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Nokia conquers the camera phone with the 808 PureView (photos)

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia unveils a high-end camera phone with a whopping 41-megapixel camera.

Kent German
Kent was a senior managing editor at CNET News. A veteran of CNET since 2003, he reviewed the first iPhone and worked in both the London and San Francisco offices. When not working, he's planning his next vacation, walking his dog or watching planes land at the airport (yes, really).
Kent German
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BARCELONA, Spain--Nokia isn't just about Windows Phone devices. At Mobile World Congress, the company unveiled the Symbian-powered 808 PureView. Not your ordinary camera phone, it has a 41-megapixel shooter.

The touch screen is easy on the eyes and offers several pages that you can customize with widgets and shortcuts. At bottom is a Home button and the power control.

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Nokia is making a big push with social media connectivity. Though his demo phone was not connected to a data network, an app that highlights updates from your friends sits front and center on one of the home pages.
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But the real story of the 808 PureView is the 41-megapixel camera. The viewfinder has user-friendly controls that activate the flash, access editing controls, switch to video mode, and open the photo gallery.
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The camera lens and flash sit on the rear side of the phone. As you can see here, the 808 PureView also has a Carl Zeiss lens.
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The photo app has a simple grid design, but that doesn't stop it from looking pretty slick.
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After opening a photo you can access a decent selection of editing tools including cropping a the pic to a new size.
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The strong social media integration also means that you can upload a photo directly to Facebook.
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To open the media player, just tap the shortcut on the home screen. In a nice touch, you can save a different wallpaper for each of the home screens.
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Your music is displayed in a list. Just scroll down to find the track that you want to play.
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The 808 PureView supports album art. The player also has shuffle and repeat modes, and you can create playlists.
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On another home screen, you'll find a clock widget and a shortcut for activating the Wi-Fi.
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Though a Symbian phone, the grid-based menu design should be familiar to any smartphone user.
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As you might expect, the 808 PureView supports Nokia Maps.
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The virtual keyboard has three rows of keys so you'll have to switch to different keyboards for numbers and symbols.
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The alphanumeric keypad has large buttons and a shortcut to your contacts list.
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The camera lens and flash take up a good portion of the 808 PureView's rear side.
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Though the 808 PureView is pretty thin, the area where the camera lens sits is slightly wider. The volume rocker and a camera shutter sit on the right spine.
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On the phone's top end you'll find a 3.5mm headset jack, Micro-USB port, and the HDMI-out port.

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