Larger Than Life Fun with the Nokia Lumia 1020

The last time we checked in on the Nokia Lumia smartphone series it was the Nokia 920 with Windows Phone 8 making the Egotastic Valentine's Day gift guide. Assuming your sweetie is still sweet on you, it might be time for an upgrade on the next big holiday: the autumnal equinox. What you don't celebrate the northern hemisphere's end of summer/beginning of fall? Maybe that's because you haven't considered the gift-receiving potential of the occasion. Now shush and read on because smartphone loot is among the best kinds of loot out there. The Lumia 1020 is billed as the most advanced camera phone with 41-megapixel capability.

In case you weren't sure about its camera-vs-phone balance, know that this handset comes with three built-in camera apps and you can actually hear and feel mechanisms moving inside when you're clicking away. Those two facts are way more important than that 41-megapixel number because you really shouldn't need to take a picture that big. In theory, you could "print" a billboard sized photograph from a Lumia 1020 pic, but you'd need a billboard-sized printer to make that happen.

The two camera apps you need to be most concerned with are the Nokia Pro Cam and the Nokia Smart Cam. The Pro Cam app allows you to adjust white balance, focal length and other settings quickly and easily using its radial menu/control system. A lot of these options disappear when you switch to video camera mode but the ease of use of the menu/control system. The Pro Cam works so well that it makes you wonder why Nokia (now Microsoft) even bothered keeping the standard camera app on this sucker. You'll simply never use it. When you long press the dedicated camera hardware button on the Lumia 1020, the Pro Cam app is the one that opens up. That camera button is one of the defining features of Windows Phone and now the Nokia Pro Cam app itself takes it a step further. This is a camera that can connects to the internet and lets you make phone calls.

The form factor on the Nokia Lumia 1020 takes some getting used to and not just because of its 4.5 inch screen. The protruding camera housing on the 1020 is unique among mobile phones. The half-dollar sized area sticks out about a ¼ of an inch from the main body and holds the lens, sensor and flash. When you set the 1020 down on a table you're choosing between putting these sensitive parts face down or the touchscreen on the other side. One of the most redeeming features of camera phones is you don't ever have to worry about a lens cap. With the quality of this camera you might feel like you need one to protect all of the photo processing fun.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 stands as the one of the best picture-taking mobile phones out there. The tech inside, the brilliant touchscreen display and the user friendly software behind it are a tough combination to beat. We're fare more interested in the cool clicking and snapping sounds you can hear going on inside the 1020 when you're working the camera than we are in all of the standard sharing/social media integration features and apps available on this Windows Phone. Yes the app ecosystem on Windows Phone is way behind what you'll find on Android and iOS, but we're talking about pictures here. In that area, the Lumia 1020 more than holds its own against anything Google and Apple have to offer.