Introduction
The Nokia brand is synonymous with reliability and durability. But it also played a major part in catapulting mobile imaging to what it is now. Who would have thought, that one day, a mobile device is capable of replacing a standalone digital camera or video camera? Even rivalling DSLR in certain aspects. Much of this advances were laid down bricks by bricks in the early days, from the Nokia N90 series onwards, till the emergence of the major turning point in mobile photography , the release of Nokia 808 Pureview.
It is fascinating to follow the journey of mobile imaging with Nokia, the ups and down, the hits and the misses. The Lumia series were basically the golden era of mobile imaging, and they were much ahead of their competitors . Things took a turn with HMD making Android based Nokia devices. It was not a continuation from the Lumia 950 series as expected though the UI shared some similarities.
This new battle of catching up with the competitors means HMD had to double down on taking risky approaches, with the release of Nokia 9 Pureview. The Nokia 9 Pureview was ahead and unfortunately was poorly understood at the time. The next Pureview, the Nokia 8.3 5G was meant to bring a more conventional Pureview to the market with a guaranteed to win formula. Unfortunately, luck was not on HMD’s side with the pandemic, the delayed release and the generally unnoticed product placement in No Time To Die.
The Nokia X30, marketed as the best Pureview experience is more in line with what was expected as a continuation of quality imaging from the last Lumia Pureview device.
Here, I will share some images captured with these devices , to understand how imaging has evolved in the past 11 years.
With the release of Nokia G42 5G, HMD Global has introduced a capable entry level device which actually performs better than expected. The image produced are generally better than the much expensive siblings, thanks to the more updated firmware. But, this bags an important question. Does the Pureview branding matters? Can a similar baseline imaging algorithm used at the core of each HMD device, with only hardware separating them a part? One great example would be how Lumia handled the imaging. You get a similar core experience through out the series, with only hardware limiting certain features. The upcoming HMD devices will see if they will continue the quality from where they left before, or it will be a reboot again.
More images with samples from Nokia G42 here :
Follow me on X for more news and updates on the go https://twitter.com/theoriginal086
