qooWeather is a Symbian staple, of course, at least since Nokia's own Maps Weather system dried up last year. qooWeather provides a way to get a decent weather forecast on a Symbian homescreen and works well. It's now happily divorced from the Nokia Store - and just in time - now ensconced in the AppList Store, so grab it now. There's a little tweak you may have to do first, mind you, so do see below....

From the AppList Store:

Choose your favorite city or add your location (by tapping on the city edit field) and get a 5-day weather forecast provided by MSN. 
The data will be updated automatically or manually - only a mobile data connection is required.
You have day/night, can choose between different widget layouts and change the transparency of the widget. 

For most of us, of course, qooWeather will have been previously bought and installed from the Nokia Store. In which case there's a little juggling to perform, in order to switch to this new AppList (donationware) track:

Aha - qooWeather gets its v4.5 update, and available directly within AppList now!

It's 'Self-Signed' because Nokia's not around to 'sign' it anymore - this is nothing to worry about from a trusted developer, though you will have (as I do here) manually remove the old Nokia Store version....

Long press it in the main application list and choose to delete it, then switch back to AppList and 'Rescan' - qooWeather will then install directly.

Finally, pick a spot on a home screen, long press and 'Add widget' - you'll find 'qooWeatherII' in the list; (right) in place and in pride of place on my 808!

If you like qooWeather (or indeed AppList) then make sure you donate here or here.

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

Guest writer David Addington brings us a detailed review of one of the landmark texts in the smartphone industry and a superbly detailed history of Symbian itself. Read the review and then grab the (e)book!

The book is now out in electronic form, at least, for the Kindle, here on the UK site and International (US) site. 

David writes:

As media technology has advanced in the last few years, there are now countless opportunities for all and sundry to vent viewpoints across the web. Certainly smartphones have played their part in advancing this, so it’s only natural that the merits of smartphones and their operating systems will be a keen topic. What seems harder is getting measured debate concerning smartphones, but more specifically around operating systems. Viewpoints tend to be subjective as users firmly rationalise their preferences, whether that be iOS, Android, Windows Phone, etc..

Therefore it seems unusual that in order to get some objectivity around the various operating systems you should read an ebook from a former Symbian executive director. But that is exactly what you get with David Wood's mammoth e-book: Smartphones and Beyond. This is his detailed review of his time at Psion and Symbian and how the market changed and evolved, right through to Symbian’s demise. During the book Wood is candid about the strengths and weaknesses of the operating system itself, the organisation and the opportunities that were missed.

At 800 pages, no review could possibly cover the detail Wood has gone into; but some interesting points were:

• The work of Psion: it was astonishing how visionary they were. EPOC (that evolved into Symbian) which ran their PDAs, was well ahead of the field which gave them an early headstart with Symbian. Interestingly, even then Symbian was not seen as just for phones – it was intended for everything.
• When originally set up, Symbian had Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola as paid shareholders who had governance responsibilities. The grand vision was that it would be a co-operative approach to ensure that Symbian was the base standard for phones. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly), differing phone manufacturers were less keen to agree on approaches that didn’t suit them. This hugely compromised Symbian’s decision making ability to focus on one solution. This came about partly because of financial requirements - lack of investment/available capital was a recurring problem, with Symbian's ambition far outstripping its ability to deliver. 
• Despite being world leaders for a period in the smartphone operating system area, they always had one eye on Microsoft, who they saw as their ultimate threat. Both Apple and Google were not seen as threats initially.
• Symbian were slow to realise that their ultimate path was with Nokia and there were many years when software development was harder because the organisations were separate.

A recurring theme of the book is the alternative histories in terms of the key business decisions Symbian had to make at the time, the perspective at the time and what could have happened from a position of hindsight. What you learn is that predicting technology futures is very difficult, as little is ' black and white'. For each failed technology approach there is scope to, next time, turn that into a success. Certainly Apple and Google learned very fast as they overtook their more established competitors. In fact, Wood highlights how good Apple and Google were at making things easy for developers in terms of ease of software design and the security elements required for their App stores. In contrast, Symbian with its complex C+++ programming requirements and onerous security certification process simply put developers off. This lack of developer support was a key reason in its ultimate failure, and also contributed to the bad press concerning Symbian. 

Wood (shown below, left, by the way) touches on this point and that he had recommended a dedicated marketing campaign to raise Symbian's profile. In fact, it is astonishing in hindsight how low Symbian's profile was considering that it was in more than half the world's smartphones at various stages. Apple and Google ran slick and well supported marketing campaigns, helping fuel desirability of these brands. In comparison, Symbian was not desired by the public - despite (in my humble opinion), having a good combination of technology flexibility (à la Android) and ease of use (à la Apple). Who knows how a bit of concerted marketing might have helped?

As the years go by, Symbian evolves from a slow, unresponsive organisation to one that was lean and customer focussed; but by now the market had evolved. However, Nokia were clearly not lean and more importantly didn't properly understand software development. Their ability to carry out a consistent strategy and approach over a long period of time was a huge strength in developing their phones, however this became an Achilles heel for software. They simply could not respond quickly enough or understand how to develop software 'right first time'.

Wood's views on Stephen Elop are particularly interesting. Wood saw little evidence of a CEO having already determined a Windows path for Nokia, in fact he was full of praise for his dynamism and the fresh approach that he brought to the role and felt that he looked deeply at Nokia in terms of its future Symbian/Meego future. The infamous ' burning platform' memo is discussed, but Wood considers it a brilliant piece of work. He felt that Elop had reached the point where Nokia had to be shaken from its previous ways of doing things (or die), and this was the most powerful way of starting this process.  

He is understandably less complimentary about the decision to go with Windows Phone as Nokia's operating system. He argues that Windows Phone was simply not as good as Symbian or Meego. Wood also questions the merit in stopping Meego after receiving such a positive reaction upon launch. He sees this as a big opportunity missed, regardless of the 'eco system' consideration.

Most damning of all is the decision to announce the Windows Phone partnership agreement, 6 months before any Nokia Windows Phone would be ready. This had an understandably catastrophic effect on sales of the existing Symbian devices and he speculates that Elop simply believed the Windows Phone development issues would be resolved quickly. Whilst he believes Elop would have been under pressure from Microsoft to effectively 'can' Symbian, it still seems very hard to rationalise this decision on a business level. Whilst a Symbian/Meego future may not have worked for the long term, it is difficult to see how the timing of the Microsoft tie up would be successful in the short to medium term. It's difficult not to agree with Wood that this was flawed from day one and I would go further and say that this could go down as one of the most infamous business decisions, comparable in impact with the Gerald Ratner "prawn sandwich" speech.

But again to reflect the greyness of decisions and Wood's objectivity, he believes that if Elop had been appointed a year or two earlier then he would have likely stuck with Symbian/Meego when Nokia's situation simply wasn't as dire. It is also alleged that discussions with Google took place around this time and it was likely that Google would have offered a preferential offering to Nokia, such was Nokia's importance to the overall market.

Summing up the e-book, 'Smartphones and Beyond' gives a fascinating and detailed insight into a software company where the challenges of every day business present themselves, but with often little clarity around the future. I would even argue that the book is more about the culture of organisations and the market they operate in, rather than the technicalities of Symbian (though some of these are in the text as well).

Downsides ? There are a lot of press releases to wade through, which I don't think are always required and Wood introduces some of his predictions for other technology areas in the final chapter. These rather sit outside the rest of the book's approach. That said, if you can get through this, you will be rewarded with insight, understanding and much to ponder about the sector.

Could Symbian have survived for longer? Very probably. Should Symbian be higher regarded in history? Absolutely.

I love this type of utility - on any platform - showing at a glance where all your disk space has gone - absolutely invaluable when having a tidy-up! FolderPie does exactly what it implies, though actual deleting of files is left for whatever application is associated with the file in question - so this isn't a full management solution - yet!

From the AppList description:

Where have your mobile storage space gone? 

FolderPie can help you collect each folder actual size on your storage space. 
And present in Pie view for easy understanding at glance. 

A few screens of this in action:

Starting out at the disk level...

There are textual and graphical (pie) summaries... Tap through each to dig down a level in a folder structure...

As you dig down, you get to the file level, though the only delete functions are currently in whatever application you end up in.

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

From the author of Vine for Symbian comes.... wait for it..... Instagram! With full browsing and uploading capabilities too. Wow. Of course, photo purists like me still spurn the mass market travesty that is this service, but hey, at least there's an app for it now!

From the AppList description:

All Features:
* Login / Register
* Like / Comment / Delete Comment
* Follow / Send Requests / Approve or Deny Requests
* View Profiles
* Activities / Pending Requests
* Search User / Tag
* Save a copy of photo to gallery
*** If you are new user, your home feed can shows nothing
* Edit profile informations

*** AND UPLOAD
1. Select an image from gallery
2. Crop your image
3. (Optional) Add an effect
4. Add caption and SHARE.

Available Effects
1. Greyscale
2. Bright
3. Warm
4. Cool
5. Saturated
6. Light blurred
7. Sharpen

Here's Instagram for Symbian in action:

Getting started - Instagram for Symbian is commercial, even if acquired (as here) through AppList, with payment going directly to the developer, in the style of Gravity - your email account is registered and kept on an authorised server, etc. It's a couple of Euros, so not too much; (right) starting to browse my Instagram stream. The nHD resolution screen on Symbian seems too small suddenly, even for the resolution-challenged Instagram!

Starting to upload one of my own photos - you're led through cropping (to 1:1) and adding effects, as needed. All very slick, if a little slow even on the Nokia 808's fast processor.

Add a caption and then you're done - it's on Instagram!!

Confirmation (see it here online) ; (right) you can also search for users or tags and then start admiring their VGA creations....

Although it's a slight shame that there's no way to try this for free, at least you can see above that it does work - comments welcome if you grab it too!

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

Lonely Cat Games (LCG) Jukebox is a file and folder-based music player with a number of extras - it has been commercial up until this month in the Symbian world, but is now freeware, thanks to its developer and to AppList, both of which are linked below.

From the AppList description:

LCG Jukebox is handy media player. It can play MP3, AAC, FLAC and OGG music media files that are stored on your mobile phone, as well as using Internet stream (listen to online Internet radio).

LCG Jukebox can also search song lyrics or download Album art from the Internet.

Working on most versions of S60 and Symbian, LCG Jukebox can also be downloaded here, directly from the developer.

Here's a walk-through of its main features:

The core interface is based on file and folder playback; once playing, you get waveform view, scrubbing, and more...

The menu is hierachical and includes (right) a full equaliser.

If album art isn't already embedded in your music tracks, there's a menu function to help out, scouring the Internet for likely matches.

Ditto for lyrics - set LCG Jukebox finding the lyrics, approve them as the right song and you're done - singing along!!

The Shoutcast Internet radio feature also works well, using the same player interface for the music streams.

For modern Symbian smartphones, AppList is the best way to pick this up, on your phone client, etc. 

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

Parking, one of the hero applications in the Symbian freeware world, has just made it into the new AppList Store and I thought it well worth highlighting. The Symbian ecosystem remains tiny compared to that of Android and iOS, but what there is, is useful and often free.

From my original review, back in 2011, almost four years ago(!):

Come on, we've all been there. It's a day out with family, at a big attraction. At the end of the day, you all head for the carpark, stare at five thousand neatly parked cars and think "Now where the heck are we?". The free Parking 2 aims to solve this problem - and rather elegantly and with a not insignificant amount of flair and geek cool along the way.

...Parking 2 is, amazingly, completely free, so I'm being churlish. If losing your car in a big car park is something that happens to you on a regular basis then grab this anyway. And, if the developer's reading this - nice coding! Let's see more apps from you, please - I like your style.

Some screens of it in action (you'll get the idea):

A simple main menu and multiple ways of recording your parking location...

A really nice virtual GPS, complete with satellite numbers! (right) recording a voice note...

Textual recording, with help for floor and space numbers (and colours)....

A really nice radar view... and one for augmented reality too (deliberately blurred here)...

A full working parking meter, plus control over the exact timing....

For modern Symbian smartphones, AppList is the best way to pick this up, on your phone client, etc. Parking's always been a great app, and there's an easy new way to pick it up!

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

Those F1 people have seriously zealous and overarching lawyers, you know. They went after popular freeware 'F1uptodate' on both Windows Phone and Symbian, forcing the name change here to 'PitlaneOne' - but of course the developer's dedicated so this is more than a rebrand, with a chance for a refresh of all the teams, races, drivers, and so on. Your complete Formula 1 reference guide. 

From the current description in the Symbian AppList Store:

PitlaneOne provides all basic features you need as a Formula 1™ fan, including driver and team infos, a calendar, (unofficial) live data, championship standings and results.

And, to redress the platform balance, I'll take the screenshots from the Windows Phone version(!):

There's a glossy look, together with bang up to date 2015 databases to keep you informed through the season...

Core to PitlaneOne are the functions on race and practice days though, with live timings, Twitter integration, and so on...

Wonderful stuff. PitlaneOne is a free download here in the Store for Windows Phone and a free download in the AppList Store (and here) for Symbian smartphones. Though if like it then you might like to donate the developer directly here. You can also find him on Twitter here.

For Symbian users, hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

In perhaps the most 'current' Pimping piece yet, I tackle the Nokia 808 PureView, still a lot of people's main device, perhaps based on the super flexibility, the great camera, the gadgets, and so on. But what are the keys to keeping this going into 2015 - any tips, tricks or software goodies that you need to know about? It's all here. This is a major revamp to the original article, bringing advice, links and software up to date!

For once, I don't think a 'pimping' piece of mine needs any lengthy introduction to the device itself. The Nokia 808 PureView has been featured more on All About Symbian than any other previous device and its benefits are well known. I'd highlight, in particular:

• the 41MP oversampling PureView camera (obviously) with bright Xenon flash (both essentially still unique, the Windows Phone-powered Lumia 1020 pales in many ways)
• the terrifically high contrast ClearBlack Display AMOLED screen, still topping the GSMArena test table
• the very loud, high quality mono loudspeaker
• the replaceable battery - swap it in seconds
• the 'Play via Radio' FM transmitter
• the microSD support
• the narrow form factor (unusual in these days when flagships come with 5" and 6" screens and width to match)

Against these selling points, unique when taken as an ensemble, are the obvious cons of an operating system which ihas now been abandoned by Nokia/Microsoft, an ecosystem which has been officially 'frozen' and about to be abandoned altogether, and something of a widening application and service compatibility 'gap' with the rest of the world.

Hopefully this 'pimping' guide can help address some of these issues, at least.

Central to a lot of what follows is discovering as much independence as possible. With Nokia/Microsoft effectively washing its hands of the Symbian handsets (apart from contractual 'normob' support calls/emails and repairs if you're very lucky), getting a Nokia 808 up to par in early 2015 is very much a DIY job. But the effort is worth it and your 808 can see a whole new lease of life.

Custom firmware

Core to this 'pimping' is the use of custom firmware. The best known is Delight 1.5 and it's what I'm using here. It's easy to get scared off, from trying to flash (refurbishing) a Symbian phone, but once you've got the right version of Phoenix installed and all relevant USB drivers already in place, it turns out to be a piece of cake. Going from stock firmware to custom firmware does mean wiping the system (C:) disk and thus you'll have to reinstall all your apps and data, but subsequent updates to the Delight firmware can be overlaid, keeping everything intact, happily.

The core reasons for going with custom firmware here are:

• More disk space, more RAM (thanks to removal of Nokia cruft). After flashing, my Nokia 808 showed 599MB free on the system disk and free RAM after booting was 301MB.
    
• Independence from Nokia's update timeline. You're now on the Delight team's update timeline, and they're still thinking up ideas, unlike Nokia's/Microsoft's (Accenture) Symbian teams, which are almost gone now.
    
• Independence from the Nokia Store signing process. In addition to Store items, you can also now install 'unsigned' utilities from all corners of the globe. Of course, you do have to be careful what you install, but for the careful geek this isn't an issue. Stick to the applications in the AppList Store, for example, and you won't go far wrong.
    
• Extra functions and options, from the use of Nokia Pure font to being able to turn theme transitions off to more widgets, to more EQ options to even louder output from the main speaker, to flexibility in the main app menu (sub-folders!), to faster Music player, to more homescreens, to a hundred other tweaks that can be played with.

Two glimpses inside the options available with custom firmware - every tweak, every widget imaginable, all available, here in Delight.

Internet basics

Of course, however much cruft is taken out in custom firmware, however many extra options and widgets, however many graphical tweaks, you're still ultimately limited by the core Symbian applications. Web has famously struggled with modern desktop-aimed web sites, many modern pages have a Megabyte of images and Javascript and Web was designed for a slightly simpler age.

Having said that, Web still works very well for 'mobile' sites (see Google+ below, for example), I tend to keep my own mini-directory (in need of an update, actually) as the home page, but of course you can construct your own... Opera Mobile, while twice as fast as Web for many modern sites (with faster javascript handling, for example), is still ultimately constrained by the relatively limited processor (even in the Nokia 808) and lack of investment in the Symbian code by Opera Software. But it's worth keeping around to at least have a stab at any desktop-designed web layouts you need to access. Web will get lauched by default in Symbian and there seems no way to make a default of 'Opera Mobile' stick, sadly - one 'bug' which will never get fixed.

In fact, my preferred browsing option in 2015 on Symbian is now Opera Mini again, shown below, which handles all that progressively bloated content at the server side and just sends down the bit the Symbian client actually needs. Give it a try!

Email presents an issue or two, too. Almost everyone reading this will use Gmail, I suspect, and the old 2010 Java client is now very flaky on modern devices. While the old standby of using Symbian's one Mail for Exchange 'slot' for Google and Gmail no longer works for most of us because of Google's withdrawal of the protocol for mainstream use. I use Nuevasync to collect my Gmail and push Contacts and Calendar around and this has worked well for the last year, with no glitches at all.

It's also worth using the default IMAP connection for email, contacts and calendar through to outlook.com or hotmail.com, especially if you're planning on moving over to Windows Phone at some point.

Social matters

One of the central tenets of a modern smartphone is, of course, keeping you connected with your online followers and friends. Symbian's native Nokia Social application is written partly in Qt and partly in Web runtime (I believe), with the result that it's slow and inflexible (and now officially not supported anymore) - and dumped unceremoniously from the Delight custom firmware. Which means that you need to source your own clients for the social networks you're interested in:

• Twitter - there are more Twitter clients for Symbian than you might think, but I'd suggest you start with the free Tweetian, shown below, left, which has improved a lot in the last couple of years, or the ubiquitous Gravity, for which you've probably already paid and you just need Jan Ole to add your IMEI to his database, etc. Either provide a Twitter experience which is comparable with the Twitter clients on other mobile platforms, and both are distributed through a model which doesn't rely on updates through the Nokia Store (including AppList again).
   
   
    
• Facebook - Run, don't walk and head for fMobi, shown above, right, which by simple virtue of being regularly updated stands apart from previous contenders. I do worry about updates to this in 2015 though. If you ever find that this client drops behind Facebook's cutting edge in terms of compatibility, see also quasi-web solutions like Facebook Mobile Qt:
    
• Google+ - the problem here is that there aren't third party clients for this, since Google hasn't released a proper API yet. However, you can keep up with your G+ stream and interact by leaving comments, etc, by going to plus.google.com - for best effect, long press in any white space on the page and 'Install as application'. Hey presto, a Google+ 'client' in your app menu and on your homescreens. Well, sort of!
   
    
   
• Skype - This is no longer an option for Symbian users, since the company pulled all support in the last year or so. C'est la vie!
   
• Instagram and Vine - this now both have (commercial) third party clients (Instagram link, Vine) that work surprisingly well, and are being regularly updated in the AppList Store.
    
• Whatsapp - Constantly updated, this is a very slick Whatsapp client that rivals what you can do on other platforms. Commendably, it's also available directly from the developers, so again no issues post-Nokia Store. It's also available in AppList again, of course.

Input

The Swype way - It's no secret that I wasn't a fan of Belle FP2's qwerty keyboard, at least in portrait mode, where there's no auto-correction of words. Such a step backwards in terms of real world usability. In desperation, I turned to Swype, implemented on Symbian in useable (though demonstrably not perfect) way, since it offered full text correction in portrait mode - by definition. In fact, on the whole, Swype works really well on the narrow screen of the Nokia 808 - the input area is just the right size for a thumb to trace out letter combinations. There are just a couple of areas within Symbian's UI where the Swype pop-up keyboard proves inappropriate (because the applications concerned don't know about Swype and don't allow for it to appear. The quick reply facility in Messaging is one such. Personally, I find I can work around these areas and enjoy the speed of Swype the rest of the time - but your mileage may vary. The best installer to grab is Swype Xeon.

The traditional way - it's a tough call, but if you get annoyed by the UI instances where Swype gets in the way then you'll have to live with the Symbian keyboard - but at least it's improved and very power efficient and dark theme in the Delight custom firmware, as shown above, right. Yes, you have to correct words by tapping on suggestions, so a lot depends on how many mistakes you make and how worried you are by the Swype oddities!

Multimedia

The Nokia 808's multimedia prowess is well known, albeit that the screen resolution is looking low-res these days, even for a 4" screen. Symbian's range of supported codecs is excellent, for sideloaded MP4 (and similar) files, but you're also going to want to branch out into YouTube and Vimeo, which is best addressed by grabbing CuteTube:

Along the same lines, there's also the same developer's cuteRadio (Internet Radio) system, especially important given the lapse in Nokia Internet Radio.

And podcatching is now taken care of with Poddi, shown below, (Podcatcher had become increasingly unreliable, crashing regularly, at least in my experience, under Belle FP2). This, and almost everything else mentioned above is now free, by the way. Did I not mention that? One of the advantages of being right at the tail end of a platform or ecosystem!

Also note a couple of things about the audio side of multimedia:

• The 'Play via Radio' (a.k.a. 'FM Transmitter') system works well with the Video player. So, waiting in the car (e.g. for a partner or child), you can use your car's stereo to provide top notch audio for the video unfolding on your phone screen.
    
• Audio output over the 808's speaker is already loud and of quite high quality - but the 'MoreSoundInLoudSpeaker' patch that comes with Delight custom firmware doubles the volume again, with only minimal loss of quality at peak amplitude of whatever you're listening to.

No games?

All hackery and no play makes Jack a dull boy, etc.... One common criticism of Symbian is that it doesn't have enough games available for it. But every time I head over to my own Games directory I'm still struck by how much more there is than I'll ever have time to play through. We're not talking a massive, iOS-like catalogue here, but still plenty to amuse you in boring moments....

My main homescreen, weather widget is now courtesy of qooWeather II, plus app shortcuts to Tweetian, Gallery, AppList, Poddi, Handy Safe Pro and Micropool... and some relaxation titles for later!

2015 and beyond

With games not needing to be kept updated because of API changes, most can be left in the Nokia Store, despite its update freeze, of course. Though I'd yet again urge Symbian developers - of games or general apps - to seriously consider going freeware or donationware and thus being able to release their SIS file independently of the Nokia Store or via AppList. Just in case. Many users (such as myself) have also been stockpiling SIS installers, including for games - when the Nokia Store goes completely, look out for some of these archives to appear offline, albeit unofficially.

The Nokia 808 PureView continues to be a phone that ticks more boxes for many people (including me) than most of the competition. Armed with custom, install-server-hacked firmware and applications, utilities and games installed where necessary from AppList-sourced or side-loaded SIS files, there's no reason why the 808 can't continue to work its magic for some time to come - whatever Nokia/Microsoft do or don't do from a support standpoint. And I've already recommended that 808 fans consider getting a spare, since the 808 is getting harder and harder to find now.

I've had many requests for a camera head-to-head between the Nokia Lumia 830 and 930, not least since they're now about the same price at some outlets. But I thought I'd wait until they both had Lumia Denim and the new camera software. And then, heck, I couldn't resist adding in the Lumia 1020 and Symbian-powered Nokia 808 PureView into the mix. Plus an Android imposter, just to add an extra reference point. Gulp! So much to analyse and comment on below.

The 830 and 930 approach imaging from different directions, one with 10MP originals and one with 5MP/16MP twin output, while the older 1020 is 5MP/34MP - ditto the Symbian-running 808 PureView. And the joker in the pack, a typical modern Android smartphone camera in the shape of my 10MP-shooting (in 16:9) Galaxy S4, which I just happened to have on me.

With such a diverse range of resolutions and options, each test photo below has slightly different constraints, but I've tried to stay consistent and true to what I, as a user, wanted to get out of each shot. With five photos in each case, the usual 2-way comparator is out, of course, so I'm relying on appropriate crops to show differences in quality and detail. Plus you should also bear in mind differences in field of view for each device (i.e. narrow/wide angle). And where I don't comment on something, it's because all the camera phones did an equally good job!

If there's a focus (no pun intended!) here, it's the 830 versus the 930, of course. I've covered the two in a general comparison before, but this is looking at the two camera units now that Lumia Camera v5 is on both, along with the Denim update. The changes in image processing (less noise reduction, higher contrast, more saturation, etc.) have been controversial, so let's how the two contenders stack up against the 2012 camera phone uber-champion, the Nokia 808, its slowish successor, the Lumia 1020, and the S4, still one of the best Android shooters around...

Test 1: Sunny landscape

Methodology: Yes, we need to look at detail, but being a typical 'holiday' shot, we also need to look at colours and balance. So in this case, I've downsampled everything to a baseline of 5 Megapixels and then taken 1:1 crops/slices from these. In truth, all the phone cameras here should do an admirable job, given the perfect lighting and subject matter.

Here's the overall scene (as shot, in thie case, by the Nokia 808):

And here are the sliced/crops from the images sourced from the Nokia Lumia 830, 930, 1020, 808 PureView and Galaxy S4, in turn, click each link for the full original image, if you're interested enough to do your own analysis.

As expected, five cracking photos. The Nokia 808 and 1020, with their PureView oversampling, undoubtedly produce the most natural detail, though the S4 appears at first glance to get close with its over-sharpening. The Lumia 830 and 930 are very close too, with a slightly different take on the lighting and colouration - I think they bring out the glorious spring light best of all, although of course a little Photoshop tweaking (or similar) of the other three could see a similar brightening and enriching. The lack of OIS on the last two devices/shots does play a part, but a very small part given the excellent lighting.

Honours almost even all round. Lumia 830: 8 pts; Lumia 930: 9 pts; Lumia 1020: 9 pts; Nokia 808: 9 pts; Galaxy S4: 8 pts.

Test 2: Sunny landscape, zoomed

Methodology: Ah yes, these are top camera phones and we'd expect a little useable zoom, whether digital interpolated or digital lossless (depending on device). We're not looking for miracles, but we do expect differences here between the various camera units in these phones. Light was still perfect, giving each of them the very best chance. There's no downsampling needed here, obviously.

Here's the overall scene (as shot, in this case, by the Nokia Lumia 1020) - if you think of the zoomed detail below, the phone cameras are (almost) all doing an AMAZING job...

And here are the sliced/crops from the images sourced from the Nokia Lumia 830, 930, 1020, 808 PureView and Galaxy S4, in turn, click each link for the full original image, if you're interested enough to do your own analysis.

I've obviously got a little carried away guessing at the lossy digital zoom on the Lumia 830 and Galaxy S4, but it makes little difference, since zoom here is lossy from the moment you go beyond the initial 1:1. The 830's digital zoom is pretty horrible, I wouldn't recommend using it at all, while the S4's is obviously using extra interpolation to try and fill in the lossy 'holes' and is markedly better as a result. Meanwhile the three high megapixel PureView zoom-enabled Nokias do much better, as you'd expect. The Lumia 930 produces a decent attempt, but overdoes the contrast (thanks to Denim/LC5 etc.) and there's significant noise. Of the 1020 and 808, there's little to choose between them, with the 808 having very slightly more quality and the 1020's smaller sensor just falling behind a smidgeon.

A PureView win, obviously. Lumia 830: 4 pts; Lumia 930: 7 pts; Lumia 1020: 9 pts; Nokia 808: 10 pts; Galaxy S4: 6 pts.

Test 3: Arty Depth of Field

Methodology: Here I wanted to test the efficacy of the optics in each phone camera with regarding a macro and depth of field. In each case, I've downsampled the output to 700 pixel wide slices, as we're not so much interested in raw detail. And you won't need an overall scene image, obviously....

Here are the slices from the images sourced from the Nokia Lumia 830, 930, 1020, 808 PureView and Galaxy S4, in turn, click each link for the full original image, if you're interested enough to do your own analysis.

Absolutely no surprises here - I love it when physics plays out the way one expects. The larger the sensor and optics, the shallower the Depth of Field and the more artistic blurring of the pier in the background. Thus the DoF is greatest (i.e. least 'arty') on the Lumia 830 with its 1/3.4" sensor, then the Galaxy S4, Lumia 930, Lumia 1020 and finally Nokia 808 with the 1/1.2" sensor, all in that order, with the 808 capable of the most arty Depth of Field ('Bokeh') effects. 

As expected, more or less, as you can see for yourself, above. Lumia 830: 6 pts; Lumia 930: 8 pts; Lumia 1020: 9 pts; Nokia 808: 10 pts; Galaxy S4: 7 pts.

Test 4: Low light, no flash

Methodology: My usual indoor 'still life' scene, with just a low wattage desk lamp. Yes, we need to look at detail, but not excessively so. It's also about noise levels, artefacts, colours, etc. So again, I've downsampled everything to a baseline of 5 Megapixels and then taken 1:1 crops/slices from these. 

Here's the overall scene (as shot, in this case, by the Nokia 830):

And here are the sliced/crops from the images sourced from the Nokia Lumia 830, 930, 1020, 808 PureView and Galaxy S4, in turn, click each link for the full original image, if you're interested enough to do your own analysis.

All five photos are pretty good here, though the Lumia 930's is spoiled a little by a colour cast that means the wood seems almost orange, while the Lumia 830 and S4 shots are just starting to show artefacts and noise. Top marks especially to the Lumia 1020, followed by the non-OIS-equipped 808, with just a little noise in the very darkest areas.

Lumia 830: 7 pts; Lumia 930: 6 pts; Lumia 1020: 10 pts; Nokia 808: 9 pts; Galaxy S4: 7 pts.

Test 5: Night, no flash

Methodology: Dead of night in suburbia. Again, I've downsampled where needed to a baseline of 5 Megapixels and then taken 1:1 crops/slices from these - what's needed here is control over noise, shake and exposure....

Here's the overall scene (as shot, in this case, by the Nokia 808 PureView) - a bit too dark, but it gets over how little light there was to the naked eye!:

And here are the sliced/crops from the images sourced from the Nokia Lumia 830, 930, 1020, 808 PureView and Galaxy S4, in turn, click each link for the full original image, if you're interested enough to do your own analysis.

The Lumia 1020 manages the best balance of low noise, crispness and overall exposure, thanks to large optics, OIS and oversampling, with the Nokia 808 and - surprisingly - the Galaxy S4 not far behind. Meanwhile the two OIS-equipped modern Lumias lag behind with their newfound enthusiasm for trying to bring out light that really wasn't there in the original scene - resulting in high noise (especially in the 830's shot) and an image that should have been crisper, given the OIS, in the 930's case.

Lumia 830: 7 pts; Lumia 930: 6 pts; Lumia 1020: 10 pts; Nokia 808: 9 pts; Galaxy S4: 8 pts.

Test 6: Party time, flash test!

Methodology: My archetypal party shot test - a gently moving subject, low/tricky light, shot at about 1.5 metres handheld. I've downsampled where needed to a baseline of 2 Megapixels (party shots usually ending up on social media anyway) and then taken 1:1 crops/slices from these - what's needed here is control over shake and exposure, as much light as possible in as short an exposure as possible.... Hard. Very hard!

I haven't included the overall scene, as most of the shot is in the crops anyway!

Here are the sliced/crops from the images sourced from the Nokia Lumia 830, 930, 1020, 808 PureView and Galaxy S4:

It's easy to rule out the non-OIS, LED flash Galaxy S4 here - this is the typical camera phone shot at a party and it's completely unusable. The Lumia 830 and 930 do well with their OIS to keep great lighting and detail on the scene in general, but anything moving (me) has the typical motion blur for an LED flash shot - again typical and (probably) unusable. And, following a bazillion Xenon flash features by yours truly, you won't be surprised to see the Lumia 1020 and Nokia 808 PureView producing the best results here. The 1020 gets more room ambience but introduces a bit of a colour cast to skin tones, while the 808's flash dominates the lighting, but does get my skin spot-on, even at 1.5m.

Lumia 830: 4 pts; Lumia 930: 5 pts; Lumia 1020: 9 pts; Nokia 808: 10 pts; Galaxy S4: 0 pts.

Bonus: Experience, speed and functions

The tests above are where I usually leave a camera head to head. But in 2015 there are other factors to consider, as detailed below, and I have to add in a score for these too - it's not all about raw image quality anymore!

• Lumia 830: Fast launching under Denim, very fast shot to shot time, rich capture and 10MP RAW as options, 2K video bursts tied to the shutter key with intuitive interface for extracting 2MP stills later.
• Lumia 930: Fast launching under Denim, very fast shot to shot time, rich capture and 20MP RAW as options, 4K video bursts tied to the shutter key with intuitive interface for extracting 8MP stills later.
• Lumia 1020: Slow launching (unlikely to ever improve), four second shot to shot time (i.e. very slow, thanks to all the oversampling being done in the main S4 processor), 38MP RAW as an option.
• Nokia 808 PureView: Fast launching, very fast shot to shot time (thanks to the oversanpling being done in a dedicated GPU), full creative control over exposure, saturation, sharpness, JPG quality, etc.
• Galaxy S4: Fast launching, very fast shot to shot time/bursts, slightly fiddly 2MP still extraction from manually shot 2K video

Lumia 830: 8 pts; Lumia 930: 10 pts; Lumia 1020: 2 pts; Nokia 808: 7 pts; Galaxy S4: 5 pts.

Verdict

Adding it all together, over the six test scenes/photos, plus the bonus points for experience and speed, gives us an approximate ranking of how the smartphone cameras compare to each other:

1. Nokia 808 PureView (2012): 64 points
2. Nokia Lumia 1020 (2013): 58 points
3. Nokia Lumia 930 (2014): 51 points
4. Nokia Lumia 830 (2014): 44 points
5. Galaxy S4 (2013): 41 points

Note that none of this was an attempt to knock the Galaxy, by the way, it was only making up the numbers here as a data point - I recognise that the camera in the newer Galaxy Note 4 is much better, for example, and would give the top Nokias a run for their money.

The takeaways here are:

• The two Nokia 41MP-sensored, Xenon-flash-equipped imaging giants are still top of the pack, even though neither are still in production and both are showing their age. With the allowance for speed and experience, the 2012 Nokia 808 surges into a final lead. Whether or not you consider it fit for duty as a full smartphone is down to how much effort you're willing to put in, of course!
• Of the two main protagonists, the Denim and Lumia Camera 5-equipped Lumia 830 and 930, the 930 comes out on top overall, but there's not that much in it - if imaging is your thing then the extra zoom facility and 8MP still extraction from video would probably give it the edge.

Comments welcome, of course. There's always a certain amount of 'comparing apples and oranges' with these features, and it's rarely possible to have all the top devices in the world in one place at one time with perfect shooting conditions, but hopefully the tests above give you food for thought, at least. In the Windows Phone world, certainly, the need for a Xenon-equipped, Snapdragon 805-powered, 3GB successor to the Lumia 1020 has never been more evident.

Instagram for Symbian is a third party solution, it's true, but is coming on apace, with a bevy of updates listed below, filling out functionality and improving its interface, including photo and video downloading and full display of comments.

Here's the changelog for v1.9, over and above the initial version featured here:

• Added Turkish and Russian languages
• Download image or videos
• View profile image
• UI, font changes
• Connect through to Twitter (Facebook coming soon)
• Bigger grid view
• New Settings page (access from Profile page)
• View comment counts by pressing the comment button
• Refresh option in all pages
• Bug fixes

A few screens of v1.9 in action:

From the '...' menu there's now the option to download a photo to your phone's storage; (right) tapping on the Comments button gives a full view of what everyone's saying....

Sharing through to Twitter is now possible, if you want to go cross-platform, as it were(!); (right) there's now a Settings dialog, embedded from the Profile menu....

You can find Instagram in AppList, either in the Symbian client or here.

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!

The title and image probably give the game away, but the main engineer behind the Delight series of firmwares had been battling hardware demons with his Nokia 808 recently and he's been chronicling his adventures in working out what the problem was. Turns out that it was something that I had written about over a year ago after my Nokia C7 started misbehaving.

Over to Eric Dempsey then, for the intro and conclusion to his tale of woe - and eventual success:

...so, after days, months and years of excessive use of my 808, ...flashing, modding, extreme usage, etc.etc. etc. ...I have been getting really bad problems for over a week now...

Problems :
- random reboots 
- constant SIM connection problems
- software and app problems
- offline mode
- battery backcover was broken and battery keeps falling out, making random reboots even worse and more frequent

I can't recall any more right now, but it was so bad I thought of buying a new phone....of course a new Nokia 808. It was even so bad, I was really thinking about buying a different phone with a different OS - that's how bad it was. Because if you know me, then that is the last option I would do

..... 

The bottom line is that ...

even though I know my phone like the back of my hand, there will always be new surprises to me. All the problems I had were because of a faulty battery. And don't get me wrong, I am very happy with the results of the Mugen power battery. Although I would have like to have two just in case, now I know I have to ditch the old one. Of course I would have been more happy if the battery would have lasted 5 years instead of 2,5, but I guess I overdid it in many, many ways in the past.

I hope you can use this small tutorial if ever you should try to fix a software issue. Even though it was a battery problem it can still help you out. Search for the problem, for example: whatsapp is installed on E, Whatsapp is breaking up, maybe mass storage OR my music is stored on my sdcard, and the music player keeps restarting the phone: maybe a sdcard problem. Maybe other problems... search for the beginning of the problem and start from there. 

anyway...
thanks to Mugen Support Team for exchanging my faulty cover in my last order and making my phone battery last more than one day.

It's a shame that all the phone productions are based on more cpu processing, more graphics, more ppm, more connections to all sorts of apps and their servers whenever and all the time...
...power consumption is growing and growing and growing...
...phones are getting thinner and thinner and thinner...
...and the batteries have NO evolution what-so-ever
It would be nice if somebody in the cell phone industry would explain to me how this is going to end in the future.

The full article is here and worth a read.

I'm not sure it's fair to say that batteries haven't evolved - they have definitely become slightly more efficient and longer lasting, otherwise they wouldn't be used in millions of iPhones (for example) - actual battery swell is quite rare now. But I'm with Eric in terms of wanting thicker phones with larger batteries and preferably replaceable. It's the only sane way to go for a smartphone that you want to last for over the life of a contract, even if it's to stop the new recipient (e.g. your offspring or partner) inheriting this sort of issue!

We knew this was coming, of course. The Nokia Store (for Symbian, etc.) closed for new business/apps well over a year ago and we knew that a deal had been struck with Opera for the latter to keep it going in some form. The recent Store update contained the necessary redirect code and now the button has been pushed by Microsoft to redirect any use of the on-device Nokia Store application to the Opera web site/store.

Here's what you see when accessing the Nokia Store from any Symbian device right now (and yes, it goes straight here, via a redirect!):

So far, all the content seems to be free or freemium - it's not clear whether this is by design or just that payment systems aren't in place yet.

Of course, most Symbian enthusiasts have been ignoring the Nokia Store for ages anyway, with a variety of DIY approaches, not least the AppList Store, plus custom firmware (e.g. Delight) as the base, freeing devices from Nokia signing and out of date firmware builds.

There's no reason not to have a browse around the new Opera Store, of course, it serves up free SISx files as well as the next emporium, though do note that your purchase history with Nokia over the years has been nullified, of course.

If there are particular commercial applications or games that you've bought and cannot now reinstall when needed, there may (ahem) be other download sources - of varying legality, so be careful what else you pick up at the same time. Thankfully, most applications of any note have now been made free anyway, meaning that their SIS files are archived in many places and usually available in AppList - or indeed in the Opera Store perhaps...

End of an era, of course. The Nokia Store, implemented in a mixture of HTML and Qt routines, never set the world alight and was always a little clunky and a little buggy - a native Symbian implementation would have been much better, but at the time Nokia had its eyes on Meego and cross-platform everything.

Comments welcome on all this!

The HERE Maps team, previously spun out of Nokia before Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's Devices division, has been busy shoring up its online data servers with updated transit information across the world. This is all server-side, so there's nothing for any user to do, on Symbian, Windows Phone or, indeed, on Android or iOS, since (Nokia) HERE's applications are now cross-platform.

This being cross-posted to AAS, and despite not being mentioned in the HERE article, note that the server-side nature of the updates mean that the Nokia Public Transport application built into Symbian smartphones also benefits from the new data.

From the HERE blog post:

HERE has transit info for more than 950 urban areas around the world and the Transit Team is constantly updating and extending this coverage. Conveniently, this is done behind the scenes so there’s no need to update your Android, iOS or Windows Phone apps to see the results. It just works.

In the last few months, we have updated coverage in nine different countries.... if you have a particular request for transit info, just get in touch with us either in the comments section below or via Twitter, @HERE.

Improvements to North America

North America has traditionally been tricky due to its diversity and the fact that every authority formats its route and timetable records in its own way. Despite this, we are continuing to make progress. Our latest North American update includes transit directions for Fredericton, capital of Canadian province New Brunswick as well as 19 cities in the US including Orlando, Detroit and Raleigh...

Updates in other parts of the world

Besides full coverage of Flanders, we now have complete bus information for Belgium. We also have updates in France – including Rennes and Marseille. In Spain, we added Granada, Huesca and Ávila to our list.

In India, we now have transit coverage in Mangalore, Nagpur, Rajkot and Jaipur. We have expanded transit information in Brazil, too, with the addition of Goiania and Italians can now get around more easily in Trento, Brescia, Mantua and Verona.

Unlike the situation with roads, where they largely stay in place from year to year, transit data is constantly changing since it relies on commercial companies offering real time transport services and is subject to the vagaries of business, supply and demand, and so on. The HERE team notes "Clearly, though, the task is a long if not infinite one, that not only involves striking deals with the 1000s of existing transit operators across the globe but dealing with new ones popping up all the time".

Guest writer Stuart [surname withheld] writes: The RetiCAM Smartphone Tripod Mount and its accessories provide a way to use your phone’s camera and GPS more effectively. It can be used in with a hand mount, a car mount, and even a tripod mount. I was made aware of this product when reading a comment by 'ebucks' in the Shoulderpod S1 review.

Stuart writes: To quote him, the RetiCAM is “solidly made (all metal, save for the top of the thumbscrew) and holds the 808 very securely. One neat feature of the RetiCAM is that when mounted just to the left of the 808's shutter button, it is narrow enough that you can still use the slider lock switch.”

The handgrip is also made of aluminum with a rubber grip surrounding it. The top of the grip handgrip has a tripod screw and the bottom has a lanyard which is attached by a tripod screw to the base. I guess it would be possible to daisy-chain the handgrips to get a longer one but RetiCAM also makes a selfie stick which basically does that.

The windshield mount is also sturdy but is mostly made of plastic. I use it in the car for GPS  functionality and also with SymDVR for driver cam functionality.

The mount alone is $25 on Amazon USA and mount and grip combo is $35, the same as the Shoulderpod S1. I can highly recommend this device if you are looking for good accessories for your Nokia 808 Pureview or other phones.

PS. [Steve] If anyone has a recommended link for this in Europe, please chip in, in the comments.

I did wonder whether something like this might happen - HERE Maps, the company behind the old Nokia Maps, has looked into the millions of people still using the Symbian offering - and lo and behold, there's a brand new set of replacement maps for many countries available right now - go check your smartphone!

Screenshot proof of the new maps, of course:

On the Nokia E6, which had a load of Western Europe installed on its mass memory, a massive 2GB download. Eeek....!

Note the map date after the download - which was substantial, around 500MB for the UK, so essentially whole new maps - yay! And (right) all works absolutely perfectly. In 2015! On Symbian! Who'd have thought it?!

After the last update mid 2012, I think we all thought that Nokia-owning Symbian users were out in the cold in terms of map updates, but perhaps the number of requests into HERE HQ has impressed the folk there. Or perhaps a number of staffers there still use Nokia 808s? Whatever, enjoy the new map data, which should please an awful lot of Symbian enthusiasts and die-hards!

I'm sure any Symbian enthusiasts have noticed this already, but cuteTube, the premier YouTube client for the platform, is currently broken because YouTube changed its APIs a few days ago (or at least stopped supporting the much-used API 2.0). However, Stuart Howarth, the developer promises an update in the statement below.

Stuart writes:

As you may be aware, Google are closing version 2 of the YouTube API. As a result, some YouTube features in cuteTube will no longer work. I am currently in the process of re-writing cuteTube to use the QYouTube, QDailymotion and QVimeo shared libraries that I wrote recently. I am hoping this work will be finished within the next couple of weeks. The new client application will have some feature changes, including the ability to extend the list of supported services via plugins.

So it looks like you'll have to do without your YouTube fix for a few weeks, at least!

You'll remember my stripdown of the Nokia E7 communicator in order to change its battery? I found it under the keyboard and resting against the phone's back panel. Well, file this under weird and wacky, but reader 'Marc' from Hamburg has taken his Dremel grinder to his Nokia E7 - in fact, to a pair of E7s - and has ground a battery hatch for each. See below for photos!

For this first attempt, Marc used gaffa tape as a hinge, but he says he'd use a proper metal hinge if he did it again(!) In terms of a closing mechanism (i.e. keeping it closed), Marc says to put the phone in a silicone/TPU case. Hmm....

Anyway, thought you'd all be interested! This is a somewhat drastic solution, but does mean that the device's cell can be swapped very quickly. Why the heck did Nokia not put in something like this in the original design?

PS. He also says that, when swapping the batteries, if he's quick then the E7 keeps time and date properly.

With eight years since the classic Nokia N95 was selling in the mainstream, with one of the first five megapixel cameras in the phone market and the best, with 1/2.5" sensor and 'Carl Zeiss' optics, I thought it would be interesting to see how far the technology has come. After all, the Lumia 930 occupies pretty much the same photo-enthusiast consumer spot, at least in the Windows phone world, yet it outputs at a nominal 5MP still. But how different would the pixels themselves be, with eight years of sensor, optics and processing tech improvements under the 930's hood?

So yes, consider this article something of a curiosity, but a reminder of where we've come from is always a good idea, putting today's smartphone camera tech into perspective. And note that this is in no way a criticism of the Nokia N95 - in good light its photos are still usable, even by 2015 standards. Given that the sensor size (1/2.5") and output resolutions (5MP) are identical, I thought the Lumia 930 would be the best device camera to put up against the groundbreaking N95.

The main improvements over the last eight years have been:

• sensor sensitivity (including Back side illumination), meaning that more light gets captured and analysed
• better optics, more elements, higher quality glass, larger aperture
• optical image stabilisation, especially noticeable in anything other than good light
• oversampling, the use of higher native resolution on the sensor to combine outputs into lower noise output pixels
• far faster image processing, so faster camera startup, faster focussing,  faster capture, faster display
• better image processing algorithms, i.e. making higher quality JPGs from the raw data coming from the sensor

Six separate factors then, all playing a big part. The crops below are all at 1:1 as usual. I've deliberately put in an emphasis on tricky subjects or conditions, to push the camera phones to the limit.

Test 1: Landscape, sunny, HDR allowed

Out for a nice walk among the woodland bluebells, Rich Capture was allowed on the 930 - just because I thought it might help. There's no HDR option on the older N95, of course. Here's the overall scene, for context:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 930 and Nokia N95, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Despite the Rich Capture HDR, the 930 shot still has small portions where the reflected sun is 'blown out', but the overall photo is still much more satisfying tham the N95's, with over-neutral colours, more artefacts and less detail. Of course, the N95's competition at the time was still making do with 1MP (and worse) camera units, so it's all relative!

Test 2: Sunny, no HDR allowed

A good test of image processing, with some signage to look at (the human eyes and brain are good at discerning the quality of text). Here's the overall scene, for context:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 930 and Nokia N95, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Although the colours aren't that different, the big takeaway here is the improvement in precision over the years, with the newer optics and better sensor producing better, clearer, crisper detail. And yes, probably help from the better GPU doing more processing with similar levels of sensor data.

Test 3: Landscape, Light contrasts, HDR allowed

One of my standard test shots because of the clock detail at the centre and because of the frequent variations in light. Here's the overall scene, for context:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 930 and Nokia N95, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

This is a great demo of not only how well the HDR works in the Lumia 930 (grab the full images to see) but also how much crisper the detail captured is (again, remember that both the photos were at the same nominal resolution) - look at the consistent fine detail on the roof and on the clock face above.

Test 4a: Low light, flash allowed

Another standard test shot, typical indoor lighting, LED fill in flash allowed. Here's the overall scene, for context:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 930 and Nokia N95, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Things get more dramatically different as the light level goes down. Here the lack of precision in the N95 photo is partly down to inevitable movement while taking the shot (no OIS) and partly the more primitive optics and sensor, yet again. 

Test 4b: Low light, flash and zoom both allowed

The same overall scene as above, but this time I allowed the Lumia 930 to use its PureView 'lossless' zoom (into the raw resolution of the sensor):

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 930 and Nokia N95, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

The difference eight years makes is demonstrably staggering. Again I'd emphasise that the N95's photos were considered cutting edge (for a phone camera) in 2007!

Test 5: Night, absolute light gathering

An ultimate test of how much light is gathered and processed. To my eyes, the scene wasn't quite as dark as portayed immediately below, but it was certainly late-dusk. Here's the overall scene, for context:

In case you want to grab the original images to do your own analysis, here they are, from the Lumia 930 and Nokia N95, click the links to download. And here are detailed 1:1 crops, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the images:

Oh dear. No, your eyes don't deceive you - the N95 failed to gather very much light at all under such dark conditions (just a little detail in the sky, if you grab the original JPGs). The N95 did have a 'night' mode, for use on a tripod, but this is a test handheld, so everything was on 'Auto'. The Lumia 930's photo looks pretty bad at the pixel level, but the OIS has still kept the shot blur free and a significant amount of light has been gathered from detail on the side of the summerhouse.

Verdict

Again, I have to emphasise that I'm not being nasty or unfair to the 2007 Nokia N95 camera here - it was what it was - and very good for the era. But we've come a long, long way. In fact, I'd say that we've come just as far from the N95 to the Lumia 930 (despite the 5MP resolution being the same) as from first smartphone camera (the VGA, 0.3MP unit in the Nokia 7650) to the N95 itself.

It's called 'progress' for a reason, you know....!

I've had a lot (ok, two or three) of requests for pitting 'ye olde' Nokia 808 PureView against the LG G4, brand new and the hottest thing in camera phone technology, and for good reason, it just won out against the Lumia 930 and 1020. But what about the venerable Nokia 808 with its massive 1/1.2" sensor? Time for a few data points, at the very least...

In terms of methodology, the problem, of course, is that the 808 PureView is designed from the ground up to deliver 'pure' images at 5MP, with a 'creative' option to capture raw 34/38MP images if you 'know what you're doing'. Whereas the G4 shoots a high end but static 16MP image - so how best to compare the two?

One option would be to pit the raw 34MP images from the 808 directly against the G4's output, with higher resolution and never mind the disparity in framing. I've done one shot like this below. The other option is to recognise that Nokia were onto the right idea in capping the output at 5MP, already exceeding the resolution of all known displays at the time and still 99.9% displays today in 2015. With this in mind, the other data points below are compared by (bicubic) downsampling the G4 output to 5MP - this is, on the one hand, a little unfair to the G4, but then almost no one is ever going to see the pixel detail at 16MP in real life, and besides, the G4 still comes out of the comparison very well overall.

Test 1: Bright sunshine, massive landscape detail

In this case, all the texture and detail on my local church. Here's the full scene, for context:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Nokia 808 PureView (top, at 34MP) and LG G4 (below), click either hyperlink to download the full original JPGs for yourself, for further analysis:

There's clearly more image information in the 808 photo, thanks to the much higher resolution, though the G4 does very well, with detail that's sharpened a little but not excessively so. In contrast, the 808 image is quite deliberately neutral in terms of processing - there's no sharpening whatsoever - that's left - in this 'creative' mode - to the end user, doing what they want with the 10MB JPG file. 

We're not really able to compare like with like here, but I'd venture to say that the G4 isn't far behind overall, which is impressive considering that its sensor is around four times smaller (albeit that the aperture is about twice as wide, so there's some cancellation of effect here).

Test 2: Indoors, average light

Brochures in my local bank, shot at about 1.5m. Here's the full scene, for context:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Nokia 808 PureView (top, at 5MP) and LG G4 (below, from 5MP downsampling), click either hyperlink to download the full original JPGs for yourself, for further analysis:

With the caveat about the G4 being done a slight disservice in reducing its resolution, I'd give a slight win to the Nokia 808 PureView here, in its comfort zone and able to use its fast hardware oversampling to reduce noise and home in on detail. But there's very little in it overall.

Test 3: Outdoors, shady macro

Trying to get close to some nice bluebells in the shade in the corner of the garden. Here's the full scene, for context:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Nokia 808 PureView (top, at 5MP) and LG G4 (below, from 5MP downsampling), click either hyperlink to download the full original JPGs for yourself, for further analysis:

Note that the framing of my crop is deliberately different here, in that the Nokia 808 just couldn't focus close enough to the lead bluebell - so I've shown a crop that demonstrates that the bluebells behind were at least in focus. The G4 had no problems getting very close, with an impressive shot all round.

Test 4: Party time!

My typical party mockup, with an amateur at the controls (a family member) and with me deliberately trying to keep moving - as someone would at a typical party or event. The distance was about 1.5m, again typical of how you'd shoot down the pub, for example. Here's the full scene, for context:

And here are 1:1 crops from the Nokia 808 PureView (top, at 5MP) and LG G4 (below, from 5MP downsampling), click either hyperlink to download the full original JPGs for yourself, for further analysis:

The G4 image isn't as bad as some phone cameras I've tried, but there's definitely far more to work with in the 808's case, with almost complete freezing of motion - look at the bottle label, for example. 

The 1.5m distance is kind of on the edge of even the Nokia 808's Xenon flash range, but there's enough frozen detail captured that 10 seconds 'auto-tweaking' in a photo editor on the desktop gives:

Which, considering that I was (deliberately) moving significantly and that my family member may not have had a rock steady hand, is a pretty impressive result for my typical 'party' ad-hoc snap from a phone camera.

Verdict

Only four data points above, but enough for me to hazard an opinion that the LG G4 and Nokia 808 PureView are pretty close in terms of results overall, and indeed in terms of experience, with the 2012 808's lightning fast hardware-accelerated oversampling being matched with the raw processor oomph of the G4 from 2015. Where they differ from an imaging point of view is in their specialities - the G4 is much better at macro shots, has OIS and can do auto-HDR very effectively, while the 808 has a real Xenon flash and isn't afraid to use it indoors and in low light.

I'd say 'place your money and take your pick', but then 808 isn't even sold anymore and goes for silly money second hand. So it's all a slightly moot comparison. I reckon the 808 PureView still holds up quite well even against the 2015 imaging powerhouses, all things being considered, though from a smartphone point of view the ageing OS and apps make it a very poor relation, of course.

Comments welcome!

ThOR, the independent feed reader (compatible with Feedly, The Old Reader, and more), is now in the AppList Store for Symbian and fully updated. And working rather brilliantly, customisable, Readability-integrated, and more. Keep up to date in 2015 on Symbian!

From the AppList Store entry:

Client for Web-based aggregators supporting TheOldReader, feedly, Bazqux, InoReader and others (provided API compatible with Google Reader)

Some features: Subscriptions management, search for keywords, next/prev item when reading, mark unread item/list, qwerty/dpad support...

Pluses: TTS playback of articles, Readability integrated, sharing to social networks, Pocket, etc.

Here's ThOR in action today on my Nokia 808 PureView:

Ah yes, popping up in AppList! (right) Running it up, there's a choice of news reader APIs or...

... feedly, now the de facto standard in Google Reader's absence; (right) signed in and looking at my Feedly feeds...

Story overview and diving in - there's plenty you can customise about ThOR's appearance, don't worry....

Hopefully the AppList Store is working out for you all. See here just in case you haven't already got this installed or if this is new to you. Also, if you have custom firmware installed, make sure you tick the option in settings to show 'unsigned' applications, you'll see extra applications!