Nokia Lumia 800
What no microSD?? Luckily it comes with 16GB storage onboard but I'm not going to be able to shoot any modern day Ben Hur on this baby. I found the auto focus was easily confused and even its best efforts blurry in comparison to the other phones tested. Even though having a dedicated camera button makes me feel like Nokia is actually taking my directorial debut seriously, the size of the screen leaves a lot to be desired and it shrinks down to almost nothing in video mode.
Nokia has always been proud of camera quality, so it's a shame the Lumia has quite a cold colour cast and bad low light handling. For the price, the Lumia just doesn't deliver the quality or picture stability it should. Having to instal the malicious Zune software to access my files was almost the last straw – oh no, wait, that will be the fiddly access to the micro USB slot on the top.
Reg Rating 70%
Price £470
More info Nokia and Clove Technology
RIM BlackBerry Torch 9860
My sis swears by the video capabilities of this phone, but I'm not convinced. While I appreciated the dedicated video camera icon, allowing instant access, I found it was fiddly getting the settings up from the BlackBerry button.
The autofocus was obviously operating in a parallel, but completely different dimension and I often ended up just turning it off completely. The tiny zoom control discourages use, not a bad thing in my opinion: who doesn't hate a digital zoom? The dedicated software wasn't as tortuous as the Nokia, but still kept me wait around when really I shouldn't have had to.
Reg Rating 65%
Price £380
More info RIM BlackBerry and Clove Technology
Next page: Samsung Galaxy Nexus
COMMENTS
Where is the N8?
Oh come on, you couldnt be bothered including the most acknowledged camera smartphone out there?
Not normally bothered by these reviews
No, I'm not. These group reviews are so light on details I normally like to find full reviews of each item across various sources and compare like that.
So why am I here and commenting now? Because in picking the Nokia Lumia 800 you have been as daft as a brush and I wanted to share that thought with you.
This review isn't about operating systems, ecosystems or form factors. It's meant to be about HD cameras. So you decision to not pick the Nokia N8-00 both astounds and disgusts me in equal measure. Yes it only records at 720p but it does have a standard HDMI mini output and includes a mini to full adapter in the box, and if you are running out of space on your (up to) 32GB microSD card and/or you've filled the internal disk while you are recording you can always plug in a USB memory stick and push your already recorded files over to that to free up more space. Then you can of course watch said HD recordings back from said memory stick via the phone while it is plugged into a HD TV and controlled via a suitable bluetooth device while seated on your sofa.
But then of course you know all of that. A more suspicious commentard might think that all of that was why you didn't choose the Nokia N8-00. But then I suspect that the publicly given reason will feature the word Symbian...
What to buy if you don't want an N8?
And why I suspect its not reviewed, write video to external memory. Switchable focus modes on video, excellent glass, better sound than many camcorders etc etc. All in free and easy formats, throw it where you like. Kinda embarrassing for the competition.
Boiled down the death of Symbian is as result of Nokia taking the apple user lock in route and that sucks hard. I'm only buoyed by the hint of one final S^3 successor to the N8.
Crippling the most useful phone OS so soon to pander to the market that responds best to advertising is a crime.
iTunes not required for video
I can't comment on the latest and greatest iPhones, but I have an old 3GS here.
When I want to retrieve photos or video from it, iTunes isn't required at all.
Just connect the iPhone to any PC via USB, and it appears like a digital camera under "Computer" and you can just drag and drop photos and videos from it, although not to it.
So it works "nearly" as well as a mass storage device for retrieving your photos and video, but only one way traffic is permitted.
N8?
Surely the Nokia N8 is the obvious choice for HD video? OK, it only records at 720p but the lens is excellent. With the new Symbian Belle update it's not a bad phone now either and the battery life is very good which does have a bearing.
