Nokia's Latest Mobile Phone: Nokia 808

Nokia’s PureView camera technology has been in the works for over five years, which is plain to see in the 808 handset’s design. Whereas a 13.9mm thick phone may have been considered slim in 2007, that profile is decidedly plump by modern standards, leading Nokia to taper off everything that doesn’t need it and resulting in the abnormally shaped device you see before you.

The top third of the phone’s back is occupied by the supersized 41-megapixel sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, a Xenon flash, and the phone’s loudspeaker, all of them encased in a chromed-out protrusion from the main case. A plastic cover then slopes off from there into a much more conventional phone shape, with the sides curving nicely toward the front. The congruence between this cover and the shell encircling the handset is great. They fit together perfectly and the finish is the same on both: a matte, grippy texture that’s simultaneously welcoming to the touch and resistant to scuffs. Pop open the cover — which is rigid and thick enough to provide real protection for what lays inside — and you’ll find the 1400mAh battery covering up slots for microSD storage expansion and a Micro SIM card. An NFC antenna is built into the ins
ide of the cover.
Around the front, there’s a 4-inch AMOLED display, sat behind a Gorilla Glass screen. As is now typical, the entire front is glass but for the earpiece opening at the top and a physical bar at the bottom. The latter plays host to the Call Creation, Menu, and Call Termination keys (to use Nokia’s verbiage), and though it’s just one continuous button, distinguishing between the three is never a problem. The headphone jack at the top of the phone is kept company by a pair of ports, one for Micro USB and one for Micro HDMI. Importantly, the 808 PureView will only work with Nokia’s bundled headset or regular headphones.

640 x 360. That’s the resolution of the Nokia N8, the Nokia E7, the Nokia X7, and, regrettably, the Nokia 808 PureView. The N8 was already behind the Android curve when it came out, what with the Nexus One starting up the move to WVGA (800 x 480), the subsequent E7 and X7 had even less of an excuse, and the 808 is all out of reasons for keeping that resolution.
Performance at regular res is really only half the story, however. What truly floored me about this camera’s quality were the images I got at the maximum available resolution. In my judgment, the 808 PureView produces better images at 38 megapixels than the HTC One X does at 8 megapixels. That’s Nokia outperforming HTC’s flagship camera system while shooting at nearly five times the resolution. Failing to properly market this technical achievement is probably Nokia’s biggest fault here.
And yet, the one standout feature on the 808 PureView is so vastly ahead of anything we’ve seen before as to almost drown out the software complaints. Not only does this phone have the best image quality at 5 megapixels, it can even produce good results at 38 megapixels. You won’t understand the thrill of exploring such enormously detailed pictures until you’ve tried it out for yourself. For my part, I can say that the 808 PureView delighted and surprised me in a way that I’ve not enjoyed since the time I moved from a 17-inch SXGA monitor to a 22-inch 1080p panel.