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Nokia 808 PureView has 41-megapixel camera in official pics

Nokia's upped the image stakes significantly, with a 41-megapixel camera built into the 808 PureView. But it runs Symbian?

Joe Svetlik
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
Joe Svetlik
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The new Nokia 808 PureView boasts a ridiculous 41-megapixel camera. Considering 12-megapixels is standard on high-end smart phones, 41 really is quite the step up. More of a leap, really.

And it's not a one-off. This morning at MWC, Nokia announced it'll introduce the same technologies into other phones in the future. This could potentially usher in a whole new generation of camera phones.

But what does the 41-megapixel sensor actually mean when you use it? Well you have the option of snapping at different resolutions. You can take standard 5- or 8-megapixel snaps and blow them up to a ridiculous size, if you want to frame them for your wall. The maximum resolution you can shoot at is 38 megapixels -- do so, and you can zoom in for amazing detail that you would've missed on a standard resolution shot.

Snap a street scene, and you can get close enough to read the print on a newspaper. Nokia claims 7 pixels of information are condensed into 1 pixel, allowing you to zoom in for this level of detail.

A huge sensor is of course no use without a decent lens, so thankfully the 808 Pureview has Carl Zeiss optics on board.

We'll have to wait for a full review to see if Nokia's claims hold up, but it'll be interesting to see if this is a true game changer.

The PureView runs Symbian Belle, and while that may seem a bit of a surprise, Nokia has made clear that it's just the first phone to use this tech, and that it'll roll out to other handsets soon. I expect we're likely to see a Windows Phone equivalent pretty soon.

There's 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of storage you can expand using a microSD. And you'll need to, if you're snapping 38-megapixel pictures. The PureView can record videos at 1080p HD, and it features Nokia Rich Recording for CD-like sound quality without the need for external microphones. Dolby Digital Plus is also on board for 5.1 surround sound.

The phone will be on sale in May for €450 (£380). Is this the start of a new era of camera phones? Or is Nokia just playing the numbers game? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or over on Facebook -- and check out Rich's hands-on video below.

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