Nokia announces 41 Megapixel 808 PureView at MWC

Remember all that hype from Nokia last week about getting ready for something pure? Cat's out the bag and now we can give you the Pure details.

At MWC just a short time ago Nokia announced the 808 Pureview, its new flagship Symbian device sporting an astonishing 41 megapixel camera. Yes, Fourty One! – How on earth did they manage to accomplish that? The finer details haven't been fully disclosed but it's basically a combination of Nokia's own-developed pixel over-sampling technology with good ole' Carl Zeiss optics.

“The technology means that taking typically sized shots (say, 5 megapixels) the camera can use oversampling to combine up to seven pixels into one “pure” pixel, eliminating the visual noise found on other mobile phone cameras. On top of that, you can zoom in up to 3X without losing any of the details in your shot – and there’s no artificially created pixels in your picture, either.

Otherwise, you can use ‘Creative Shooting Mode’ to capture images at high resolution – 38 megapixels; then reframe, crop and zoom to find the best “picture within the picture” after the image has been shot and before saving it at convenient sizes for sharing and storage.

The oversampling technology also allows for significantly improved low light performance than previous camera phones, Compared to a typical optical zoom camera used at full zoom, the Nokia 808 PureView captures over 5x more light. Under normal lighting conditions, performance is also enhanced, as this combination allows for faster shutter speeds, reducing the effects of camera shake.”

Yes, it's true that megapixels never directly equate to high quality, rich and sharp photos, but Nokia is touting that its PureView camera technology can produce the “sharpest images on a smartphone”. While the 808 Pureview debuts the entry of Nokia's Pureview tech into the smartphone world, Nokia has already confirmed that it will be incorporated into future Nokia phones as well, so the super high MP count certainly won't be stopping here.

Another big feature Nokia pushed with the 808 Pureview is in relation to its audio recording abilities. Nokia said it is capable of recording crisp, clear audio in CD-quality at up to 140 decibels.

Elsewhere, the phone isn't anything revolutionary in today's smartphone world with a single core 1.3GHz processor, 4-inch (360 x 640) screen, 512MB of RAM and 16GB of storage. It's also possible this is the last Symbian phone that sees the light of day, but at least we know PureView will survive through future handsets.

The 808 PureView is scheduled to hit the market in May at a price point of 450 Euros.

KitGuru says: Pity about Symbian's involvement here, but by the sounds of it there will be an eventual match made in heaven somewhere along the line as Nokia merges PureView with a range of upcoming handsets.

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