As well as taking remarkable photographs, it would appear that the Nokia 808 PureView is also pretty good at winning top prizes and attracting stellar reviews.
Ever since it won the Best New Handset award after it was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, the 808 PureView has been attracting prizes like a magnet.
Last week, the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA) honoured the 808 PureView by declaring it the best product forEuropean Mobile Photo Achievement 2012-2013.
This is a prestigious and notable award because EISA represents more than 50 specialist consumer electronics magazines in 20 European countries.
In its citation, EISA said PureView technology was:
“A major leap forward in mobile devices and brings high-quality photo features to the masses.”
This EISA achievement follows the 808 PureView’s award for Best Imaging Innovation from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA).
Reviews round up
Reviewers have been just as enthralled by the Nokia 808 PureView as the award committees.
Since our first reviews round up in late June there have been plenty more that have showered the device with effusive notices. Here are some more that have caught our eye.
dpreview.com
We have briefly mentioned the Gold Award from dpreview.combefore, but it’s worth looking at the review in more detail.
As you would expect of a website that specialises in digital SLR cameras, the review is wholly concerned with the 808 PureView’s capabilities as a camera.
The reviewer, Barney Britton, says:
“As a cameraphone, the Nokia blows its competition out of the water, and significantly narrows the gap between dedicated cameras and portable communications devices to the point where ultimate convergence seems all but inevitable.”
He concludes that PureView technology is arguably most ‘important innovation in mobile photography since the dawn of the smartphone era.’
A few days after this review was posted, Damien Dinning, the lead program manager for Imaging Experience at Nokia, responded to some of the points that were raised. Read that article here.
WSJ.com
Ben Rooney on the Wall Street Journal website tested the 808 PureView during a family holiday. He found:
“This is an incredible cameraphone… After 10 days of intensive use, shooting video and stills on a family holiday, it will be hard to hand the phone back.”
Noting that the video and sound quality was excellent, Ben says that the 808 PureView could be ‘the ultimate tool’ for journalists and also speculates ahead to PureView technology coming to Nokia’s Windows Phone smartphones. It would even make him consider dumping his existing phone.
“A Windows Phone powered PureView would be a heck of a device for those who want just a bit more from their photography.”
ITProPortal
In a wide-ranging on ITProPortal, Rob Kerr considers the 808 PureView as a phone as well as a camera. He praises the screen, build quality and says that it was ‘nippy’ to use.
The wide-range of customisable widgets is also granted a positive mention, as are the Nokia Maps and Nokia Transport apps and Microsoft Office Mobile.
However, there is no getting away from its unique selling point.
“Undoubtedly one of the best cameraphones out there – good enough even to replace some compact cameras… As a cameraphone, Nokia has raised the bar massively.”
techradar.com
In the opening paragraph of his review on techradar.com, Martyn Brett declares the 808 PureView a ‘game changer’ device with a killer camera.
It is an extremely comprehensive review looking at many different aspects of the phone, its hardware, connectivity options and the apps. In particular there is high praise for the Nokia Maps Suite of apps, which is cited as ‘arguably the best Mobile Sat Nav available.’
The 808 PureView’s media experience is also given due credit with the DLNA and HDMI output options, plus the ‘loud and powerful built in speaker.
phoneArena.com
If you have 30 minutes to spare, there is an exhaustive video review by phoneArena.com that you can watch in this video.
You can also read the review by Daniel P. on phoneArena.com, which opens with well-deserved plaudits for Nokia’s research and development work on PureView.
The phone’s bulk, because of the enormous 41-megapixel sensor, comes under close scrutiny but Daniel swiftly concludes (just I as did) that it all makes ‘for a comfortable grip in your palm.’
“We admit that we paid the bulk of our attention in the review to the camera on the Nokia 808 PureView, because we were mesmerized by what the 41MP module is capable of.”
The 808 PureView is hailed as offering the ‘best photography a mobile device can deliver’ and as with other technology commentators, Daniel cannot resist speculating on what it could mean for future Nokia handsets.
“Here’s to hoping Nokia will popularize this amazing camera technology further by bringing it to a flagship Windows Phone 8 device, that might very well start a new smartphone era.”
For now though, he says, the Nokia 808 PureView is in ‘a league of its own.’