Introduction

Just yesterday we had the opportunity to revisit the Nokia 7650 which went official in the month of June, 20 years back, a significant milestone for Nokia, which introduced their world first camera phone. 10 years later in the month of June as well in 2012, the world was taken by storm literally ,with the announcement of Nokia 808 Pureview. This was the day that I had to turn back and look again at the newspaper article to verify what I actually read. The barrier was broken, with the release of the 41MP mammoth sensor. This was the time where 8MP sensor was considered high and 5MP was a norm.

This achievement wasn’t an overnight miracle but one that went into a lot of trials and errors in secrecy to get it right. 5 years in the making, the Nokia 808 Pureview will go on to be the most radical camera device ever made as it was a paradigm shift in how we utilize the pixels in a camera. The oversampling technic probably is the basis of pixel binning which is utilized in modern devices these days.

The Nokia 808 Pureview

I will be skipping on narrating the details of the Nokia 808 Pureview and concentrate more on the development of the sensor instead as the Nokia 808 Pureview was a phone made around the camera sensor and the xenon flash.

The story of the over sampling technic is rather fascinating, and rumors has it that in 2007, Eero Salmelin and Juha Alakharu sketched the first concept of what will become as Pureview on a paper napkin!

The Nokia 808 Pureview sensor was actually in testing phase in early 2009 without the phone component and all test pointed at a new imaging supremacy at the hands of Nokia. The one of a kind sensor was produced specially for Nokia by Toshiba. The dedicated on chip image processor  handled image processing before passing it to the Broadcom BCM2763 image processor  which was technically limited to 20MP. This allows fast image capture and processing, something that lacked in its successor the Lumia 1020 which takes up to 4s in between capturing images.

The final design of the Nokia 808 Pureview ws simply to wrap around the massive sensor and while being somewhat chunky, it wanst much bigger than its predecessor the Nokia N8.

The Nokia 808 Pureview was the last Symbian device, but it certainly ended them on a high note. It not only introduced a ground breaking sensor with a new imaging algorithm,  it was the first Pureview device and it also introduced Nokia Rich Recording, allowing CD like audio capture on a mobile device.

Some sample images from the Nokia 808 Pureview

Conclusion

20 years ago, Nokia embarked on this new chapter with the Nokia 7650 and 10 years later , they introduced the first Pureview device. So, 10 years on ,in 2022, are we in for a surprise? I would love to think that way though in reality the truth is often disappointing.

But today, we celebrate the last Symbian device which also is the first to usher in the Pureview era. It certainly was a feel good moment for all Nokia fans back then and even now. Have you had the chance to use this device? Do share your opinion and as always stay safe.

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