Nokia Lumia 1020 : Features, Review & More
Nokia has launched yet another masterpiece in its Lumia series, Nokia Lumia 1020. With its exceptionally great camera it is pretty hard to put Lumia 1020 in a category of a flagship device or a niche one. So let us see what more has Lumia have in store for us and reach on a consensus about the uniqueness of the device.
Nokia has done a decent job in launching this series in vibrant and lively colors which makes the phone fun to look at and great to use.
For a normal user the 1020 has all the features which has already been offered in other phones of the Lumia series, with all the necessary apps and the market place to buy/download more of them. One thing I believe Nokia could have fixed in 1020 is the volume controls. If you are wearing headphones and control the volume high or low, the volume of entire phone will be affected be it ringtone or alarm tone and once the headphones are removed the volume remains the same. Separate volume settings for earphones and other phone applications could have been introduced in this series.
The low light shots caught my attention, what other camera phones have failed to catch , Lumia 1020 has done it exceptionally well. A picture n total blackness when clicked comes out as if it is been taken with a light bulb on the target. This gives us another use of camera and that is to look into the darkness as the darkness is more vanished when seen from camera rather than naked eyes.
The flash gives a natural looking image by its gentle yellow hue instead of the whitish/bluish tint that is used by most of camera phones.
Clicking a picture from a 41 MP camera will make you wonder how to share images or videos of such huge size, Nokia has already taken this issue into account and hence the phone automatically creates a 34 MP and a 5 MP image . The 5MP is the one which is shared or uploaded via phone. The quality of the 5MP image is of noticeably high quality when compared to sharpness of 8.5MB/34MP photograph.
One cannot consider it a point and click camera as it has detailed settings that a professional or educated photographer can use. The lighting conditions, ISO, shutter speed, manual focus and exposure can be adjusted. All these settings are fantastically easy to do with just a few touches on the screen.
Using the flash too much can be considered a bit challenging and you should be careful if you're on under 50% of battery and night shots are to be taken As this is goes for just about every camera with a flash out there, so this should not be something negatively attributed.
So, is the size of the phone worth shadows all its features? Definitely not. The camera says it all, as per fonearena, Nokia Lumia1020 has won the blind test for best smartphone camera 2013. The fantastic picture quality and the flexibility of using the camera will bring out the photographer in you. Thus, the phone is a worth buy with Win8, all the loaded features, cool design and an exceptional camera.
Design
You might find the new Nokia Lumia 1020 bigger and heavier than Lumia 920 but it makes quite a good grip while holding even with a big camera lens at the back. Though it is a bit bulky but it fits pretty well in the pocket also. This design has the 3.5mm audio jack at the top middle of the phone unlike the other phones in the series which has it on the right side. This makes phone easy to hold and even to keep it in pocket while listening to songs.
User Experience
The phone comes with the Win 8 OS, a 4.5 inch 768x1280 AMOLED colorful display and vibrant body colors. The phone does justice with its crisp, colorful and clear video and picture displays coupled with wide viewing angles.
For a normal user the 1020 has all the features which has already been offered in other phones of the Lumia series, with all the necessary apps and the market place to buy/download more of them. One thing I believe Nokia could have fixed in 1020 is the volume controls. If you are wearing headphones and control the volume high or low, the volume of entire phone will be affected be it ringtone or alarm tone and once the headphones are removed the volume remains the same. Separate volume settings for earphones and other phone applications could have been introduced in this series.
Camera
Here comes the part where this Nokia Lumia 1020 marks its differentiator. It has a 41MP camera which shows highly remarkable detail in various shots which could be easily lie in comparisons with some of the best cameras available in the market. Be it a nature shot, low light or portrait every one is unique.
The low light shots caught my attention, what other camera phones have failed to catch , Lumia 1020 has done it exceptionally well. A picture n total blackness when clicked comes out as if it is been taken with a light bulb on the target. This gives us another use of camera and that is to look into the darkness as the darkness is more vanished when seen from camera rather than naked eyes.
The flash gives a natural looking image by its gentle yellow hue instead of the whitish/bluish tint that is used by most of camera phones.
Clicking a picture from a 41 MP camera will make you wonder how to share images or videos of such huge size, Nokia has already taken this issue into account and hence the phone automatically creates a 34 MP and a 5 MP image . The 5MP is the one which is shared or uploaded via phone. The quality of the 5MP image is of noticeably high quality when compared to sharpness of 8.5MB/34MP photograph.
One cannot consider it a point and click camera as it has detailed settings that a professional or educated photographer can use. The lighting conditions, ISO, shutter speed, manual focus and exposure can be adjusted. All these settings are fantastically easy to do with just a few touches on the screen.
Performance and Battery Life
The phone has a great speed, opens up apps quickly, doesn’t overheat and provides no lags. Battery life is also quite appreciable considering the fact that it is coupled with a ‘professional’ camera. I used the camera and played quite a number of graphically intense 3D games still the camera didn’t need the charging till I got into bed.
Areas of Improvements
Windows Phone OS has come quite far, however still it lacks few thing. Below is a list of features which can be improved in Lumia 1020 / WP OS.- Windows Phone needs to come up with a good notification system soon.
- No Auto Rotate Disabling Option
- No VPN Support
- No File Manager
- Common Volume setting for Ringtone and Songs, i.e. if you want to listen to song at low sound, your ringtone sound will also be decreased.
- When phone get discharged completely it takes 20 min to boot up the phone
- No SD Card Slot - No expandable Memory option
- Cannot delete or mark multiple contacts from phone
- Can’t make folders to arrange apps. All the installed applications appear as list which keeps on growing and becomes difficult to search or manage them.
- Can’t save a radio station with name. Can’t change the music station through headset. It just Pauses and Plays the music. If you want to change the radio station you need to get the phone out of your pocket and do it.
- There is no option to search an SMS
- There is no segregation of Received, Missed, and Dialled Numbers. Everything appears just in a Single list
- Many Official apps still missing.
Conclusion
So, is the size of the phone worth shadows all its features? Definitely not. The camera says it all, as per fonearena, Nokia Lumia1020 has won the blind test for best smartphone camera 2013. The fantastic picture quality and the flexibility of using the camera will bring out the photographer in you. Thus, the phone is a worth buy with Win8, all the loaded features, cool design and an exceptional camera.
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