"We want to stop the endless megapixel race," says Vesa Jutila, Nokia's global head of marketing for smart devices.
Coming from a senior Nokia executive, this is a strange statement. The company shocked smartphone industry in February when it announced Pureview 808, a smartphone that packs in a huge 41 megapixel image sensor. This is the kind of pixel power that not even DSLRs boast off. But as Jutila rolls back his sleeves, takes out his laptop, and explains what the company is doing with 41 megapixels (MP) in Pureview 808, it begins to make sense.
For nearly an hour, we listen to him, taking in the details of why Nokia crammed in so many pixels in a smartphone and why the default image captured with Pureview 808 camera will be just 5MP in size! The massive amount of pixels is just a coincidence. That's not the goal for Nokia, says Jutila. "The goal is better image quality from smartphone cameras."
The beginning
Nokia says it started developing Pureview five years ago. "We found that our consumers wanted better zoom. And better low-light photography. So, we looked for some solutions," says Jutila.
Initially, Nokia engineers worked to increase optical zoom. At the same time, they tried to lower aperture to tackle low-light photography.
"While a better lens is a solution, it also increases the size of the camera module. High quality lenses have bigger size. They can't fit in smartphone. Not yet," adds Jutila.
After much research, the company found a solution. But it is a combination of hardware and software. It is the technology that powers Pureview. Yes, Pureview 808 has a significantly bigger image sensor and lens module compared to what other smartphones pack, but much of the pixel magic happens in the software.
Why 41 megapixels
Pureview at its basic is a clever solution to the problems like lack of optical zoom and poor low-light photography that tiny cameras in smartphones face. In a unique twist to the way cameras process images, Nokia is utilizing a 41MP image sensor to produce 5MP images. If users want they can change it and go up to 38MP image size but the default is five and Nokia advocates sticking to it for best results.
"For most people a very high quality 5MP image is more than enough. Our focus is on the quality and not quantity," says Jutila.
The 41MP sensor but 5MP default images has enabled Nokia to do two things: offer a lossless zoom up to 3X. And significantly better image quality, especially in low light.
Let's tackle the zoom part first. In the conventional approach digital zoom means scaling an image from the low resolution to the native resolution. But in Pureview 808, the image is not scaled up. "When zoom is used in Pureview 808, it means just selecting the relevant area of the sensor," says Jutila. This means there is no scaling. There is no loss in pixel quality.
As far as image quality is concerned, compared to other smartphones in the market Nokia is promising significantly better results with Pure 808. In fact, Jutila is confident that with something like Pureview in people's pocket, a point-and-shoot camera is dead. "DSLR camera is still relevant. But there is no need to carry a point-and-shoot camera anymore," he says.
The secret sauce with Pureview that enables better image quality, as Jutila terms it, is "super pixel". When a photo is snapped with Pureview it captures all the details with its massive 41Mp sensor. However, because the default image size is just 5MP, the image-processing chip – Pureview 808, just like a few other smartphones, has a dedicated chip – takes all these pixels and create super pixels by combing details from them. This makes the image sharper. In low-light photography this also means that Pureview 808 image processor, which can handle nearly a billion pixels in one second, can discard visual noise, providing users with sharper images.
The future
Evidently, Nokia is very proud of Pureview technology. This is something unique and has never been done before. The technology can help camera makers who are still cramming more mega pixels in their phones without caring much about image quality but Nokia is not willing to share it.
"Pureview is our strategic asset. We are not going to licence it to anyone. Yes, some companies may want to follow our lead but we can say that it is not going to be easy. We have done it and we know it is not easy," says Jutila.
In the near future, Pureview 808 is likely to be the only model with the technology. But more devices will come, including those running Windows Phone OS. "We have invested lot of money and resources in developing Pureview. It can't be all for just one platform," says Jutila.
Hands-on with Pureview 808
Nokia says that Pureview 808 is not yet ready for the prime time. The image-processing algorithm needs work in the way it handles white balance. But the proof of the pudding is in eating and we insisted on seeing the technology in action. The request was accepted but with two conditions: One, we were not allowed to take the device outside the building and two, a Nokia executive accompanied us while we clicked photos to make sure that we do not share or upload the pictures taken with the handset.
As far as design is concerned, Pureview 808 looks better than N8, the phone it is going to replace. Subjectively, we also found its screen to be better compared to that of N8. It runs on Belle, the latest version of Symbian OS. At nearly 170 gram, the phone feels rather heavy and solid compared to most other smartphones in the market.
The settings for photography were rather limited as we were inside a building. Yet, we shot many pictures with the phone. The level of details it captures is astounding. Compared to images taken with One X, a phone with a very good 8MP camera, the pictures from Pureview have tons of more detail.
Sadly, we can't say the same about the overall picture quality. We found them lacking in contrast and colours. We suspect it was due to the white balance issue as well as the fact that the rooms we were shooting in were lit with bright fluorescent lights which made the job of Pureview 808 all the more difficult.
Given the white balance issue we feel it may be little early to talk about images from Pureview 808. On the paper, the device looks fantastic. The technology is very impressive. And there is no reason why it wouldn't work as advertised. We are sure that come May and all our doubts will be put to rest.