Top 10 smartphone cameras to rival the Nokia Lumia 1020
Say cheese! We provide a rundown of some of the main rivals to the Finnish firm's 41MP camera beast
Nokia has come out all guns blazing with its latest launch as its touts the 1020 Windows Phone 8 device as the top camera on the market, packing it with a whopping 41MP lens. We've only had a brief play with the device but already we're confident in saying its the best snapper on the market.
The launch of a 41MP device has been expected since the start of 2012 when Nokia revealed its PureView 808 device, running on the now defunct Symbian operating system. Over time the firm's various launches have been building up to this point, as it seeks to dominate the market for those who want to have a great camera on their phone.
However, while Nokia clearly has something worth shouting about, there are many other devices on the market with first-rate cameras, especially for those not enamored with the Windows Phone operating system. We've rounded them up in this week's top 10.
Honourable mention: Apple iPhone 6
Forgive us for mentioning an Apple phone before we know what it's definitely going to be called, let alone launched, but it's impossible to deny that any phone hitting the market in mid-to-late summer is going to run into the behemoth of Apple and its next iPhone.
Apple devices have always had solid camera offerings, with all devices able to hold their own on the market from the beginning. However, innovations from the likes of Nokia have left it somewhat behind, although no doubt the folks at Cupertino are working on this.
As such, expect big things from Tim Cook and co when they get on stage later this year to unveil their next top-end smartphone, with a new camera chief among some of the key updates on show.
Top 10 smartphone cameras to rival the Nokia Lumia 1020
Say cheese! We provide a rundown of some of the main rivals to the Finnish firm's 41MP camera beast
10. Nokia Lumia 720
It’s important to note that the Lumia 720 is not one of the 10 best camera phones in the world when it comes to actual photographic prowess. It is however the best in its price range, costing a reasonable £300 SIM-free and boasting a 6.7MP rear camera, complete with a Carl Zeiss lens with f/1.9 aperture.Testing the camera we found images taken on the 720 are significantly better than those on other £300 phones. This fact is helped by the host of custom shot modes Nokia has loaded onto the 720.
These include a Panorama, Smart Shoot and Cinemagram modes. Smart Shoot takes multiple photos of the subject matter, merging them to create one "best of" photo. Cinemagraph lets you animate a small section of an image to create a gif.
9. Huawei Ascend P6
Huawei may not be the biggest name in the smartphone industry, but for those after a decent Android cameraphone, the Chinese firm's Ascend P6 smartphone gives Sony and Samsung a run for their money.
The Huawei Ascend P6 features an 8MP rear-facing camera, which comes paired with a bunch of image-editing tools and built-in HDR mode. However, we're more excited about the handset's front-facing camera, which weighs in at 5MP – outclassing all other Android phones on the market.
If you thought that was impressive, Huawei also claims that for those who take a lot of front-facing selfie shots, its onboard beauty mode can make you look "10 years younger", offering up airbrushing effects to get rid of any unsightly wrinkles. Whether it really works, though, is another matter.
8. HTC One
HTC peaked our interest earlier this year when it unveiled its beautifully built One smartphone. However, despite looking great it wasn’t the phone’s design that caught our eye, it was its camera. This was because rather than do what Nokia’s done with the 1020, ramping up the camera’s megapixel count to insane levels, HTC took a different approach, adding its new "Ultrapixel" technology to the One.
Ultrapixel is a technology that HTC says makes the One's camera capture larger pixels than regular smartphone cameras. HTC claims this means the One's 4MP rear camera lens can capture up to three times more light than those of most competitors. Testing the camera we found there is some truth to this claim.
However, we also found the low 4MP did lead to a few issues when blowing photos taken on the camera up past regular photo sizes, where they could become slightly pixelated and blurry. But for those who only want to use their smartphone for the occasional snapshot the device is still a great choice.
Top 10 smartphone cameras to rival the Nokia Lumia 1020
Say cheese! We provide a rundown of some of the main rivals to the Finnish firm's 41MP camera beast
7. Samsung Galaxy Note 2
The Note 2 features an 8MP rear-facing camera complete with autofocus, LED flash, Geo-Tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, and image stabilisation features.
While the Note 2’s camera is very good, compared to more moderately priced smartphones its camera is average. But the average performance is countermanded by the addition of the Samsung S Pen stylus and graphics manipulation apps.
Also, with its large screen size, those who love staring back at their shots can do so with plenty of screen estate.
6. Sony Xperia Z
Sony made a big deal about the Xperia Z’s 13.1MP, 4128x3096 rear camera, claiming its Exmor RS for mobile sensor would allow it to outperform even top-ranking competing smartphones' performance.
As we noted in our full review there was some truth to this claim, with images taken on the Z looking better than average, boasting decent colour balance and brightness levels, and looking fairly sharp. However, it isn’t the Xperia Z’s image quality that’s earned it a place in this week’s top 10, it is the phone’s IP57 certification.
The certification means that the Z is dust, scratch and even water resistant. This means that for users who work in outdoor conditions and need a solid phone, able to take decent pictures, the Z is a great choice.
5. BlackBerry Z10
BlackBerry may not enjoy the market power it once did, but with its new BB10 operating system it has certainly pulled out all the stops to improve its camera technology. The Z10 has an 8MP rear and 2MP front-facing camera and when we tested it out we were impressed with its video and photo-taking capabilities in normal lighting conditions.
Shooting in standard light, we found images taken on the Z10 were easily on a par with those taken on other top-end smartphones, like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3. In more adverse lighting conditions we found the Z10's camera could struggle. Shooting at night using the flash, we found images universally came out over exposed. Shooting in the same conditions with the flash off, we found the Z10's camera sensor wasn't sensitive enough, meaning every photo we attempted to shoot resulted in a grey blur.
It also has some swish gizmos, such as Time Shift, which means you can actually ‘rewind’ from the photo you’ve taken to the images captured through the lens before you took the shot, to ensure the best possible outcome.
Top 10 smartphone cameras to rival the Nokia Lumia 1020
Say cheese! We provide a rundown of some of the main rivals to the Finnish firm's 41MP camera beast
4. Samsung S4 Zoom
The Zoom is part of the latest wave of follow-up S4 variants designed to target a more niche corner of the smartphone market. However, unlike the Active, which targets rugged outdoor types, or the Mini, which is aimed at those with small hands, the Zoom goes after the exact same market as the 1020. Samsung has designed the Zoom to wow camera users, packing it with a powerful 16MP rear camera complete with autofocus, Xenon flash and full optical zoom – hence the name.
The use of optical, not digital zoom is a big deal for avid photographers as it means the camera element actually uses magnifying technology to zoom in on distant targets, rather than just auto-cropping and zooming in on a section of the full-sized photo captured by the image sensor.
However, looking ridiculously chunky and taking into account the middling quality of its current Galaxy Camera, we’re skeptical over whether the device will be able to match the 1020 when it comes to overall image quality.
3. Apple iPhone 5
While the Apple iPhone 5 is rapidly reaching the end of its position as the top device from Apple, the iPhone 5 still has a great set of camera components and features. It has an 8MP iSight rear-facing camera, and a 1.2MP front-facing camera for FaceTime. The camera also features an LED flash, tap to focus and face detection.
There are two nifty features included that Apple added – one was being able to take a still photo while filming by clicking the camera button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen while the other is the addition of a Panorama image tool. It can also sync with the firm’s iCloud service so images can be viewed on all Apple devices, another nice touch.
No doubt there’s plenty more planned for the forthcoming iPhone 6 and the iOS 7 operating system upgrade will include the ability to add filters before taking photos, rather than afterwards, to meet the insatiable demand for filtered-photo effects started by Instagram.
Top 10 smartphone cameras to rival the Nokia Lumia 1020
Say cheese! We provide a rundown of some of the main rivals to the Finnish firm's 41MP camera beast
2. Samsung Galaxy S4
Samsung’s top-end Galaxy S4 smartphone is always going to be a popular choice regardless of its camera, but the folks in South Korea obviously knew it would be a key selling point to compete with the likes of Apple.
So they’ve added a 13MP rear camera and 2MP front snapper. The 13MP camera in particularly is very good with shots taken in regular light looking crisp and boasting reasonable brightness and colour balance.
Samsung has also loaded the S4 with a host of custom shooting modes such Eraser and Animated Video modes, allowing you to make some nifty additions. Eraser is the most useful, letting you remove moving objects – or photo bombers – accidentally caught in shot. The Animated video tool lets you take animated GIF images using the S4.
1. Nokia Lumia 925 (upgraded from the Lumia 920)
No doubt once we've put the 1020 throught its paces it will dominate the number-one spot but for now our favourite from 2012 remains the best device on the market for camera loves.
The Lumia 920 – with its 8.7MP camera boasting Carl Zeiss optics – was also the first Lumia smartphone to boast Nokia's PureView advanced optical image stabilisation technology.
We were astounded at how good the camera was, being able to capture clear and usable images in low lighting conditions that rendered other smartphone snappers useless.
Since then the Finnish firm’s managed to refine the 920’s stellar camera technology, loading it, with the addition of a sixth glass camera element onto its follow up Lumia 925.
While the sixth lens doesn’t radically change the camera’s performance, it does make images look slightly sharper and crisper, which in our mind is a marked achievement considering how good the 920’s camera was.