Nokia Releases new Lumia 1020

The good: The Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone's camera captures extremely high-resolution images with fine detail, and puts creative controls at your fingertips.

The bad: A niche device, the Lumia 1020 is $100 pricier than most high-end smartphones. The lens makes it a little bulky. Multiple camera apps are confusing. It lacks manual f-stop control and presets for common shooting scenarios.

The bottom line: Avid mobile photographers will love the Nokia Lumia 1020's exact controls, but

casual users should stick to cheaper camera phones.

You can sum up the Nokia Lumia 1020 in three words: 41, megapixel, camera.

It's the Lumia 1020's high-octane shooter -- along with Nokia's custom camera app -- that defines this next marquee Windows Phone 8 device, and that gives mobile photographers a reason to salivate. In the 1020, Nokia pushes the smartphone camera envelope with a combination of raw image-capturing prowess and close-cropping capability that makes it one of the most artistically able smartphone cameras we've tested.

7/28/2013