The Verge’s Nokia 808 PureView Review – camera, “ASTOUNDING, BREATHTAKING, STUPEFYING.”
The Verge has published heir review of the Nokia 808 PureView.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/25/3113460/nokia-808-pureview-review
The most important section is Camera. This is 5 years worth of work. Has it been worth it?
“Choose your favorite exaggerated epithet and apply it to the 808 PureView’s camera. It doesn’t matter what it is, it’ll be true. This phone’s image quality is so far ahead of the competition that it really has no competition. There are two reasons for my unbridled enthusiasm: firstly, at 5 megapixels, the PureView camera delivers, without doubt, the most detailed and natural images of any cameraphone, and secondly, it’s capable of shooting 38-megapixel pictures that match or exceed the quality of most smartphones. Think about that latter point for a moment.”
The phone scores 6.1 overall as unfortunately they’re not fans of Symbian. Vlad feels that the hardware is let down by the software.
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Honestly I’d call that a fair score; although I’d give Belle FP1 a 7 rather than a 3 but the fact that it’s symbian makes you want to dislike it…. it reminds you of stock S^3… also i think the design should be a bit higher than a 7; making a device with a camera bulge that big look nice is no easy feat.
Agree it’s a fair score, but so disagree with you regarding the OS – the UI/UX coupled with the ecosystem (or lack thereof) is befitting of the score of 3, in my opinion. I think the design score is about right – I’d say 6 or 7.
I was thinking of software as a UI/OS without the App number; then again an EOL on teh OS should knowck off 5 points or so, also now that I think of it I would honestly give an OS that no-one is developing for and that ahs been forsaken by all a 1.5 at most (symbian, webOS)
Even without the EOL, Symbian has no support regardless.
It makes me wonder what phone they have reviewed.
I don’t see many of those turning circles they’ve mentioned, at least not for more than a fraction of a second.
I mean, for anyone on earth using Windows, a fraction of a second isn’t waiting THAT much. My Belle FP1 701 is silky smooth and I don’t see any laziness in it at all.
Strangely enough, they haven’t made any comment regarding the functionality of this new Symbian iteration. It suffices to look at GSMArena’s video review to know that FP1 is a seriously capable, functional and responsive OS.
Imagine the kind of press a Lumia 1000 with PureView is going to be getting. Bring it on.
” I can’t say that I’ve noticed a massive difference between this handset and most others”
WTF ?
His review of the web browser is totally the opposite of gsmarena… But I guess he can’t be blamed for being bias, the Nokia browser is indeed pretty slow.
I know i’ll be sticking to Opera Mini though, website loads so much faster on it.
Use Opera Mobile, it’s much more better than Opera Mini
No thanks… it takes LIGHTYEARS to even load simpe mobilepages
FP1 browser is much quicker than the former Belle browser.
Much smoother.
I have loaded their site on my 701 and it loads indeed in a bit strange manner, but it’s the first site to bring problems to it, and I do a lot of web browsing in it.
I think that they over react with the OS review
Too biased
Lol! Some like the OS, many do not; Vlad doesn’t. The fact that not even Nokia Belle FP1 has even positively influenced his opinion of the OS over Symbian ^3 simply means that the OS, still, is nothing to be praised. His requirements for an acceptable and usable OS are not met with Symbian. That’s all.
“(…)The fact that not even Nokia Belle FP1 has even positively influenced his opinion of the OS over Symbian ^3 simply means that the OS, still, is nothing to be praised.(…)”
Since when a fact is based on some dude’s likes and dislikes?
I have no problem with him or you disliking the OS mind you. It’s not for everyone.
They believe Android was where the notification menu bar comes from. I wouldn’t hold their OS part of the review up, and just call bias.
As far as the camera and hardware goes, they were spot on.
The Verge does make many valid points, to both directions. Symbian is at its best on this device, but still it certainly does lag in many important areas – like the web browser. And besides, Symbian’s rep has been gone for a long time. Long before Feb11. Let’s face it, adapting to the touch world didn’t go well enough at Nokia.
It sucks that years and years have gone without that one Nokia halo device that had it all: competitive OS (for its time), camera, power, the shit. I think we have to go back to the N95 for a last Nokia device like that, that had it all. Now we have these partial masters, like the N900, N8, N9, 808, to an extent Lumia 900, which have plenty good but then many reasons why they still aren’t the all-around flagships… always the “but” behind the corner.
Frustrating, sure!
But for now, I’ll got back enjoying the great photography on the 808.
Agreed, N95 esp the 8Gb version, still can’t fathom just how Nokia managed to release the Lumia’s without class leading camera’s. Seems that along with the whole fixed focus debacle on the E7,X7 etc., well they sure lost their focus. Surprising since they had such a lead in 2007.
Baffling really.
With fixed focus I would guess their long term plan is to eventually have cameras that have everything in focus from 5cm to infinity, once they nail that, they’re going to have a huge advantage over the competition particularly for the segment of the population that only cares that the camera “just works” – which is the majority. I hope they keep doing work on that, because eventually that’s going to be incredibly cool.
Unfortunately, Nokia’s rep in the camera department has suffered. I think because they knew the PV was coming “any day now” they didn’t bother with incremental upgrades to the N8, and when it took a lot longer for the PV to come around, they ended up having a huge gap in selling products that were really competetive.
They finally delivered on the PV, which is good, but a little late. They also need to deliver on a much better EDoF camera sometime soon as well.
I think the review was quite fair – Vlad gave praise where praise was due – the Pureview camera technology/camera.
Simply put, not even the camera could overcome Symbian, and thus the score is very appropriate.
For me, praising the camera itself is like praising Symbian. Its only symbian that could handle the power of 38Mps. at least until we see some lumias with this tech..
It’s not that only Symbian could handle it, it’s that Nokia couldn’t figure out how to get it working on another OS in time, which is rather damning of them and shows why they really couldn’t have made a go at it with MeeGo either.
Nah, not really….
I think you know it’s not easy to have it (i.e. full PV) supported in WP8 by now or even this time next yr, regardless of OEM.
To not have it done by the 1st WP8 phones is no indictment on their ability to do sw, as you’d like to have others believe.
The complexity of the implementation has been well discussed…
We know it’s not something that can just be shoehorned in within 18mth+.
And it’s even more impossible/misleading to cite that non-delivery as some kind of golden reason why MeeGo wasn’t do-able either.
But that’s you, you’ll continue with such unscrupulous behaviour, because that’s the level of your integrity.
Carry-on, I’m not subscribing to pull-you-up, too busy IRL, you can have a field day.
Well its only natural.. allaboutsymbian would give Symbaian 10.1 9/10 and the verge would give it 3/10 … its all relative.
The most biased review ever, no details like GSMarena… Nokia Browser 8.2 isn’t bad, it’s okay & it even handles flash videos better than most droids. The loading circles he was complaining about are actually UI effects, it’s pretty dominant on most droids & even the iPhone4/4s.. before Belle Fp1, I could turn them off on my 701, but that option disappeared with fp1… I witness no lags or stutters with my 701, unless I’m installing a QT app, everything is snappy… If you watch GSM Arena’s review video, you’ll see how snappy Belle Fp1 is… Btw 180ppi is regarded as an average pixel density for smartphones, a phone musn’t have a 720p display… Most people who can afford this phone don’t care about all these as long as the device is snappy & the UI is eye-candy. This is a bad review…. Get ur hands on a Nokia 701 & a Samsung GSII, use them for maybe a week before you come here & support this review… These guys are selling lies to you… A Dual-Core Android device ain’t shit & Android 4.0 packs nothing new, it’s even ugly, that’s why OEMs overlay their skin on it & say it’s for differenciation, deep down they know it’s ugly. Don’t be fooled!!!
Man, you’ve said it all!
Psht. I’m no fan of the SGS II but it’s browser and UI are light year’s ahead of Belle’s.
Well, just like the 808′s camera is light years ahead of the SII or SIII. It all depends on each one’s priority.
I complain about a mediocre camera just like other people complain about a low res display or a single core processor.
For random use FP1
Well, just like the 808′s camera is light years ahead of the SII or SIII. It all depends on each one’s priority.
I complain about a mediocre camera just like other people complain about a low res display or a single core processor.
For everyday use FP1′s browser is really enough.
PS: It’s much better than the non-FP1 Belle powered devices like the N8.
The review makes note that third-party headsets are incompatible with the 808. Is he referring to headsets that have call / track forward reverse controls? Or is he referring to any non-Nokia headphones (such as Sennheiser / Sony / Ultimate Ears etc)?
I don’t care about call / music track keys, but would be real shame if it didn’t support normal headphones.
Anyone with a 808 able to comment on this?
Headphones != headsets. A headset has a mic alongside the headphones, and possibly some external controls as well. The `mic` pin is placed differently on Apple and Nokia devices, which means one headset won’t work with the other device. Given the amount of accessories available for iOS (and the like) devices, it’s a fair bet to say that most headsets out there won’t work with the 808PV without an additional converter jack… I remember when the situation was opposite…
Of course, this is true only for wired headsets.
Thankyou for your reply.
Yeah my headphones don’t have microphone so that’s what I’m referring to. I just use my headphones for listening to music not ones with Mic builtin to make calls. Thank god it’s that right? Otherwise would be pretty stupid if you couldn’t listen to music only without Nokia branded headphones….
Get a bluetooth adapter – I have a Motorola rokr I bought for £14 – they work brilliantly with Nokia and you don’t need a cable to the phone. You can them plug in whatever earphones you want and still have the call pick up, and remote controls.
I agree on everything, but;
1. Symbian was the clear choice, it was mature enough to handle this tech. and when they started this 5 years ago, Symbian was still doing well… if they were to switch to Windows Phone or even MeeGo 1.2 it would have been adding another 3 years or so, and by then who knows maybe some other company would’ve introduced it, lets just hope that the next one will feature a GOOD OS
2. As a designer, I don’t see any problems with this, that camera is not easy to work with, and what they did with it is actually very thoughtful, because now the camera works as finger rest at the back and makes it even more ergonomic then a regular flat back. Besides I give you the task of doing something better, until then…
Vlad is his typical self when it comes to Symbian… but he even went so far as to lie this time around
how pathetic
Too bad Nokia 990 Pureview got cancelled. It had MeeGo, dual core, same camera… Would have been the best phone ever made. Nokia was already working on it hard.
If you are going to make up story, at least call it 909! or if you are not.. more details please
i heard something like that too ages ago but figured it was just the 808 with Donna
Made up or not, that would have been awesome. Obviously it wont be happening now
I think it was a pretty fair review. He gave credit where it was due, to the camera tech, and dinged Symbian for its web browser, and inability to handle email.
Come on; good mobile web browsing, without having to rely on a third party browser as a crutch, are the basics, and the standard for most modern mobile OS’. This isn’t controversial.
So yeah, I think the Verge review was pretty fair, for what is, essentially, a niche device.
The problem of course is in giving a score to such a device. To someone who doesn’t care about the camera – it’s a Symbian phone and therefore crap. To someone who does care about the camera, Symbian is unlikely to be a significant drawback. The overall score ends up being rather meaningless.
It’d make more sense to have categories of gadgets, and review them within those categories. So the 808 would go against compact cameras, SLRs and a few other smartphones that are camera centric. It wouldn’t get compared to phones, because it’s a pointless comparison.
And sure it’s opinionated and subjective…..it’s a review! If it weren’t subjective and personal opinion, you would just have a cut and paste of the feature list on the side of the box.
It’s like criticizing a film review for being opinionated. Well, duh.
Well, in all fairness reviewing a piece of art comes with a different set of rules than reviewing a piece of technology for example. The latter can be expected to be more objective than the former.
But then again, the 808 is a piece of art, so I can accept your reasoning.
p.s. I don’t necessarily think the overall tone of The Verge was wrong. From the view of expectations their general readership has, Symbian just isn’t cutting it. That doesn’t mean they didn’t take it slightly overboard, the web browser may be bad by today’s standards, but it is not unusable.
what a bias, if vlad hates symbian why then he wastes his time reviewing a symbian phone?? also the comments there are trash, they would cry if they read GSMArena’s review
Sounds about right – camera, call quality and hardware excellent. Browser, UI and email poor.
Still good enough to buy for a holiday phone though when the price comes down a bit.
biased much?
im a 808 user and so far im happy with it since i use my device as a phone first before any other else.
Androids are more like glorified alienwares compared to DIY PC. Not much sense of having that too much hardware for a phone and making it last only a day. Its not really a phone now if you need to plug it all the time.
iOS in the other hand is just an iPad that can do calls. signal and battery performance is also weak.
For Symbian its made to be a phone first. Phone first before other stuff like internet, media playback, etc. I bought the 808 for it being a phone that can take awesome pics mostly. a 2 in 1 device. And other typical Nokia one ups like maps and fm transmitter.
Vlads priority on a phone is not the phone part but more on what the OS is and its app dependency(more apps the better mindset).
i dont have issues with the amount of apps in Nokia store. im happy with taking pics and uploading them. i have a console to play games and a PC to do more intensive tasks.
Symbian OS – 3.0
Vlad – 2.7
http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/25/3117435/90-seconds-on-the-verge-nokia-microsoft-nexus
If you think that review score is bad. Just listen this one and you will know why 808 wont sell is US.
It has Symbian and it’s lacking popular applications like Instagram?
Instagram!? Hahhahahhahhahaahhahah
A look-at-me-at-my-pathetic-attemp-to-appear-greative app for useless idiots who have absolutely no amount of creativity in their pea sized brain. Like the average Yanks.
Instagram…
Yeah.
People like you are killing Nokia.
Arrogance and an attempt to control what people are allowed to do.