Should I ditch Android for Nokia's Lumia 1020?
In
this edition of Ask Maggie, CNET's Marguerite Reardon answers a reader
who wants to know if he should consider dumping Android for the
super-duper camera on the Nokia Lumia 1020.
Could Nokia's new 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 be the best smartphone for shutterbugs?
I love taking pictures. But I can't tell you the last time I carried around a point-and-shoot camera.
I almost exclusively use my smartphone for most of my picture taking
needs nowadays. But to be perfectly honest, I am often disappointed in
the images. Unless it's an immaculately sunny day, with excellent
conditions for taking photos, the shots from my Galaxy S3 often look
blurry or overexposed.
This is why Nokia's new 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 sounds so appealing.
But is the device really worth the hype? And more importantly, is it
worth ditching Apple iOS or Google
Android for Microsoft Windows Phone or leaving your existing carrier for AT&T to get your hands on the device?
In this edition of Ask Maggie, I offer my opinion on these questions.
Is the
Nokia Lumia 1020 all that?
Dear Maggie,
I am a Verizon Wireless customer and I'm looking for a new smartphone. My current phone is a
Motorola Droid 2,
but I'm ready for a new device. While I like Motorola phones for the
most part, the cameras on the devices I've had suck. So I really like
the idea of the new Nokia Lumia 1020. My wife is having a baby soon, and
I don't own a point-and-shoot camera. So I'd like something that isn't
as crappy as the current smartphone camera I have now.
One
of the biggest issues for me is that I'm happy with Android, and I
don't think I want to move to Windows Phone. But if the camera on the
Lumia 1020 is as good as it sounds, and if it's really better than the
upcoming camera on the Motorola X or Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One, maybe
I should consider it. Right?
What do you think? Is the
camera on the Lumia 1020 cool enough for me to leave Android and all its
Google conveniences? Also, do you think the Lumia 1020 will come to
Verizon soon?
Thanks,
MDG
Dear MDG,
First
of all congratulations on the upcoming baby! I'm in your exact same
boat. Well, I guess my husband is in your same boat. (I'm in your wife's
boat.) We're also expecting a baby. It's our first, so I'm no expert on
being a parent and all the gear you should own. But from what I hear,
having a good camera on hand is right up there with a good stroller. The
little tots grow up quickly, and you'll definitely want to document it
all.
Nokia Lumia 1020
(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)
Owning a big digital SLR is nice for getting some terrific
photos. I have one, and I love it. But it's bulky and heavy. And I find
myself leaving it at home more often than I feel like lugging it along
in my daily life. I can only imagine how inclined I'll be to carry it
around with me once I have a baby in tow.
I have a smaller
point-and-shoot camera, but even carrying that around is not as
convenient as just using my smartphone to take quick snapshots. My guess
is that most people are like me. And that's why smartphones have
definitely become the camera of choice for lots of parents I know. But
as you point out, and as Nokia CEO Stephen Elop noted yesterday during
the Lumia 1020 press conference, smartphone photography doesn't always
produce the best images.
So what's a new parent to do? The Nokia
Lumia 1020 is no doubt an impressive device with a camera sporting a
41-megapixel sensor. And it's definitely worth putting on your list to
consider, if camera quality is at the top of your must-have list for a
new smartphone. But I'm going to be honest with you, it's hard to say
for certain how the device's camera stacks up against other smartphone
cameras, since it hasn't been fully reviewed yet.
The Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S4, and HTC One have all been
praised for their strong camera chops. Then there's the new Samsung
Galaxy S4 Zoom, a spin-off of the original GS4, which has an optical
lens that actually zooms out of the camera. It's a bit bulkier than
other smartphones, but it's definitely a device to be considered if the
camera is really a deal-breaker in your quest for a new smartphone.
Even
though it's hard to pick a winner right now, CNET Reviews editor Josh
Goldman read through Nokia's white paper describing the Lumia 1020's
technology and offered his analysis.
The 41-megapixel camera and the technology behind it are an enhancement
to a previous Nokia device called the PureView 808, which was based on
Nokia's old operating system, Symbian.
Josh, who previously
reviewed the PureView 800, called that phone one of the best, if not the
best, smartphone cameras out there. And in his most recent post, he
explains why he thinks the Lumia 1020 will likely be equally as
impressive.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 sports a 41-megapixel sensor for very detailed images.
(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)
There are three main things that make the Lumia 1020's
technology unique: the oversampling technology, which allows for very
detailed images and cropping of photos; improved sensor and flash for
low-light picture taking; and manual settings that allow you to adjust
settings such as white balance, ISO (100-3200), exposure compensation,
shutter speed (4 seconds to 1/16,000 second), and focus.
Is it worth it?
The big question, of course, is whether all this whiz-bang technology
is really worth it. And how useful is it to the average shutterbug? I
asked Sarah Tew, CNET's photographer who was at the press conference,
what she thinks. Sarah is not a device reviewer nor is she a writer. And
she wouldn't describe herself in any way, shape, or form as a gadget
geek. She's a professional photographer, who takes photos of products
and events for CNET, as well as runs her own photography business taking
portraits and photographing weddings.
Sarah's take was
interesting to me, because I think her perspective represents what a lot
of consumers who love photography will think about this device. She
isn't easily impressed by technology for technology's sake. She doesn't
necessarily care about which processor is in the device or how many
cores that processor has. She just wants a device that's easy to use,
offers her the apps and services she needs, and takes quality pictures.
Currently, she's using an older Android phone. But she admits she's also
in the market for a new smartphone with a better camera.
Her
first comment after seeing the demonstrations of the Lumia 1020 was that
she thinks 41 megapixels is overkill for just about any camera. And
indeed it might be. But CNET camera reviews editor Josh Goldman explains
in his piece that the 41 megapixel sensor, which actually captures raw
images at 38 megapixels or 39 megapixels depending on the aspect ratio,
is really about giving people the opportunity to be able to zoom in much
closer on images and not lose details.
The main
reason for such a high-resolution sensor is for pixel oversampling.
Nokia's algorithms collect data from multiple pixels to create what it
calls a superpixel. These superpixels deliver a more accurate
representation of the subject while also helping eliminate image noise
in low-light conditions and make noise virtually nonexistent when
shooting in good lighting. The end result is some really good
5-megapixel photos.
More importantly, the pixel oversampling gives
the 1020 a better digital zoom. Basically, as you zoom in, the amount
of oversampling reduces until you've reached the limit of the actual
resolution. In other words, if you are shooting at 5 megapixels, you can
continue to zoom until it's no longer oversampling and simply using a
5-megapixel area of the sensor. There is no upscaling or interpolation,
it's just a 5-megapixel photo.
At that resolution, it will give you about a 3x digital zoom for photos
and a 4x zoom for movies shot in 1080p or 6x recording at 720p. (More
details on how it all works can be found in this post on the 808 or in
the white paper for the Lumia 1020.
There's also a grip case for the Nokia Lumia 1020 to make it feel more like a camera.
This is all well and good, but Sarah points out that storing
38 or 39 megapixel images takes up a lot space, particularly if you're a
prolific photographer. In fact, that's why the Lumia 1020 also stores
the same image at 5 megapixels. This allows for easy sharing of pictures
on social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
These supersize photo files are also why the Lumia 1020 comes with 32GB of on-device storage.
While
32GB sounds like a lot of storage, the big question is whether that's
really enough with such large image files. I asked Matt Rothschild, head
of North America sales and marketing for Nokia, this very question. He
said that with this amount of memory, users could store up to 1,700
pictures at the full resolution. Of course, it will likely be able to
store far fewer images at these resolutions if you're also storing a lot
of apps, videos, and/or music on your device. There's no separate slot
for off-device storage, such as a mini USB card.
To help
alleviate this issue, Rothschild said Lumia 1020 users can also
automatically store images to AT&T's cloud-based locker service or
the SkyDrive service offered by Microsoft. AT&T's service offers up
to 50GB of storage, while Microsoft's SkyDrive offers 7GB for free. The
device can be set up to automatically upload pictures to these storage
services either over the carrier network or when users are in Wi-Fi
mode.
Another complaint Sarah has is that the software settings
to operate the camera may be too complicated both for the basic
functions and for the more advanced settings. For instance, she said
she'd much rather have a device that works just like a point-and-shoot
camera with a simple button you push that lets you autofocus by pushing
halfway down and then snapping the picture. A grip and case can be added
to the device to provide a more cameralike experience, but you have to
pay an additional $70 for it. Sarah also said the advanced settings,
which require a lot of fiddling with the screen, could be greatly
simplified.
Of course, this is just one photographer's opinion.
And when it comes to smartphones, the devices are phones first and
cameras second. So some of the issues she had with making the device
more simple could be more a function of the fact that this is a phone
and not a regular point-and-shoot camera.
Still, I think her gut
feeling about this device is worth noting, especially in light of the
fact that you'd have to give up the Google Android ecosystem in order to
get this device with the fancy camera features.
Moving to Windows Phone from Android As you noted in your
question, the Lumia 1020 is a Windows Phone device. It runs Microsoft's
Windows Phone 8 operating system. In some ways, I think I prefer the
look and feel of Windows Phone to either Google's Android or Apple's
iOS. But picking one platform over another is often less about the user
interface of the software and more about the apps and service
integration with those devices.
As many people before me have
pointed out, the app ecosystem on Windows Phone is not as advanced as
those on the other two big mobile ecosystems, Android and iOS. And for
some people this might not matter much, given that most people tend to
use only a small number of apps. If you can access the apps you actually
use, then the total number of apps in any given app store shouldn't
matter much.
But where Windows Phone 8 is handicapped compared
with Android, especially, is in its integration of Google services. Our
lives are not only lived on mobile devices, but people use other
Internet-based devices too to run their lives. As such, many people use
Google for e-mail, search, online calendars, synced contacts, maps,
storage, and more. Microsoft has managed to add integration into Windows
Phone 8 for some of these services. But the integration is sometimes
clunky. The reality is that Microsoft really wants people using its own
search, e-mail, storage, and other services on their mobile devices
instead of Google's services.
The result is that accessing all
these Google services, if you use Google to organize and run your life,
is much easier on an Android device than it is on a Windows Phone
handset. While it's true that you can access some of the Google services
on Windows Phone 8, it's not going to be as smooth and it will likely
take some work on your part to get it to work the way you want it. By
contrast, on an Android device, accessing these services is as easy as
signing in to your account, which you must do to activate your phone.
Of
course, this isn't an issue for people who are already using Microsoft
services or who are new to smartphones and cloud-based services and are
willing to invest themselves in Microsoft's ecosystem.
It sounds
from your question like you may already be heavily invested in Google
and Android. With that in mind, you have to ask yourself what's more
important: a superior camera with a lot of fancy technology? or a device
that's already compatible with all the services you currently use to
run your life? Only you can answer that question for yourself.
Is AT&T truly the only choice for those interested in the Lumia 1020?
The ultimate deal-breaker for you and many others who'd like to
consider the Lumia 1020 may be the fact that the phone will be available
only on AT&T. Yesterday, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said during the
press conference that AT&T would be the "first" carrier to offer the
Lumia 1020. But then AT&T's head of mobile, Ralph de la Vega, took
the stage and said the phone would be "exclusive" to AT&T.
I
asked Nokia's Matt Rothschild to clarify whether consumers could expect a
Lumia 1020 to come to other carriers in the future. And he very solidly
said that no other U.S. carrier will get the Lumia 1020. He said the
company is satisfied with its current strategy of building phones that
are exclusive to certain carriers.
He pointed to the fact that
the company recently launched the Lumia 925 exclusively on Verizon. And
that T-Mobile has its own version, the Lumia 928. He also said that the
Lumia 1020 will not be sold unlocked in the U.S. So even consumers
willing to buy the device at full price in the U.S. will still have to
use it on AT&T, unless they're able to unlock it themselves.
Personally,
I think this strategy is a mistake for Nokia. The company should be
trying to get this device in the hands of as many potential customers as
possible. The three hottest handsets on the market today are the Apple
iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4, and the HTC One. These companies have
made the exact same device available on almost every major carrier.
(Verizon is still waiting to get the HTC One.)
What this means
for consumers is that they're not limited in the handsets they can buy
because they're on a certain carrier. It opens up the market to a lot
more potential customers.
But Nokia's Elop told my colleague Roger Cheng in an interview
that the exclusive handset deals are part of a bigger strategy for the
company. He said lackluster sales of earlier Lumia products that were
exclusive to AT&T were not AT&T's problem but Nokia's and
Microsoft's problems. He seemed to imply that it could be different this
time around.
The real reason Nokia is likely still selling
devices exclusively by carrier is because it can't afford to market its
devices on its own. It needs AT&T and Microsoft to help split the
cost of the hefty marketing needed to get this device even modest sales.
The reality is that wireless carriers, which still think exclusive
handset deals lure consumers to their networks, are more likely to
contribute money, shelf space, and people power to marketing these
devices if they can say they're the only ones offering them.
The bottom line
So what does all this mean for you? Unless you're willing to switch to
AT&T, you won't be able to get this device anyway. But let's say
you're willing to switch carriers. I'd recommend reading formal reviews
of the device before you buy it. It's not expected to launch on AT&T
until July 26, so there's time to get more information on the device.
If
the camera quality is truly superior to that of other devices out
there, then I'd say consider the Lumia 1020. Keep in mind it's about
$100 more expensive, even with a two-year AT&T service contract,
than the other top-selling smartphones. But if getting the best camera
on a smartphone is what's most important to you, then this device could
be the one.
Good luck with your decision on a new device, and good luck with the new baby when he or she arrives!
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