Super sensored

When Nokia unveiled the PureView 808 earlier this year it triggered a pitched battle between the camera phone and camera lobby Yes the PureView was indeed a smartphone but what made news was its staggering 410megapixel sensor mdash you donrsquot get to see that kind of megapixel count in most DSLRs leave alone humble camera phones in India we are still stuck in 120megapixel territory with the likes of the Sony Xperia S and Nokiarsquos own N8 The days since have seen endless photographs being taken by the device being shown to the world with camera phone enthusiasts insisting that the era of specialised cameras was coming to an end mdash a notion traditional photographers scoffed at Well the PureView has finally landed in India And while we are sure that it is unlikely to win any beauty contests with its rather bulky and heavy frame 13mm thick 169 gm heavy we are equally sure that not many would give the devicersquos looks a second look pun intended It is a sturdy device with a 40inch AMOLED display a threebutton panel beneath it and a plastic back that is rendered bulky by the 410megapixel sensor with Xenon flash It is a solid device but not designed to turn heads What a camera What it is designed to do is take great shots We can confidently say that this is by far the best camera we have seen on a phone mdash period You can shoot pictures in Automatic Scenes and Creative mode As the names indicate Automatic allows the camera to decide what is best Scenes lets you specify the conditions in which a picture is being taken night close up and portrait etc and Creative is the one in which your inner photographer can run amuck tweaking settings like ISO white balance and exposure compensation among other things We stuck to taking pictures in Automatic mode for the most part and were rewarded with pictures that were rich in detail and colour and easily a match for some of the lowend point and shooters in the market HD video was outstanding too with no lags What really impressed us was the fact that the images you can go up to 380megapixels on this baby contained a wealth of detail that we could zoom into to create new shots You actually could take a picture of dozens of people scattered over a large area and then zoom into a small portion of it crop it and have a new shot that was also perfectly capable of being displayed and even printed out That is the power of all those megapixels Take it from us if Abraham Zapruder had been using the PureView 808 to shoot JFKrsquos assassination we would have been able to see not just the gunman if there was one on the grassy knoll but also every blade of grass on it Itrsquos a phone too With all the attention being focused on to its camera it is easy to forget that the PureView is a smartphone as well And a very powerful one at that It is powered by a 13 GHz processor 512 MB memory storage of up to 48 GB 16 GB onboard and just about every connectivity option you can think of from USBontheGo to 3G WiFi Bluetooth and GPS There is also stacks of software that comes preinstalled on the device including games maps email social networking apps and apps that let you mess around with your camera output We loved Silent Film Director which allowed us to create videos with old film effects including a charming Chaplinesque one Sound quality was among the best we have heard on a phone mdash in fact it was right in iPod territory thanks to some magic from Dolby we hear mdash and the battery life was frankly staggering We got two days comfortably on a 2G network and through a day with no hassles on a 3G one The OS let down All of this would have been enough to make this an awesome smartphone in its own right The catch is that it runs on Symbian Belle which is nowhere near as smooth as iOS Android or even the OS Nokia recently took to heart Windows Phone The result is a device with phenomenal hardware that is tripped up by an OS that seems determined to play spoilsport There were moments when onscreen buttons stopped responding text and picture alignment went haywire and images that we intended to send to our Facebook walls ended up in other albums and yes there was the occasional lag specially as the number of pictures messages and mails began to accumulate on our device The number of app options is limited too as Symbian does not really have the kind of apps that iOS and Android do no Instagram no Pixlromatic not even Facebook and Twitter apps on par with those on other platforms Should you get it At a price tag of Rs 33890 the PureView starts looking like an expensive proposition especially as that puts it bang in DSLR territory for camera lovers and close to the likes of the Galaxy SIII iPhone 4 and Xperia S in smartphones The problem is that the PureView comes out on top in neither area mdash it cannot really batter DSLRs yet and as a smartphone is let down by its OS What it is however is perhaps one of the best convergence devices we have seen mdash it is good enough to be a camera a phone and thanks to its outstanding sound a media player in its own right As a whole alas it is not greater than the sum of its parts though it comes close If only it ran Windows Phoneu00a0 No sweat for DSLR While there is no doubt that the PureView 808 redefines cellphone photography it is unlikely to pose a threat to DSLRs as many had thought DSLRs offer changeable lenses ease of use and the option to zoom in while taking a shot rather than afterwards which feels a lot more normal and less timeconsuming than taking a shot and then figuring out which parts of it we wish to zoom into They may be heavy more bulky than cameraphones and yet another gadget to carry but if you have Rs 34000 to spare and are into photography a DSLR remains your best option See what the 41 mp camera can do Rock climbing captured by Nokia PureView 808 Kite surfing in Cape Town captured by Nokia PureView 808