It’s safe to say that Nokia stole the headlines when it revealed the 41-megapixel-toting 808 PureView at MWC and since then, we’ve been eagerly waiting for a chance to really put it through its paces. But the best thing is, the 808 is just the beginning.
PureView is now a brand rather than just a name for the imaging abilities found solely in the 808. We headed to Carl Zeiss (the brand responsible for fine camera lenses on Nokia phones since the N90) HQ in Stuttgart where Vesa Jutila, Nokia’s head of product marketing, outlined just where the future of Nokia PureView lies.
First things first, the PureView name does not guarantee 41-megapixels, but that doesn’t mean the experience will be any less watered down. The reason the 808 came out of the gates with such a large sensor was thanks in part to Symbian. Due to the level of influence Nokia has over the OS and the underlying code, it was relatively easy to bend and tweak the capabilities to accommodate the gargantuan image sensor.
In more realistic terms the PureView-enabled phones, especially those under the more stringent constraints of Windows Phone as a mobile OS, won’t offer quite as extensive support for image sensors of the 41-megapixel variety. That being said, the first Lumia devices to sport PureView oversampling technology will likely measure in at around the 21-megapixel mark – which is still an incredibly high pixel rating.
So when can we expect the first PureView Lumia? Apollo; the next major iteration of Windows Phone, slated to launch later this year will also mark the arrival of PureView capable Nokia phones. In its current form, Windows Phone Tango doesn’t have the flexibility to allow for such a heavily customised camera experience, something Apollo will rectify. In our opinion it can’t come soon enough.
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