DxOMark puts Nokia Lumia 1020 to the test

 

 

Widely heralded as ground breaking in the world of mobile photography, the Nokia Lumia 1020 has impressed many with the quality of its images. Now DxOMark has set its sights on the Lumia 1020, and put it through a full review, putting it up against the rest of the camera industry in a full suite of tests.

Usually, when DxOMark tests a smartphone, it gets sent to the mobile section of the site, where it competes against other phones. But not this time. The Nokia Lumia 1020 was scored using the same system as a dedicated camera, giving us a view at how it stacks up to more than just other smartphones.

So, how did it do on DxOMark's special set of sensor tests? We'll let the review speak for itself:

With a DxOMark sensor score of 41 points the Nokia 1020 has a global ranking of 222 in our database (of 242 cameras). With the exception of the low-light capabilities perhaps, each of the metric scores are impressive; color depth is 20.2 bits, while dynamic range is an expansive 10.4 Ev. Low-light ISO, however, is just 135 ISO. Given the physical size and pixel density of the sensor, this is an interesting debut to our database.

So, while still problematic in low light, it did very well for color depth and dynamic range. And while sitting at the 222/242 position might not sound that impressive, keep in mind that these are all dedicated, full time cameras it's going against. That's at least as good as a mid-range point-and-shoot, in fact DxOMark compares it favorably to the Panasonic FZ70, which has a list price of $400; and just a bit worse than high-end compacts like the Canon S130.

So no, the Nokia Lumia 1020 isn't going to beat out your Sony RX100—but camera makers have every reason to be worried about their point-and-shoots. Because this test shows that the sensors that Nokia is putting into its smartphones are easily on par with a mid-range digicam. Now, let's just hope all the other smartphone manufacturers follow suit.

(via DPReview Connect)