Nokia’s 41-megapixel camera phone launches this month

Dead man walking: Nokia brings 41-megapixel 808 PureView Symbian phone to U.S.

Nokia on Wednesday announced that its 41-megapixel camera-equipped 808 PureView smartphone will begin rolling out later this month in Russia, India and additional unnamed markets. Nokia unveiled the impressive camera phone in February during the annual Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, and BGR took a hands-on look at the device during the show. While a 41-megapixel sensor coupled with Carl Zeiss optics place the handset in a league of its own, the 808 PureView is powered by the Symbian operating system, which Nokia is currently in the process of dumping in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone. ”PureView has completely raised the bar on imaging performance for the whole smartphone industry – and Nokia is not stopping here,” Nokia smartphone boss Jo Harlow said. “We’re going to carry on developing PureView for our future smartphones in ways that will again revolutionize the imaging experience.” Nokia’s full press release follows below.

Nokia to begin rolling out award-winning Nokia 808 PureView in May

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today confirmed that the Nokia 808 PureView will start rolling out in select markets in May. The Nokia 808 PureView is the first smartphone to feature Nokia’s award-winning PureView technology. PureView represents Nokia’s highest level smartphone imaging experiences, bringing together high-performance sensors, exclusive Carl Zeiss optics, and Nokia developed imaging algorithms. The first markets to begin selling the Nokia 808 PureView include Russia and India.

Since its launch in February, the Nokia 808 PureView has receivedmultiple awards, including Best Mobile Device at Mobile World Congress 2012, as well as an award for Best Imaging Innovation for 2012 from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA).

“PureView has completely raised the bar on imaging performance for the whole smartphone industry – and Nokia is not stopping here,” said Jo Harlow, Head of Smart Devices at Nokia. “We’re going to carry on developing PureView for our future smartphones in ways that will again revolutionize the imaging experience.”

The Nokia 808 PureView features a large, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology. At standard resolutions (2/3, 5 and 8 megapixels) this means the ability to zoom without loss of clarity and capture seven pixels of information, condensing into one pixel for the sharpest images imaginable. At high-resolution (38 megapixels maximum) it means the ability to capture an image, then zoom, reframe, crop and resize afterwards to expose previously unseen levels of details. With superior low-light performance and the ability to save in compact file sizes for sharing in email, MMS, and on social networks, the Nokia 808 PureView makes it possible for anyone to capture professional looking images in any conditions.

In addition to superior still imaging technology, the Nokia 808 PureView also includes full HD 1080p video recording and playback with 4X lossless zoom and the world’s first use of Nokia Rich Recording. Rich Recording enables audio recording at CD-like levels of quality, previously only possible with external microphones. The Nokia 808 PureView also features exclusive Dolby Headphone technology, transforming stereo content into a personal surround sound experience over any headphones and Dolby Digital Plus for 5.1 channel surround sound playback.

Check out our Nokia 808 PureView photo gallery.

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