumia 1020 Australian Hands-On: The Best Camera By Miles

When does a phone stop being a phone and start being a camera? We’re not officially sure, but we’d like to submit the Lumia 1020 for consideration as the first true mobile/camera hybrid.

Lumia 1020 Launching In Australia On September 17. Both Optus and Telstra will only offer the Black variants, while Allphones and Dick Smith will offer Black or Yellow; the full range of Black, Yellow or White will be available through Harvey Norman. Full details here.

The Lumia 1020 isn’t your ordinary Nokia Windows Phone. The 1020 packs a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 4G capabilities and a 4.5-inch 1280×768 screen with 332 ppi. It’s a gorgeous device, but the real party piece comes when you turn the phone around.

There, you’ll find a 41-megapixel PureView camera: technology we thought could only belong in a lab, let alone on a phone you can slip easily into your pocket. The camera is the 1020’s party piece, and boy is it quite a trick.

Snapping a shot on the 1020 with the new Lumia Pro Camera app is unbelievably good. With it, you can adjust any of the settings you like before grabbing your snap, like the ISO, exposure, brightness compensation, flash and focus light control. You even get a nifty slider for manual focus, although macro shots do leave a bit to be desired.

The Lumia 1020 runs rings around its competition. Just look at this test shot as an example.

Click to zoom in…

Lumia 1020

iPhone 5

Samsung Galaxy S4

The only concern we have is that the Lumia 1020 seems to dump a strange colour balance into the mix, but as far as clarity through resolution is concerned, the Lumia 1020 has the competition beat.

We’ll bring you a more detailed review shortly!


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