Nokia today confirmed months of rumors with the launch of its new Lumia 1020. The Windows Phone handset comes equipped with the second generation of Nokia’s 41-megapixel PureView camera.
The 1020—which hits AT&T exclusively July 26 for a whopping $299 with two-year contract—comes loaded with Nokia Camera Pro. The updated app offers a new feature called dual capture, will simultaneously takes a 38-megapixel image and a five-megapixel version, optimized for sharing on social networks. For video and audio recording, Nokia Rich Recording has been enabled to “six times” the sound pressure of standard smartphone microphones.
The sensor itself features Zeiss optics with six physical lenses and optical image stabilization.
The Hipstamatic app will be available for the phone along with other video- and image-sharing apps like Vine and Path.
The Nokia Camera Grip (available separately for $79) will provide a power boost through an embedded battery pack to go along with its shutter controls and tripod mount.
The phone features a 4.5-inch AMOLED display, 2,000 mAh battery, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of store and an additional 7 GB of cloud storage for free.
During the Q&A, a Forbes reporter said AT&T had been a “dreadful” partner for Nokia and asked CEO Stephen Elop what Nokia was doing to make sure the Lumia 1020 didn’t get the same “crummy” treatment, which drew cheers from the crowd.
Elop responded judicially, saying that Nokia’s issues stemmed only from its ambitions to establish a true third eco-system.
Nokia’s been down on its luck for some time and that trend continued in 2013. In the first quarter of this year, Nokia sales were down 20 percent even though sales of Lumia phones were up 27 percent. Nokia’s hopes for recovery through embracing Windows Phone haven’t panned out as quickly as needed as the Nokia’s once-mighty Symbian operating system rapidly lost market share. Nokia officially retired Symbian earlier this year.
