Nokia Lumia 1020

Available now
11th July 2013

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is a high-end Windows smartphone with a massive 41 megapixel camera on the back, easily making it one of the very best camera phones on the market.

The simplest way to explain this handset is that it is the Lumia 920 with the camera from the Nokia 808 PureView. The Lumia 1020's PureView sensor can capture both 38 megapixel and 5 megapixel images at the same time.

But why would you want to use a 41 megapixel camera to only capture 5 megapixels? The reason is because the PureView sensor in the 1020 oversamples with the extra pixels to give a very high-quality image of a more reasonable size for sharing, and the high megapixel count also simulates optical zoom quite effectively at that resolution. As with the 808, not all 41 megapixels are in use at once. The downside is that the camera assembly does stick out of the back somewhat, but it is less obvious than the odd-looking 808.

Nokia aren't the only people doing interesting things with cameras. The HTC One goes for quality over megapixel quantity by using unusually large sensors in the camera. And the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom gets around the limitations of digital zoom by sticking an enormous optical zoom lens on the back, but the Nokia certainly looks less ridiculous than that.

The camera also features second generation optical image stabilisation, six Carl Zeiss lenses, a Xenon flash for stills and LED one for HD video capture plus professional grade control over the camera's ISO settings if you wish. There's a wide angle 1.2 megapixel camera on the front as well. In addition to the hardware, there is software support for sharing pictures with most major social networks.

As for the rest of the specifications, it is pretty much a dead ringer for the 920 with the same 4.5" 768 x 1280 pixel ClearBlack 2.5D display, a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of Flash storage with reports of a 64GB version with some carriers.

All the usual high-end smartphone features are here including LTE support, HSPA+, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity plus NFC. The Lumia 1020 supports wireless charging through an optional back cover, and a "grip cover" adds extra controls, an additional battery and a tripod mount.

The operating system is Windows Phone 8 with a number of Nokia's own HERE enhancements. In use, it is very different from Apple's iOS or Android, but it is very well polished and has a growing application library. The physical design of the phone matches the look of the OS very well.

Despite the large camera, the Nokia Lumia 1020 weighs just 158 grams, lighter than the chunky Lumia 920 but heavier than the slimmer Lumia 925. Nokia say that the Lumia 1020 measures 130 x 71 x 10.4mm and packs a 2000 mAh battery.

When the Lumia 920 was announced last year it was the first time in a long while that Nokia had produced a "must have" device. Nokia have done it again with the Lumia 1020 which manages to combine awesome digital imaging with a hardware and software platform that are very capable and very distinctive from rivals Apple and Samsung.

Nokia say that the Lumia 1020 will be available from July onwards in several worldwide markets in yellow, white and black colours at an undisclosed price.. our guess is that it will retail for around €700. In the US the Lumia 1020 will be available exclusively on the AT&T network from July 26th onwards for $299.99 with a new two year contract.