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.

Before I proceed any further, it’s probably a good idea to break down all the megapixel numbers surrounding this handset. There are no less than five different "standard" resolutions you can shoot at, plus there’s the "41MP sensor" label on the device itself. Though that maximum 41-megapixel resolution is not available, Nokia allows you to take photos at 38 or 34 megapixels, with the difference in those two sizes coming down to how the image is cropped — the larger pictures are in a 4:3 ratio and the slightly smaller 34-megapixel ones are in 16:9. So far, so conventional. Where the PureView action kicks in is once you step down to the other three resolution options — 8, 5, or 2 megapixels — with Nokia’s oversampling technology. On a 5-megapixel image, this means taking a 41-megapixel still and using seven adjacent pixels’ imaging data to inform the color of one. The more information each dot has, the more likely it is to accurately reproduce the image you’re trying to capture, while simultaneously reducing digital processing errors that manifest themselves in the form of graininess.

I look at the photos I’ve taken with the 808 PureView and keep asking myself, where is the noise? Nokia, what did you do with the noise? Of course, if you dig around, you’ll find some manifestations of grain and artifacting, and yes, the 808 PureView has a limited dynamic range, but on the whole, this sensor at 5 megapixels is simply untouchable. I say that with respect to any phone challenger, including the elder N8, but it’s also true vis-à-vis most point-and-shoot cameras. The 808 PureView is that good.

Nokia has flipped the mute switch on image noise

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.

Lossless zoom

Also somewhat buried in the oversampling talk is the 808 PureView’s lossless zoom ability. Whether you’re shooting video or stills, you can do a pinch-to-zoom gesture to, well, zoom in on the image, but without degrading its quality. You can also control this setting by using the volume rocker or sliding a finger up and down on the display. Unlike conventional digital zoom, Nokia’s method does not upscale the picture. The 808 zooms in by cropping the area of the sensor instead. That does mean that at max zoom you’ll no longer be oversampling, resulting in a slight penalty in low-light conditions, but it’s the best implementation you’re going to find short of an optical zoom. When shooting at 5 megapixels, you’ve got roughly 3x zoom to play around with, while with video, your freedom extends to 4x at 1080p and 6x at 720p.

The 808 PureView extends oversampling to video recording — to the tune of 16 pixels per one "superpixel" — and the beneficent effects of that are clear to see. Video quality from this phone is no less impressive than stills. The default video setting is the maximum 1080p at 30fps, with the average bitrate being just under 20Mbps. That means Nokia’s also going light on compression, a good idea when you’ve got such stupefyingly detailed images to show off.

Rich Recording

Beyond imaging, the 808 is also the first device to include Nokia’s new Rich Recording audio feature, which is claimed to keep recording undistorted stereo sound at up to 145dB. I couldn’t get that high during my testing — mostly because any environment louder than 90dB starts to get uncomfortable for humans pretty quickly — but at least that’ll be a reassuring thing to note for concert-going types. Nokia’s promise with Rich Recording is broader than merely surviving loud noises, of course, with the company suggesting the 808 can pick up a wider range of frequencies than most and thereby generate the most natural aural experience. I can’t say that I’ve noticed a massive difference between this handset and most others, but the sound recordings have indeed been consistently good.

The biggest downside to video on this phone is processing. Nokia openly admits that it couldn’t implement PureView previously because it couldn’t get enough horsepower and, sadly, it’s still not got enough in the 1.3GHz single-core chip that it’s chosen. On numerous occasions I’ve seen video stutter as the 808’s processor can’t keep up with the massive workload put on it by Nokia’s trailblazing camera tech. Similar processing delays are present when capturing 38-megapixel stills, though obviously that’s far less of a problem since it doesn’t affect the final output. Also less than perfect is the continuous autofocus during video, which is okay with more distant subjects but struggles to recognize things nearby — you can, and should, override it using the tap-to-focus option. These things are irritations, undoubtedly, but there’s so much good about this camera that I’m willing to overlook the infrequent hiccup.

You’ll find no gimmicks here

On the software front, the 808 PureView’s camera takes care of the basics and throws in a couple of nice extras. Aside from the beginner-friendly Automatic and Scene modes, there are three user-defined presets that let you customize contrast, saturation, sharpness and other settings, plus the usual ISO and exposure adjustments. When reviewing pictures, you get a handy cropping tool and a set of very decent editing and auto-correction options. As with the default Windows Phone behavior, the 808 PureView’s camera can be launched right from sleep mode by holding down the physical camera key. It’s a fully-featured software suite, even if it can’t quite match up to HTC’s excellent ImageSense.

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