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Confirmed: Nokia Lumia 1020 'EOS' will come to the UK

Nokia's 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 smart phone will be coming to the UK, an insider has confirmed to CNET UK.

Andrew Lanxon Editor At Large, Lead Photographer, Europe
Andrew is CNET's go-to guy for product coverage and lead photographer for Europe. When not testing the latest phones, he can normally be found with his camera in hand, behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food. Sometimes all at once.
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Andrew Lanxon
2 min read

The Nokia Lumia 1020 will be bringing its 41-megapixel PureView camera technology to the UK, a telecoms industry insider has confirmed to me.

My source wasn't able to give exact details on when it will be on sale here in Britain, or how much it'll cost. It's being officially unveiled at an event in New York on 11 July, however, and I'd expect it to hit shelves roughly a month later. The Nokia Lumia 925, the Finnish company's last major mobile, took that long to appear after its unveiling.

The insider also wasn't officially able to confirm the phone's name, but recent leaks have pegged it as the Lumia 1020. The codename 'EOS' has been circling for a while now, but we never expected that name to stick -- particularly as it's the same name Canon uses for its dSLRs.

The phone will be the first of Nokia's devices to bring the whopping 41-megapixel PureView technology to Windows Phone 8. The tech was first shown off on the 808 PureView back in 2012, but it was running Nokia's Symbian software, which seriously limited its appeal. Windows Phone 8 still lags far behind Android and iOS in terms of popularity, but a beefed-up camera might give people a good reason to switch.

With a New York launch and a reported pic showing AT&T branding, I worried Nokia would be launching the PureView Lumia as a US exclusive. It's heartening to know we've not been forgotten this side of the pond. Whether it's exactly the same phone or a slight regional variant remains to be seen.

Key specs for the phone are still unknown, but previous leaks have hinted at a 4.5-inch display with a 1,280x768-pixel resolution as well as 32GB of internal storage. It's possible that the phone will be offered in 16 and 64GB varieties too. I'd personally opt for something a bit larger -- those high-resolution snaps will take up quite a bit of space and there's rumoured to be no expandable storage.

Leaked snaps, reportedly of the body of the phone, show a polycarbonate shell with a rounded design, much like the existing Lumia 920. There's a big bulge on the back, housing the large image sensor.

What do you think of the 1020? Are you excited for the launch next week? Would an awesome camera tempt you to move to Windows Phone? Pop your comments below or over on our Facebook page.