Nokia Lumia 1020 officially launched as 41MP-toting Windows Phone

Arriving with exactly zero surprise factor, the Nokia Lumia 1020 has been officially unveiled at a exclusive launch event in New York.

The new phone comes with a 41MP camera, a xenon flash and LED light together atop the new Pureview sensor, and seems to have crammed it into a much thinner chassis compared to the original 808 Pureview.

• Check out our hands on: Nokia Lumia 1020 review

Each shot will generate a 38MP picture for all the fancy imaging and editing you can do, but will also create a 5MP shot for sharing easily on social networks too.

The technology is made possible thanks to combining seven pixels into one, which Nokia is calling oversampling, giving you not only a 5MP image but one that has a large amount of detail in one place.

This oversampling is also going to be used in the video camera as well, bringing the same clarity to the HD movies.

Stable footing

Optical image stabilisation is on board, apparently completely redesigning the system, which now uses ball bearings and motors to maintain the stability when you're wiggling your phone around if taking photos and video.

Carl Zeiss wide angle lenses will be on offer, with six lens elements used to enhance the sharpness further. Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop spent a long time extolling the virtues of the zoom power of the 41MP lens, but the examples on offer didn't look as sharp when cropped down. However, the clarity is still high, literally picking out a needle in a haystack when zoomed in.

Nokia Pro Camera is also on board, giving a much wider range of settings than you'll see on other Windows Phone 8 devices, allowing you to control exposure, manual focus and white balance to really give more oomph to your shots.

Long exposure is there too, giving the opportunity to shoot up to 4 seconds of long exposure shots, giving it the power of much better cameras out there. There's also an improved video microphone, giving a higher dynamic range of sound, helping to reduce distortion as seen in the HTC One and iPhone devices - called Nokia Rich Recording here. Got to love brand names, right?

Snappy price and colours

The specs still aren't on the same level as the HTC One or Galaxy S4, with only a 4.5-inch WXGA AMOLED screen, although it does have the advanced PureMotion HD+ technology to improve the images on the screen.

There's the expected 2GB of RAM on board to help with the massive processing needed, but only a dual core Snapdragon S4 CPU on board, which is a lot lower in the power stakes and will be a stick for those that love to compare specs to beat the Nokia with.

It's also only got a 2000mAh battery too, which may struggle to keep up when you're snapping all day long, which is why the advanced grip with extended battery will be crucial to many. However, it's worth reminding everyone that Nokia's integrated approach to battery management means that it's not like for like when compared with the Android handsets of the world.

The good news for colour fans though: it's coming in yellow as well as white and black. Colours are important, people.

More to follow...