This afternoon at an event called “Zoom Reinvented” in New York City, Nokia officially announced its next-generation Lumia 1020 smartphone. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop took the stage to display the cutting-edge imaging technology afforded to those interested in purchasing the Lumia 1020. The handset will be made consumer available in the U.S. on July 26, carried by AT&T’s 4G LTE network, for $299.99 with a two-year contract. Pre-orders will be available on July 16.
The big draw with the Lumia 1020 will be the 41-megapixel PureView sensor, the largest available, and subsequent features. Carrying six Carl Zeiss lenses, the Lumia 1020 will be able to take at 38MP or 34MP snapshots at 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Picture clarity is bolstered by advanced optics and manual controls usually employed by professional photographers including ultimate zooming capabilities that, as demonstrated by Elop and crew, literally locate a needle in a haystack. The Xenon flash isn’t too shabby either.
Check out this awesome video of the Nokia Lumia 1020 zooming around Boston:
With so many photography aspects included in a handheld gadget, it may seem daunting to understand each and every detail. However, the Nokia Pro Camera app comes with a tutorial to allow the user to acclimate to changing settings like shutter times, white balance, exposure value, and longer exposure times.
Probably the most interesting feature of the Lumia 1020 is that when taking a picture, the camera captures more than the initial image displays, meaning the user can zoom in and out of an already-taken photo, and then zoom back in to a different area in the photo if they so desire. To build on this Nokia has included what it calls here Maps, an augmented-reality experience that’s location-based, allowing the user to plug a location or brick-and-mortar store into the maps app and view their pinpoint locales through the lens in any direction pointed.
Video recording is equally as impressive with the Lumia 1020. The recorder shoots video in HD with 1080p and at an impressive 30 frames per second with the ability to zoom 4x. The screen is a 4.5-inch AMOLED PureMotion HD+ display (1280 x 768 pixels) made with Gorilla Glass 3. Look for color options in yellow, white, and black. Underneath the hood the device will offer 32GB of internal storage with the option for 50GB as a limited time offer.
So what do you think of the Nokia Lumia 1020? Will you ditch your current device in favor of it? Or will it turn out to be a complete bust?
[All images via Nokia]
