Motorola has launched its latest Droid-series smartphone, the Droid Turbo, exclusively on US mobile carrier Verizon.Verizon announced that the Droid Turbo smartphone by Motorola will be available starting October 30 from its online and retail stores. It comes in a choice of a durable "Ballistic Nylon" build, or a "metalized" Kevlar fibre build.

                                  The Droid Turbo has been priced at $199.99 (approximately Rs. 12,250) for the 32GB model with new two year activation or $25 per month on Verizon Edge, and will be available in Metallic Black, Metallic Red, and Black Ballistic Nylon models. The 64GB variant comes at $249.99 (approximately Rs. 15,300) with new two year activation or $27 per month on Verizon Edge, and will be available in Black Ballistic Nylon.

                                   As expected, the new Motorola Droid Turbo comes with some top-notch specifications, such as a QHD display - which has been seen on smartphones such as LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and is perhaps the highlight of the device. It features a 5.2-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixels) display offering a pixel density of 565ppi, much higher than the 5.5-inch LG G3 at 534ppi and 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4 at 515ppi. The screen also includes Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protective layer.The smartphone is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor clocked at 2.7GHz coupled with an Adreno 420 GPU and 3GB of RAM.

                                    The Android 4.4.4 KitKat-based Droid Turbo features water-repellent nano-coating and is claimed to be 'water resistant', as per Motorola.

                                    The Droid Turbo features with a massive 3900mAh battery, the biggest amongst some of the high-end phones such as Sony Xperia Z3, Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and even Moto X (Gen 2). The company claims that the smartphone can deliver up to 48 hours of mixed usage. The Droid Turbo also supports Motorola's Turbo Charger, a new accessory from the company stables that is said to provide 8 hours of battery life in just 15 minutes of charging.

                                    The Motorola Droid Turbo sports a 21-megapixel rear autofocus camera with f/2.0 aperture and dual-LED flash. The rear camera comes with features such as slow motion video; burst mode; auto HDR; Panorama, and tap to focus. Meanwhile, it can also record 4K videos at 24fps. It includes a 2-megapixel front camera.The Motorola Droid Turbo supports 4G LTE with LTE Cat 4, apart from CDMA, EVDO Rev A, GSM/ UMTS/ HSPA+ (depending on the plan chosen).

                                     The Droid Turbo also includes features from the Moto X (Gen 2) such as the Moto Display, which can wake up the phone to show the time and notifications when user's reach for the phone. Other pre-installed apps include Droid Zap app, feature that makes sharing of images and videos easy with nearby friends, and Zap to TV, which uses Google Chromecast to create a slideshow on a big screen.

                                     The Metallic Red and Metallic Black variants measure 143.5x73.3x10.6mm, while at the thinnest the handset measures just 7.8mm. It weighs 169 grams. The Black Ballistic Nylon model, on the other hand, comes with dimensions 143.5x73.3x11.2mm, while measures 8.3mm at the thinnest. It weighs 176 grams. The handset includes accelerometer, ambient light, e-compass, gyroscope, Infrared, and proximity sensors.    

                                           

                                      

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Most of Sony's VAIO laptops are nothing to write home about. Though they are fine laptops, they don't distinguish themselves from many other modern laptops. They are, for lack of a better descriptor, typical. But every so often, the company bucks common trends with a product that is clearly ahead of the curve--and very expensive. These special laptops remind us of olden days when a Sony TV or music system carried a huge price premium but virtually guaranteed superior design and quality. The new VAIO Z is one of those rare, ahead-of-its-time, money-is-no-object Sony laptops.

The 13-inch VAIO Z is ridiculously thin and light. At 0.7 inch when closed, the body is about as thick as the thickest point on a Macbook Air, though the VAIO Z doesn't taper as Apple's ultraportable does. It's even lighter than the 13-inch Air, too, at 2.5 pounds. This is due in part to Sony's having made the body out of aluminum and featherweight, durable carbon fiber. It looks good, and it feels good. And despite the laptop's incredibly svelte size, Sony crams a full-voltage Core i5 or Core i7 processor into it. Our review model came with a Core i7 2620M and 4GB of RAM. It also carried a 256GB solid-state drive, and the combination powered the system to a very impressive WorldBench 6 score of 138--one of the highest scores we've seen for an ultraportable laptop. Amazingly, the battery lasted for 5.5 hours, about an hour less than the batteries on most recent ultraportables have managed, but quite impressive considering the horsepower under the hood.

Sony loads this thin system with other goodies, too. You get a VGA port on the left; a pair of card readers (for Memory Stick and SD Card) along the front edge; and an audio jack, gigabit ethernet, HDMI, and a pair of USB ports on the right. Sony used Intel's Light Peak technology to turn the lone USB 3.0 port into a special high-speed connector to a thin dock that houses the optical drive (DVD or Blu-ray) and a discrete Radeon HD 6650M graphics card with its own set of video, display, and USB connectors (including USB 3.0). The base-model VAIO Z--with a Core i5 processor, a 128GB SSD, and a 1600-by-900-pixel display--will set you back about $2000. Our review model packed the aforementioned Core i7 CPU and 256GB SSD, plus a 1920-by-1080-pixel display, all for about $2500. The 1.5-pound dock is included with the package, though the type of optical drive it contains may vary.

Though many people have called the media dock port a Thunderbolt connector, it isn't one. Thunderbolt is the port that eventually emerged from Intel and Apple based on the company's Light Peak technology, but with a few changes. Light Peak was going to come to market using a USB port and an optical cable, as in the VAIO Z, but it underwent some tweaking before its designers settled on a mini-DisplayPort connector and copper cable. So Sony's implementation, though it uses very similar technology to Thunderbolt, will be incompatible with Thunderbolt devices. It is essentially a proprietary dock connector, but it also serves as a USB 3.0 port, so there's no wasted space.

The glossy display is impressive, with bright, vivid colors and good contrast. Cramming a 1920-by-1080-resolution full-HD display into only 13 inches is a neat feat, though in our tests the display sometimes made default text sizes look a bit small and hard to read. Off-axis viewing was above average. Movies and games looked great, especially when powered by the Radeon HD 6650M in the Power Media Dock.

With so much to love about this system, it's a shame that the keyboard and touchpad ergonomics aren't especially good. The keys are on the small side; and though they are spaced apart well, they have very little travel when pressed. The result is a keyboard with poor tactile feedback, which can make extended typing feel a little uncomfortable. The touchpad is smallish, too, and it doesn't have discrete buttons, though the left and right clickable zones along the bottom (separated by a fingerprint reader) are obvious. The touchpad tracks well, but I'd prefer a little more size and buttons that are either physically separate or totally absent--none of this “button zones” business.

I'm not a huge fan of Sony's software loadout, either. The drop-down menu at the top of the screen is distracting and superfluous--Windows 7 already has application launching from its own toolbar at the bottom. Sony's VAIO Care application is a good way to keep your system up to date, but Sony's Media Gallery and photo apps don't work any better than more-common software. Sony also bundles in Skype, Arcsoft Webcam Companion, PowerDVD, Office 2010 trail, and Norton Internet Security trail. The last of these is a common annoyance on modern PCs that every laptop maker would do well to avoid; it does a fine job of protecting users from viruses, but it slows performance and nags you incessantly until you either fork over your money or uninstall it. Overall, it's not a good customer experience when you've just spent more than two grand on a new laptop.

These are relatively minor shortcomings, however. The software is easy to remove if you don't care for it, and the typing and pointing experience is by no means poor. The VAIO Z provides a road map to the kind of incredible industrial design and advanced technology that Sony would do well to bring to much lower-cost laptops. This ultraportable is so thin, light, and powerful that it's almost like getting next year's laptop today. Fantastic style and power that's easy to carry around make the VAIO Z a winner, even though it costs more than twice as much as most customers are willing to pay for a new laptop.

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HTC has launched a competitor to the Moto G in Europe and India. The Taiwanese maker is making sure they have devices in every price bracket. The phone is a 5-inch device and is in the long list of phablets that are populating the smart phone market today.

HTC Desire 516 Dual SIM smartphone with 5.00-inch 540x960 display powered by 1.2GHz processor alongside 1GB RAM and 5-megapixel rear camera.

The phone has nice rounded edges and the back cover and battery are removable. The 5 inch display size means the phone is a slightly difficult to handle with one hand. The plastic back cover is extremely glossy and is a real smudge magnet. The phone weighs 160 gms and is 9.7 mm thick. The 5MP camera, like any other HTC, is at the center of the phone on its rear side. The phone comes in full black and full white variants and the glossy finish makes it a little tricky to hold onto with one hand. Also illuminating the back and home touch buttons would certainly help us use the phone better for those late night texts rather than depending on the tactile feedback.Screen.The 5-inch screen has a 540×960 pixel resolution with a 220 pixel density. Its color tone and contrast ratio makes for good viewing and the display quality is impressive for its price point. The screen is good for viewing videos and the pictures also appear quite vivid. The Moto G has an HD display and pips the 516 in this aspect.

                       HTC desire 516  is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor paired with Adreno 305 GPU. The 1GB of RAM though falls short of the other phones in the price bracket. The phone handles all your regular apps quite smoothly but can show a hint of lag when using some data-hogging apps in tandem.Software: The 516 comes with the outdated Android 4.2. It seems HTC takes time to tweak its Sense UI for Kitkat. The drop down notification menu and the trademark up-down app drawer enables you to handle the 5 inch device with one hand.Camera: The 5 MP snapper is decent and takes some crisp pictures under the right lighting conditions. The 2 MP front camera is one of the best in its class and will  makes selfie fanatics very happy. The preset filters and camera settings might seem a bit complex for the average user at first (it allows you to set the ISO and also reduce wavelet noise) but they allow you to get the perfect snap. The camera supports 720p video recording as well.

                                               The Desire 516 comes with a 4GB internal storage that can be expanded to 32GB using a micro SD card. It does fall short of its competitors in this aspect as most of them come with 8 GB of internal storage.

                                             The phone is packed with a 1950 mAh user removable battery, for a phone of this size I did expect HTC to offer a little bigger juice pack. The battery lasts a tad more than half a day while on 3G and WiFi.

Specifications of HTC Desire 516

• Android v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
• 5.0 Inch, 540×960 px display, LCD
• Quad core 1200 MHz processor
• 5 MP Primary Camera, 2 MP Secondary
• Dual SIM, 3G, WiFi
• 4 GB Internal Memory, Expandable up to 32 GB
• 1 GB RAM
• 1950 mAh, Li-Ion battery

   

  

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The affordable Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 boasts two solar panels that power the keyboard while you type, and other eco-conscious features include PVC-free construction and fully recyclable packaging.

Logitech's K750 wireless solar keyboard gets our Editors' Choice Award for being an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional input devices with convenient extras and an affordable price.

Logitech calls its  Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 an innovation in typing technology, and after using our evaluation model for a week, we certainly agree. The dual solar panels mounted on top of the superthin keyboard require zero user effort to keep the device charged and ready to type, while the accompanying Solar App desktop software shows precisely how much battery life is left. We're very much in favor of the Logitech K750, especially when partnered with Logitech's convenient Unifying Receiver, which lets you connect multiple Logitech input devices to a single USB plug. In fact, we're giving it an Editors' Choice Award, and recommend it to anyone shopping for a new keyboard.

With its low-profile keycaps and a glossy black mirrored finish behind them, the K750 solar keyboard looks more like a disconnected laptop keyboard than its desktop counterparts. Unlike the mechanical keyboards currently popular in the peripheral market, this input device uses scissor switches underneath that register key presses with a lighter touch, and give the additional benefit of low noise. This type of keyswitch also allows Logitech to reduce the thickness of the keyboard chassis to just one-third of an inch.

The standout features on the K750 are obviously the dual solar panels that sit on either side of the logo branding on top of the keys. The panels power the integrated ML2032 lithium manganese button-cell rechargeable battery that then pushes power to the keyboard.

That's standard battery technology, but the solar panels can also draw perpetual power from artificial light sources--in other words, you don't have to raise the keyboard to the sun for it to work; the fluorescent bulbs above you will charge it just fine. Logitech claims that a single 2-hour charge will retain power for three months in total darkness, or more if you remember to flip the on/off switch when you step away.

Finally, on the small chance that the battery fails, you can replace it with a standard ML2032 battery, available from Logitech's parts store.

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Livescribe's Echo Smartpen is designed to avail you record, organise and access all your notes utilizing one contrivance and one piece of software. It's also built with sharing in mind - the Livescribe Desktop software lets you publish your preserved notes via store them online with Evernote or on a free 500MB online storage drive provided by Livescribe. The recollection storage holds 400 or 800 hours of recorded audio, depending on the model, and includes an OLED exhibit that makes it facile to navigate smartpen apps.
     

 The Echo Smartpen is definitely the cleverest writing implement we've ever owned. It even guides you through its own setup process. As you follow the steps in the Interactive Getting Started Guide booklet, the pen talks you through each one via a built in speaker. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack if you don't want to share what you're doing with the rest of the room. A tiny 96x18 OLED screen displays its status and a microUSB port lets you connect it to your PC. The integrated battery should last 5.5 hours for simultaneous audio and text capture and up to 13 hours for text capture alone.                                                                                                                                                      The pen can't function without Livescribe's special dot paper. It's exactly what it sounds like - paper with hundreds of tiny pale blue dots printed all over it, so small that they're only visible close up and merely give the paper a pale blue tint from any normal distance. The tip of the smartpen houses a tiny infrared camera, which takes 72 photographs of the paper every second. The camera captures a 36-dot grid, which the software then decodes to provide precise coordinates for the pen's current position. It's this location information that is recorded and turned into the digital version of your document, perfectly tracking the movements of the smartpen as you write and draw with it.

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BlackBerry genuinely does know how to build beautiful phones. The Z3 is ridiculously good looking and its construction quality is impeccable. As of now, it's only available in black but we wouldn't be surprised to see a white edition in the future. The front is all smooth glass, and there really isn't much bezel space around the screen itself. The rear is made of a texturised soft-touch plastic with the classic BB logo in the centre. For better or worse, the battery is non-removable.

The camera and flash are in the top-left corner of the rear, much like they are on the older Z10. A plastic flap on the phone's right edge covers the SIM and microSD card slots, while the power button is placed towards the top of the left edge with the volume controls and voice command shortcut button below it. The Micro-USB port is on the bottom and 3.5mm headset port is on the top. The Z3 doesn't have a mini-HDMI port, which sets it apart from its higher-end siblings.

There's good news and bad news - while the Z3 is brand new and undoubtedly good-looking, it's built with mostly utilitarian components. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with integrated Adreno 305 graphics, but there's a generous 1.5GB of RAM to keep things humming along. The screen is a bit of a letdown at 540x960 pixels despite its large size. There's Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 along with A-GPS, FM radio, an accelerometer and a proximity sensor. There's only 8GB of internal storage space, but microSD cards of up to 32GB are supported (and 64GB cards might work unofficially).

The main magnetization is of course the BlackBerry 10 OS. The Z3 comes with version 10.2.1 which is considerably improved over the version that originally shipped with the Z10. The phone might be physically similar to pretty much every other touchscreen smartphone out there, but the BlackBerry OS takes quite a bit of time and effort to get used to, even for users of older non-touch BlackBerrys .

BBM is still a major part of the BlackBerry ecosystem and there are more features for BlackBerry 10 users than there are for iPhone and Android users. It's also integrated  into the Hub as a first-class citizen, whereas some other app alerts are just lumped under Notifications. BBM has several strong features compared to today's dominant messaging apps, especially in allowing you to control who can message you. Even so, none of this is enough to drive anyone to choose a BlackBerry phone over the competition. BBM just isn't the powerful draw it once was.

                                                                                          

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Finally, Apple’s iPhone 6 is here. Keeping up with most of the rumours, this newest iteration of the iPhone comes in two screen sizes – 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch. The 4.7-inch model is called iPhone 6 while the jumbo-screen phablet is christened iPhone 6 Plus. Apple has crafted the biggest and thinnest iPhones ever. Here’s everything you need to know about the iPhone 6 models

Iphone 6 isn’t simply bigger — it’s better in every way. Larger, yet dramatically thinner. More powerful, but remarkably power efficient. With a smooth metal surface that seamlessly meets the new Retina HD display. It’s one continuous form where hardware and software function in perfect unison, creating a new generation of iPhone that’s better by any measure.
Developing an iPhone with a more sizably voluminous, more advanced exhibit betokened pushing the edge of design. From the seamless transition of glass and metal to the streamlined profile, every detail was conscientiously considered to enhance your experience. So while its exhibit is more immensely colossal, iPhone 6 feels just right.
                               In the bid to keep up with the growing demand for more immensely colossal exhibits, Apple has determinately dropped its 4-inch exhibit and moved onto more sizably voluminous exhibit sizes. However, this doesn’t mean the contrivance has got any bulkier. In fact, the company, kenned for shedding off weight with each generation leap has perpetuated its tradition. The iPhone 6 as well as iPhone 6 Plus are the sveltest iPhones ever at 6.9mm and 7.1mm respectively. It should be noted that the iPhone 5S was 7.6mm svelte. Moreover, the rounded edges and glass front curves, gives it an iPad-like look.

Design

                                                                The larger displays have also ensured more pixel resolution of 750 x 1334 for the iPhone 6 and 1080 x 1920 for iPhone 6 Plus. They are also believed to be the most powerful iPhones ever. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus come with the all-new A8 processor. Apple claims that it comes with 2 billion transistors, making it 25 percent faster for any ordinary computing task and 50 percent faster  graphics.             

                   On the camera front (8MP), these contrivances come with a   plethora  of amendments. Firstly, they are fitted with an incipient sensor for more expeditious auto-focus to eschew blurry shots. You will withal find an incipient slow-kineticism video feature. Basically, you can take videos at 240 frames per second and then decelerate them to view at a fraction of their pristine speed. One of the fascinating features is Burst selfies.   This denotes take several expeditious selfies and cull the best among them. In integration, the iPhone 6 Plus additionally comes with optical image stabilization that detects and offsets shaky moments.

A superfast connection can make you feel like the whole world is within reach. That’s why iPhone 6 has faster LTE download speeds.1 That’s also why it has more LTE bands than any other smartphone. iPhone 6 supports more advanced wireless technologies to boost performance and help you connect to the things — and people — that matter most.Both models come with some networking improvements compared to its predecessor. These devices now support 20 different frequency bands, allowing them to operate in more countries. The technique called carrier aggregation allows the devices to utilize multiple frequency bands at the same time that can offer speeds 50 percent faster than the iPhone 5S, claims Apple. Besides cellular network, Apple has also improved Wi-Fi capabilities with the support for 802.11ac.                                   


 It’s not just iPhone 6 that’s bigger. The world’s most advanced mobile operating system has made a huge leap, too. iOS 8 has new capabilities and functions that let you do things you could only imagine before, like using Siri to control the devices in your home or using your health and fitness apps to communicate with your doctor. Developers now have deeper access and more tools to bring some of the amazing new features of iOS 8 to their apps. And it all looks great on the large Retina HD display.

Gone are the days of probing for your wallet. The wasted moments finding the right card. The swiping and waiting. Now payments transpire with a single touch. Apple Pay will change how you pay with breakthrough contactless payment technology and unique security features built right into the devices you have with you every day. So you can use your iPhone 6 to pay in an easy, secure, and private way.
                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                       As  expected, the iPhone 6 costs $199 for the base model with 16GB of storage, $299 for a 64GB model and $399 for a 128GB model (with contract). The larger size iPhone 6 costs $100 extra –  $299 for a 16 GB model, $399 for 64GB and $499 for the 128 GB  model. The previous models get a price cut, the iPhone 5S  sells for $99 and iPhone 5C free with contract. Users can opt for space grey, silver or gold options. The pre-orders for the new iPhone begin on September 12 and Apple fans can visit the retail store on September 19.

                                             

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Motorola Moto G2 a smartphone with 5.0-inch display with 720x1280 resolution powered by 1.2GHz processor alongside 8GB RAM and 8.0 megapixel rear camera.

After a lot of buzz and great succcess of Moto G, company launched Moto G2 with mid budget range smartphone with Android Kit-Kat operating system.

With the sharpest display in its class  and stereo sound, all of your  photos,music and videos look and sound their best in brilliant in 5"HD, Listen music while uploading your latest pictures, Quickly switch from playing a game  to texting ,with a quad-core processor  moto G2 multitasks as easily as you do.

 Compared to moto G ,second generation moto G has having slightly bigger screen. The new model moto G has a display larger than old model by 0.5" but with same screen resolution. The 5.0" 720p display on moto G2 produces good colours and has satisfactory angels.

The moto G (2nd generation) comes with enhanced cameras. The megapixel count on the new  moto G is updated to 8MP for the primary camera and 2MP for the front camera. I recollect telling people in review of the pristine Moto G earlier this year that the front camera is okay only for video calling, but not for selfies. But now Motorola has filled that gap with the incipient model.

          A paramount improvement in the second-gen Moto G is that it offers expandable storage. The additament of a microSD card slot in the second-gen Moto G denotes that Motorola took the feedback seriously.The company recommends to utilize a microSD card of not more than 32GB.

          Unlike the old Moto G that came with a speaker grill at the back, the incipient Moto G has dual speakers at the front that engender fairly loud sound in a normal room environment. However, in a noisy atmosphere, it may not sound as powerful. But with earphones plugged in, the phone engenders excellent audio results.

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ColorFul Apple, and $100 on contract!

We've been hearing rumors of a new Iphone breed for Years, and now it's finally here. Apple's new plastic=backed, color-coated iPhone 5C is a $100 option for a whole new generation of iPhone users. Here's everything you need to know. 
                           By this point a new iPhone is every bit as much a part of fall as football and Thanksgiving food comas. But that pesky "budget iphone" rumor has been kicking around for years with no results so far. So is this year any different? Almost certainly yes.
In addition to this rumors, we've got a little more to go on this year. In a report about the (still pretty terrible) conditions at plants in Apple's supply chain, china labor Watch published a worker's diary that made mention of a new, plastic-backed iPhone as an off-handed statement of fact.
 



What's NEW?
               As expected, the iPhone 5c isn't full of new guts, but it's not the 4s either; it's basically the iPhone 5 in plastic. Its brain is the iPhone 5's A6 Processor and it's got an 8MP camera like the 5 as well. Unsurprisingly, it's also got the same 4-inch retina (326 ppi) screen that the iPhone 5 does and a lightning adapter because duh. It's also got more LTE bands than any other smartphone out there, alongside dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and the normal stuff. Oh and there's a slightly bigger battery! Huzzah! The iPhone 5c's front-facing HD camera is actually an improvement on the iPhone 5's, however. It's designed to function better in low-light conditions. And the iPhone 5C's guts are good enough to handle all the new camera features of iOS 7.       

Price      

          The 16GB iPhone 5C will cost $100 with a two year contract, the 32GB model is $200. Off contract prices are way rougher: $550 and $600 respectively. Ouch. you should able to pre-order. This year, instead of just pushing each phone down one notch as in years past, Apple is insteadreplacing the iPhone 5 with the new 5C. This is your new mid-grade option, Folks. The iPhone 4s is getting bumped down to free, like you'd except, keeping smaller screens and 30-pin connectors around one generation more. Just instead of a cheaper iPhone 5, we've got the 5C. Hope you like your colors!

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The Nokia Lumia 1020 doesn't feel like a camera when you hold it, which is a leg up over other camera-phone hybrids such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. Nonetheless, its photo-taking ability is the clear emphasis, which is obvious from the lens-holding protrusion on the back and — to a lesser extent — the dedicated shutter button on the right side.

Nokia tried its hardest to keep the 1020 as thin as possible (protrusions notwithstanding), and it's significantly lighter than the company's previous flagship, the Lumia 920 — 5.6 ounces instead of 6.5. The screens are exactly the same at 4.5 inches, but the 1020 feels better in the hand, which is also probably why Nokia didn't incorporate wireless charging into the phone (although an accessory makes that possible).

Camera App(s)

The camera app is where all the action happens. In fact, it's so much action that Nokia actually has two camera apps. The first is the Pro Camera, which is the default app that launches when you hold down the dedicated shutter. The Pro has manual controls and generally works the same way as most phone cameras (touch to focus, pinch to zoom, etc.).

Then there's the Smart Camera app, which takes several photos of a subject in rapid succession to allow for some photographic trickery. With Smart Camera, you can use the multiple photos to pick the best shot, adjust facial expressions, add motion blur and other tricks. I question the wisdom of including two different camera apps, but I guess it keeps things simple.

Other phones perform similar trickery, so I spent most of my time trying out the Pro camera. Right off the bat, I have to credit Nokia with providing a way to zoom with one finger. You can also pinch, but I found it much more convenient to just slide my finger up the screen to zoom while my finger was on the shutter button.

The Lumia 1020 has manual controls that look completely ripped off from the Samsung Galaxy Camera — virtual dials that swoop in from the right side when you "pull" the shutter icon toward the middle of the screen. I have to admit, though, that Nokia's implementation is better: The icons are subtler so they don't overwhelm the image onscreen, respond fluidly to the touch and show the effect of adjustments in real time (such as blowing out the photo as you increase exposure). Very nice.

Taking photos is pretty straightforward, and I appreciated the ability to press the shutter button halfway down to focus, just like a DSLR. You can select the focus point simply by tapping the screen, and the button remembers — it returns to the default center position after a few seconds. The phone has 32GB onboard for storage.

Shooting and Zooming

I shot a few photos with the Lumia 1020 to see what the 41 megapixels could really reveal in a typical shot. (It can actually only take advantage of 38 of those megapixels, but whatever.) Zooming in on a pic of a crowded room, I could get a better focus on faces that were 10 or 20 feet away, but when I tried to get up close to faces further than that, they looked more like a Monet painting than a proper photograph.

So, yes, megapixels help to a point, but they're not magic.Indeed, Nokia only promises that the 1020's ultra-high-res photos only let you zoom to about 3x with decent clarity. That's still 3x more than pretty much all other phone cameras, of course.

A more practical feature is how the images implement the zoom. If you zoom in on your subject to take a photo, the entire (non-zoomed) photo still appears, letting you access it at any point and re-framing the photo afterward.

Excited to share those huge, high-res 1020 photos on Facebook? Not so fast — those pics are too big to share on social networks, and the phone won't let you share them directly to any service (apart from AT&T Locker; being an exclusive partner has its benefits). However, Nokia thought ahead, and the 1020 will simultaneously create a 5-megapixel version of your photo for sharing.

You can buy an $80 grip accessory, which also acts as a spare battery. The grip doesn't add a ton of weight, although it certainly makes the camera less pocketable. The larger shutter button feels great as well. If you intend to use the Lumia 1020 as your primary phone, the grip is a good investment for the extended battery life alone.

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