Few mobiles marked the trajectory of Nokia with Windows Phone, a stage that almost made the phone brand disappear. One of them was the Nokia Lumia 1020, a smartphone that stood out widely for its camera. At the time, it offered benefits that are light years away from the rest, but how has it aged over the years?
The phone that stars in this analysis is one of my fetishes: I fell in love when I was able to analyze it at the time; I loved it when I got it, and ended up parting with it once Microsoft definitely killed Windows for mobile. I always regretted having sold the Nokia Lumia 1020; hence I sought to correct my mistake by acquiring it again. Taking advantage of the fact that my partner Laura gave it to me (thank you, Laura!), It was time to do a retroanalysis.
Nokia Lumia 1020 datasheet
Nokia Lumia 1020 | |
---|---|
Screen | 4.5-inch AMOLED, capacitive multi-touch with ClearBlack |
Resolution | 1280 x 768 pixels (332 dpi) |
Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus 1.5 GHz 2 cores |
Graphics processor | Adreno 225 |
RAM | 2 GB |
Memory | 64 GB (Telefónica version) |
Battery | 2,000 mAh |
Rear camera | Rear: 40.1 megapixels with Carl Zeiss optics (1 / 1.5 “) / Front: 1.2 MP |
Frontal camera | 1.2 megapixels |
Connectivity | Dual band WiFi Bluetooth 4.0 LE 4G LTE Gps NFC |
Dimensions | 130.4 x 71.4 x 10.4 mm |
Weight | 158 grams |
Original price (2013) | 699 euros |
A design that I miss
Nokia broke the mold (almost literally) with its Windows Phone stage mobiles: despite the fact that plastic might seem second-rate, the brand made a career with its polycarbonate in the most premium From the market. The Nokia Lumia 1020 is the culmination of this endeavor: unique, recognizable design, pleasant to the touch, not too heavy and with a color that, despite being striking, marks character.
Getting hold of the Nokia Lumia 1020 means thinking: “Why has the screen of phones grown so much?” Small by today’s standards, with a 4.5-inch screen that continues to look spectacular and with frames that are supported by design to fit the lines of the phone as if they were organic.
It is used perfectly with one hand and is much more manageable than most current telephones. It has haptic buttons under the screen with the classic Windows logo that acts as a menu. It has a headphone jack on the top (and FM radio!), An external speaker output on the bottom (powerful and with sufficient quality) and a micro USB to connect to the charger. Charging takes more than an hour and a half despite the fact that the battery is not very loose.
The back is what makes the Nokia Lumia 1020 a Nokia Lumia 1020. That huge 40.1 megapixel camera lens triumphed among memes of the time by making it easy to compare to a Minion (the bright yellow didn’t help). The objective is exaggerated, of that there is no doubt; without adding annoyances to the phone. In addition, the Nokia Lumia 1020 has a detail that underlines its photographic soul: Xenon flash (apart from the usual LED flash). Night photos gain brightness in close-up shots.
There is no current mobile that comes close in design to what Nokia risked with the Lumia 1020, both for external appearance and for the materials used in construction
There is no current phone that can compare in design to the Nokia Lumia 1020. Its appeal is undeniable, too. your ability to attract attention. Too bad that risky design has not had an inheritance to this day.
Great hardware with lots of lights, even eight years later
The Nokia Lumia 1020 was released in Spain in September 2013 by Telefónica. Therefore, more than eight years have passed for a phone that, at the time, stood out much more in hardware than in software. From my experience, it continues to be seen as fast, the system flows fast, the screen is of great quality and does not have connectivity problems.
I already said that the screen was reduced, a fact that contributes to the logical containment of the final dimensions of the phone. Its 4.5-inch AMOLED looks outrageous nowadays, with a more than good level of detail despite the resolution being HD +. Great sharpness, somewhat lacking in maximum brightness (outdoors it suffers from some difficulty to see the content), with good tactile response and with a slight tint in the colors when looking at the panel at forced angles (and without losing visibility).
Not that it was able to put the processor or the rest of the adjacent hardware to the test: the Nokia Lumia 1020 is dead at the software level; so that It is not possible to download games or apps, nor updates. This leaves the phone stripped and with what Microsoft and Nokia included as standard. Very little.
It is impossible to test the capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 1020 beyond making use of what is pre-installed on the phone: you cannot even download games to check the graphics capabilities
The Snapdragon S4 Plus that the Nokia Lumia 1020 mounts does not seem to work badly, at least with what the phone comes standard. Browsing the web I have come across jerks and a certain slowness, caused largely by Internet Explorer itself (It is the little that can still be used). Beyond here, performance is anyone’s guess.
The battery at the time was very fair, now it is even smaller reduced: it does not reach the day normally, at least if it is used with certain use (the life time of the phone has a negative influence, it must be taken into account). Record video or photograph with the Nokia Lumia 1020 involves seeing the percentage drop dramatically. Nothing strange given the energy required to start up the sensor and the image processing, on the other hand.
The Nokia Lumia 1020 lacks a biometric security system (it can be blocked by PIN), it includes NFC (payments no longer work), offers FM radio (It is essential to connect a wired headphones), it is positioned well enough (Bing Maps does not give much joy), the sound is of good quality (if you can load songs), it allows connection to the computer using a Micro USB cable (essential to transfer information and photos) and there is not too much more remarkable. Software deficiencies completely weigh down the software.
Clinically dead in software
It is a pity that Microsoft and Nokia have completely disassociated themselves from Windows mobiles. And not only because the store does not work and, therefore, it is impossible to download apps and games, but also because not even system updates are available. The minimum would be that the Nokia Lumia 1020 could be updated to the latest supported software, but no. It stayed on Windows 8.0 and I couldn’t even upload it to Windows 8.1.
Store not working, Xbox not working, Music app not working beyond manually uploaded songs, no system updates detected, Internet Explorer has loading problems on a good part of the web pages, nothing to use the most popular apps (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter …) unless they are compatible with Explorer … And so on for a long etcetera.
If I wasn’t completely disconnected from the world the Nokia Lumia 1020 would remain a more than valid phone to be used today. Starting it is a complete frustration; at least until the camera app starts.
The camera continues to save the Nokia Lumia 1020
Those 40.1 megapixels of sensor were mammoth eight years ago, nowadays they are not so strange. At least with regard to the size of the photos obtained, that the dimensions of the sensor located in the Nokia Lumia 1020, and the processing software, they do not have much comparison today. This makes taking photos and videos an equally valid task.
The generic quality of the photos is very good. Lots of detail, shots with natural colors, by day it does a very good job and at night it all depends on the lighting: if it is sufficiently uniform the photos will be visible. The Lumia 1020 prefers to keep shots dark than to apply excessive ISO. And without the included night mode doing too much good.
It shows that computational processing is somewhat outdated by today’s terms: the dynamic range of the images is usually improvable, the HDR does not exist and the portrait mode does not apply excessive bokeh to the close-ups. The Nokia Lumia 1020 boasts optical rather than computational capture: adjusting lighting, focuses and perspectives yields results that may even surpass today’s mobiles. But needs more work than point and shoot.
The camera of the Nokia Lumia 1020 tends to underexposure, a defect that achieves somewhat dark shots even outdoors with sufficient lighting.
It is not that the Lumia 1020 gives a great review to “top” mobiles of 2021 (I have put it to the test with my Google Pixel 6 and iPhone 12 Pro Max), but it does seem that more than eight years have passed for it. It is a perfectly valid mobile to go out and shoot, also for those who have a study and want a suitable telephone to follow the trot. Too bad my phone is not up to date with the latest photography app, the one that offered manual adjustments with the concentric circles.
Here is a sample of photos taken with the Nokia Lumia 1020. If you want to download them without retouching, access this link to see the images as the phone saved them.
Mandatory for any collector
As I have made clear, the Nokia Lumia 1020 cannot be used today, at least if what you are looking for is a “purely smartphone experience” (if you only want a phone, and that you cannot be disturbed by WhatsApp, it is your mobile). The design is different from what is current, it is super content and the screen has the right dimensions to not lose performance without gaining inconvenience due to size. For me, the balance of the panel and the body is perfect.
The Lumia 1020 belongs to another era, one in which Nokia was still relevant to mobile telephony. Too bad Microsoft fell asleep in the field of operating systems for smartphones, even though it was a pioneer with Windows CE. Bad decisions, and successive updates that left users on the way, made the Lumia 1020 now more museum object than pocket size. It’s a shame.