Nokia has released a new flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphone, the Lumia 1020, with the company hyping its high resolution 41-megapixel rear camera as a key sales feature.
At 41-megapixels and a resolution of 7712 x 5360, the camera offers a significantly higher resolution than either the Samsung Galaxy S4’s 13-megapixel camera or the 8-megapixel camera on the Apple iPhone 5.
The smartphone comes bundled with a new app, called Nokia Pro Camera, which simultaneously takes a high resolution 28-megapixel image, along with a lower-resolution 5 megapixel image for sharing on social media sites and photo blogs.
“The Nokia Lumia 1020’s 41-megapixel sensor features leading ZEISS optics with six physical lenses, plus optical image stabilization, delivering crystal clear pictures even in low light conditions.,” Nokia states.
The Finnish smartphone giant has also announced the release of a camera grip with a tripod mount as a separate accessory for the smartphone.
While the Lumia 1020’s 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 is more powerful than the Apple iPhone 5’s dual-core 1.2 GHz chip, it is significantly less powerful than the Samsung Galaxy S4’s quad-core 1.9GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Series 600 processor.
In terms of displays, the Lumia 1020’s 4.5-inch AMOLED WXGA display at 1280×768 pixels lags behind the Samsung Galaxy S4’s 5-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display at 1920 x 1080, but beats the iPhone 5’s 1136 x 640 pixel 4-inch display.
At 130.4 x 71.4 x 10.4 mm and158 g, the Lumia 1020 is significantly thicker and heavier than either the iPhone 5 at 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm at 112g or the Samsung Galaxy S4 at 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm at 130g.
The Lumia 1020 also includes 2 GB RAM and 32 GB internal memory, compared to the iPhone 5’s 1 GB RAM and 16/32/64 GB storage and the Samsung Galaxy S5’s 2GB RAM, 16GB User memory and 64GB microSD slot.
Nokia has also released a special version of its developer kit which allows third-party app developers to take advantage of the camera in the Lumia 1020.
According to the company, Hipstamatic, Path, Vyclone, SNAPCAM, Panagraph, Yelp, CNN and Foursquare have all signed on to make new apps tailored to the device.
“Through CNN’s app [for the Lumia 1020], iReporters can share even higher quality photos and videos with the camera on the Nokia Lumia 1020,” says CNN Digital senior director of product strategy, Craig Kirkland.
While the company has announced a US release date of July 26 and states it is “expected to arrive in China and key European markets this quarter”, the company has not announced an Australian release for the device.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
