Nokia’s new PureView 808 Symbian smartphone, with its eye-popping 41-Megapixel camera, has earnt the Finnish manufacturer an award over in Barcelona at MWC.
Over at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, it’s Samsung 2 – 2 Nokia in the awards stakes. Samsung picked up awards for Best Smartphone and Best Manufacturer yesterday, and now Nokia has accepted awards for Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet and Best Feature Phone.
The PureView 808 took the crown for best new mobile handset, beating out the Quad-Core competition from the likes of HTC, Panasonic, ZTE and Huawei. The giant camera sensor is a fantastic piece of engineering, and clearly the judges at the event feel it’s better than HTC’s One X with its endless spec sheet, or Panasonic’s Eluga Power with its waterproof capabilities.
The device caught the eye and attention of many at the event, especially with Nokia showing images taken from the camera blown up to the size of a billboard at their booth. The incredible 41-Megapixel camera allows images to be taken without the need for zoom, allowing the user to zoom in later and choose a focus point – be it up close or far away, the detail is still incredible for something taken on a mobile phone.
Nokia also picked up a second award for Best Feature Phone, which it’s popular Symbian-based C3 phone won. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop triumphantly tweeted the news this morning:
“Congratulations team! #Nokia C3 wins best Feature Phone and #Nokia 808 Pureview wins Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet at #MWC12”
Nokia is now focussing on the Windows Phone platform, and it announced two new (ish) phones that use the software at the event. The flagship Lumia 900 is already on sale, but is now coming to Europe later in the year. The entry-level Lumia 610 was also unveiled, ushering in a new generation of basic Windows Phones that are friendly on the wallet and will appeal to the masses.
It’s interesting that two phones using Symbian, the OS that Nokia is now ‘winding down’, took the awards at the show, while Nokia’s new focus on Windows Phone missed out.
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