Nokia's 41-megapixel 808 PureView is up for pre-order now, but will cost you half a grand to acquire.
The Finnish company has confirmed that its snap-happy Symbian phone will be released at the end of June, and can be pre-ordered right now on Amazon for the eye-watering price of £500.
So what exactly does your monkey buy you? You'll primarily be shelling out for the 41-megapixel sensor, certainly one of the most monolithic cameras ever to be committed to a smart phone.
The downside is that the 808 PureView is running Symbian, an operating system that's often confusing to use, and doesn't have a great app selection. If you're keen on the super-powered camera, my advice would be to hold tight -- Nokia is likely to port the PureView tech to other phones in the future, potentially ones running the upcoming Windows Phone 8 operating system.
Leaked slides that emerged earlier in the year pointed to such a development, so we may not have long to wait before the 41-megapixel camera appendage appears on more futuristic phones.
There's no word yet on whether any UK networks will be selling the 808 PureView -- SoMobile is reporting that Orange will be selling it on 8 July and O2 will be flogging it this month -- though O2 told me it's not planning on offering the phone. I've contacted all five major networks and am yet to receive a firm 'yes' from anyone, but I'll update this story if any operator decides to run with Nokia's snap-happy toy.
We heard Nokia would be selling the 808 PureView in the UK back in May, and the fact that it's going on sale at all is a pleasant surprise -- our impression when we saw the 808 PureView back at Mobile World Congress was that it could simply be a crazy experiment on Nokia's part.
We're working on a full review, so stay tuned. In the meantime let me know whether you're planning on buying this megapixel monster by posting in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
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Ritch 26 June, 2012 23:16
When ever would 41 mega pixels be of use, most photos are destined for facebooks compression anyway... I know it's common knowledge that Nokia have lost it but I didn't think it was this bad!
anonymous 27 June, 2012 07:25
surely i cant be the only one who thinks this phone reeks of DESPERATION! come on nokia. i didn't know things were truly this bad. i honestly cant think of who would want to buy this phone except for this with money to spare. the 41 megapixels will never ever be fully justified as i'm sure they'll look exactly he same as an 8 megapixel camera on the phone screen.
id love to know how much money went in to this particular project!!! and im sure they would have been better off investing in a phone with maybe not so many megapixels, a better operating system, and a better GUI.
anonymous 27 June, 2012 12:59
Anyone buying this phone must have money to burn. It seems as though Nokia still think that increasing the mega pixels on a camera is the ONLY way to keep up with competition. It's astounding to even think that this project had intelligent and high paid people involved. How did the planning session go? "OK, we have an idea to save the company... its a phone with a 41MP camera" (round of applause). "However, itll look like a swollen malnutritioned phone because we have to fit the damn camera in the case, oh, and were going to put symbian software on it, as this worked for us in the past (2002) so its bound to work 10 years later right? Oh, and were going to price it higher than the Iphone. Lets go".
Anyone considering this phone, consider this. You can buy an SLR camera and an android phone for the same price. Do that instead of falling for this CON!
anonymous 5 July, 2012 23:03
Your not really getting the point on the 41mp.....it's all about oversampling and you will probably find it will be the future for most camera phones (and possibly cameras).....
Jalma Kasep 17 July, 2012 14:29
Visit http://nokia808pureviews.com to get best price and deals for Nokia 808 PureView.
"Nokia 808 PureView is a new dawn in photography with 41 MP you can play with a bigger canvas, pure depth, pure action, pure colour, pure detail, pure perspective, full HD video, crystal clear audio, share the story in a momment. Nokia 808 PureView is a revolutionary camera in a smartphone, you never miss a moment from daylight to low light"