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@Evleaks is at it again. The Nokia Lumia 925 has room for a bigger sensor

Published on 13 May 2013 by

If I would be in charge of organizing any kind of launch in the mobile industry, I’m sure @evleaks would keep me awake at night. And he/she is at it again… with the first shots of the Nokia Lumia 925. @evleaks is even showing some “mercy” saying “the back can wait until tomorrow“. But haven’t we seen that already?

What do we have so far? Not very much, really – the shots aren’t the best they’ve shown in their short carreer, but nevertheless they again have something to show before the official announcement – I’m sure some PR folks over at Nokia are prepared to tear some heads off by now.

Anyway, here they are. First the full frontal nudity of what Nokia is (probably) going to announce tomorrow…

Lumia 925 evleaks

That looks like a very nice design, to which I’d like to remark the backside seems to be a bit wider than the screen. More important for people interested in PureView tech is the hump that you can see on the side, showing room for a bigger sensor.

Lumia 925 profile evleaks

I’ve enlarged it a bit myself and changed the contrast to get the “best” out of the shot above.

Lumia 925 profile evleaks detail hump small

So indeed, there is a slight “hump” on the back you might have seen in earlier leaked shots of the Lumia 925, as shown on the Chinese site “Windows Phone Bar” – a shot I never really trusted to be genuine, to be honest.

lumia-925-leak-pic

But it looks like this (above) could be the back side @evleaks is not yet showing – seeing the big sensor and the double LED flash next to it, exactly like we saw Nokia teasing on Channel 4 yesterday…

New Nokia Lumia 640 x 360

 

Lumia 925 sensor

It all fits, doesn’t it? Not just leaked by @evleaks, but also shown on a Chinese website weeks ago, and teased by Nokia itself yesterday. Detailed parts of a puzzle that nears its completion.

So is this it? Will this be all? Will it be enough? I’m quite sure this small hump at the back doesn’t offer enough room for a 41MP sensor, so how much will it be?

Questions, questions… Still enough to look forward to, however. I’m not very fond of leaks to be honest – it takes away part of the excitement. But I can’t ignore them either…

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Close-up: gorgeous flowers from Crete: Nokia 808 PureView vs. Samsung Galaxy S4

Published on 13 May 2013 by

As you know, I spent a week on the Greek isle of Crete, not just with my family, but also accompanied by a few smartphones to make some comparisons. I came home with dozens of shots – I’ve already shared some night shots from the hotel, captured with the Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 920, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Camera.

In this post you will see a video compilation from the close-ups I shot of seven flowers (and a cactus :-) with the Nokia 808 PureView and the Samsung Galaxy S4. I shot (almost) all in 4:3, so that’s the format of the video as well. Also in this video, you will see the original shots directly being followed by crops in 640 x 480.

Since the Nokia 808 PureView and Samsung Galaxy S4 have a different focal length, you will get a bit more in the picture with the Nokia 808 PureView – and less with the Galaxy S4. Hence if you make a 640 x 480 crop, you will zoom in a bit more, but I couldn’t think of a better solution to compare the shots in detail. Of course, I tried to get as similar shots as possible.

You will find all original shots on Flickr as well, so you can “crop till you drop” – I just wrote which camera you’re looking at in the top left corner, just like in the video. Don’t forget to choose fullscreen and maximum resolution (1080p) when watching it though…

I must say that under these light conditions, I was pleasantly surprised by what the Samsung Galaxy S4 has to offer, and I’m looking forward to your reactions as well!

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Nokia teasing a new Lumia on Channel 4: “More than your eyes can see”

Published on 12 May 2013 by

I noticed some excitement just now about Nokia teasing a next Lumia device on Channel 4 in the UK, in “A Nokia Advertising Premiere”. Pocket-Lint.com already had a story on it, and one of the followers of the PureViewClub on Twitter, Craig noticed it as well.

I asked him if he would have a link, but he recorded the show so he had the commercial on disk as well – and he was kind enough to record that on his Nokia Lumia 920 and send the MP4 to  me. Without any further delay: here it is! Don’t hesitate to let me know what you make of it :-) Thank you Craig!

Oh and for reasons I will never understand, The Verge already has the original file, so here it is once more, now in better quality. Remember you saw it here first (if not on Channel 4 :-)

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Nokia Lumia 928: Xenon and Rich Recording (updated)

Published on 12 May 2013 by

Yes, I wrote about it here on April 9 already: the Nokia Lumia 928 really is the next PureView device. It’s a CDMA phone for the US operator Verizon, so not very interesting for the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the shots by @evleaks were spot on once again, as seems to be the “render” image I shared earlier as well (see later for more information).

And I have to admit, to this new PureView device looks very tempting! As far as the specs go, there are more differences with the Lumia 920 than you would see on first sight –  except for the added Xenon flash: we all know how important that is in a smartphone camera.

Also it appears to have a much bigger speaker and the specifications even mention stereo audio recording. Combined with the HAAC (High Amplitude  Audio Capture) microphones Nokia won a battle over with HTC, this would mean the Lumia 925 is the first Lumia to really offer Rich Recording!

Now rumour has it that on May 14 Nokia will announce the Lumia 925 – an international version of the Lumia 928. If that would be the case, would you buy it, even it you’d have to sell your 920? Just for fun I’m sharing the videos Nokia has published on YouTube about the Lumia 928.

Introducing Lumia 928 on Verizon Wireless

First hands-on with Ifi Majid, Nokia’s Head of  Product Marketing Smart Devices in North America.

OIS demonstration on the Hurricane Rollercoaster, compared with the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III. I must say the video is extremely stable in this case – so much even  I wonder if an extra kind of steadycam has been used… It’s clear the picture quality is much better however.

Rich Recording (comparison with the Galaxy S III again). And indeed: the recording appears to be in stereo this time – a trick the Lumia 920 doesn’t know. In fact, this is the Rich Recording we have been missing on the Lumia range so far, and I’m really happy to welcome it back in the Lumia range!

It’s remarkable you can actually add the Nokia 808 PureView if you want to compare it with the Nokia Lumia 928 and Lumia 920, but Nokia won’t give you any specifications at all of it’s camera flagship… Why not? Still afraid anyone might actually prefer it? :-)

To conclude:  in the comparison mentioned above (see link) you’ll find the Nokia Lumia 928 will only be available in black or white. This would mean that the red “render” shown above is either false after all, or maybe… already a Lumia 925!? It actually even could be, since it doesn’t say “4G LTE” as the Lumia 928 has written on its back. All in all, I think we still have a lot to look forward to on May 14!

Update: meanwhile, there appears to be some confusion about whether or not the Lumia 928 offers stereo recording. Asked by @Nokiapoweruser who brought the issue up, Head of Imaging technologies at Nokia Juha Alakarhu replied: “it’s like Lumia 920“.

Now that would mean NO stereo recording, hence no “Rich Recording”. And that would be quite a disappointment I’d say…  I’ve asked Juha why it says “Video recording features: Stereo Audio Recording” in the official specifications at the US Nokia Site.

To be continued, no doubt.

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Night shots from a hotel in Crete

Published on 12 May 2013 by

Yes, I’m back from a short trip to Crete… Although it was good to be “away” for a while, I missed taking care of the club too:  I never didn’t post a thing for such a long period.

Now being a bit smartphone photography crazy I didn’t quite travel unprepared however.., I was lucky enough to receive a test unit of the Samsung Galaxy S4, so I “limited” myself to four different cameras this time: the Nokia 808 PureView (doh), the Nokia Lumia 920, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and even the Samsung Galaxy Camera, because I happen to like the 21x zoom on it.

I didn’t use all four devices all the time, and of course I used them to capture my family as well – but I still managed to make dozens of shots I think are nice to share. Being on Crete however, and spending especially the evenings with the family, I didn’t get around to making many nightshots.

I’m not particularly fond of nightshots to be honest. Generally speaking I like the lighting to be just bright in fact, but I can see many people are very interested in how a smartphone camera does in those circumstances. So one night, after a long dinner and the family gone to visit the Greek Easter service, I decided to make some shots from the pool and the hotel.

To avoid the “why didn’t you do any lowlight shots” questions in advance, I present the results from all four camera here as my first post (from what will be quite a few I’m afraid) with shots from Crete.

Before I start, one excuse: I messed up a little with the settings: some are on 16:9, some on 4:3. Sorry ’bout that, I don’t think it will have a major effect on the lighting though. First, the Nokia 808 PureView gives quite a good result in 8MP Creative Mode on auto: ISO 800, f/2.4 and 1/8 sec.

To compare, this is the Nokia Lumia 920 on auto (ISO 800, f/2 in 1/3 sec.). You can clearly see it shows more of the hotel and the reflection in the pool. Read more…

 
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Hilarious commercial for Nokia Lumia 920

Published on 2 May 2013 by

I had so much fun watching this I just have to share it here… An absolutely hilarious, completely over the top Nokia Lumia commercial. Enjoy (and make sure you don’t miss the last words :-)

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