Nokia Lumia 1020 wireless charging case and camera grip case – Review

With every good phone there should exist a decent selection of official accessories. You know the sort, well made, nice colours and with features not found in third party accessories. The official Nokia Lumia 1020 cases are just that. I’ve got them both and here is my review showing you how they work and hopefully helping you make a purchasing decision. Starting with the slightly less interesting of the two the wireless charging shell.

Nokia Lumia 1020 wireless charging shell

I’m a recent convert to wireless charging, I now prefer my new devices to have it built in and if not at least to have a wireless charging accessory. Luckily for me the Lumia 1020 has a shell that you can clip on and joy of joys it comes in yellow.

Good Points

Available in the same nice coloursQi compatibleFill outs the camera hump a bitAll ports accessible

Bad Points

Not much protection offeredBit flimsy and creakyA bit costly

Design

The wireless charging case follows a similar design to the previous shells for devices like the Lumia 720 or the Lumia 925. It basically just clips over each one of the corners and to remove it’s just the reverse, it is really easy to fit and remove. The case feels just as nice at the Lumia 1020 itself and if anything it makes the whole package feel better as the protruding lense is evened out by the thickness of the wireless charging part.

It’s not all good though, the shell doesn’t really offer any protection at all, it protects the back from scratches and a section of each corner, face down or sideways drops and your asking for trouble. At the end of the day it’s just really for enabling wireless charging and a little bit of protection.

In Use

In use the wireless charging shell is pretty easy to use, slip the shell on and place your phone onto one of the nice Nokia charging pads I’ve got. That’s it really, the shell does easily come off and it doesn’t obscure any of the ports or sockets.

Nokia Lumia 1020 Camera grip

The Lumia 1020 Camera grip created some varying emotions within me when it was announced, varying from, “whoa that’s cool” right through to “whoa that’s stupid”. I knew I’d eventually have to buy one to see how it would fair in real life. So here it is, my review starting of course with my good and bad points.

Good Points

Really great ideaExtra battery powerExtra grip helps with one handed modeTwo stage shutter button helps with focusing

Bad Points

Makes using the Lumia as a phone feel oddTripod screw placement oddSlightly fiddling to removeSlightly overpricedSpeaker obscured when in use

Design

The Lumia 1020 camera grip is an odd looking piece of kit for a phone case, for a piece of plastic that makes your Lumia 1020 feel even more like a camera then it’s perfectly normal. Once you’ve figured out how to fit it is a really damn good idea and it feels really good in the hand, as long as you don’t try to use it as a phone.

The hump houses a 1020 mAh battery pack, a new shutter button, a tripod mount, a battery gauge and the charging socket.

In Use

In use the Lumia Camera grip is pretty good, there are three things that it’s good at. The first is the battery pack, it’s only 1020 mAh so don’t expect huge battery life, but it’s still quite handy to have on hand. The second good thing about the case is the fact that it allows you to easily take shots with one hand, the camera grip really lets you get a good grip. The third thing is how the shutter button makes it easy to do a half press to focus and then fully press to snap the shot. When I have the grip attached I’m always on the look out for something to capture.

Of course there are bad points to the camera grip, such as trying to remove is quite fiddly, the speaker on the bottom of the Lumia is obscured, using it as a phone with the grip on just feels odd and when you connect it to a tripod it’s all a little lopsided.

Conclusion

Overall the cases both have a purpose and they both do it well, although both do have niggling design quirks, like the speaker being obscured on the camera grip and the lack of screen protection on the charging shell. However the facts that they are official accessories that fit perfectly, they are the correct colour and they are extremely well made, all override and slight niggles over the design.

I got the Camera Grip from Amazon who seemed cheapest at the time, the wireless charging shell has now also dropped below £20 on Amazon as well.

Nokia Camera update adds RAW DNG file support for the Lumia 1020 and 1520

A few weeks ago in Abu Dhabi Nokia announced real DNG file format support for the Lumia 1020 and 1520. Today they’ve pushed out the update to enable that, so if you really like to fiddle with your images then your going to be happy.

But there is a catch, you’ll need the as yet unreleased Nokia Black update.

In the meantime you can update the app anyway, wishing you could output RAW files.

Windows Phone Store Link – Nokia Camera

Samsung Flagships to have 16MP camera

With the launch of the Note 3 and Galaxy S4 only just fading from the memory, Samsung have revealed during an Analyst Day that their new range of flagship handsets will ship with a 16MP Isocell camera.

The Isocell allows for better low light photography, something that all manufacturers seem to be concentrating on, and also serves up images with better colour reproduction, sharpness and richness when compared to today’s BSI technology.

This all indicates another manufacturer that is putting lots of effort into producing smartphones with impressive imaging systems.  The one thing that Samsung have neglected to mention is if their new devices will ship with OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation), something that many top end handsets seem to have as standard.

source: Sammobile

Sony add on camera thingies to be called Smart Shots for Android and iOS

Several weeks ago we reported that Sony were to release some camera attachments for smartphones that would couple high end optical technology with any Android or iOS device, making the need for a phone such as a Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom a thing of the past.

These add-ons now have a name: The Smart Shot. Not only that, but they’ll come in black and a white and ‘champagne’ combo (guess they’re aiming at the iPhone with that one then!).

Other points of interest are that they will have their own independant image stabilisation, they will connect using either wi-fi or NFC, the image/video will be stored on the Smart Shot as well as the phone, zoom can be controlled by either device, and it’ll all be controlled via its own app (rather than the phone’s camera software).

The small DSC-QX10 will have a 1/2,3 inch 18 megapixel CMOS sensor and f/3,3-5.9 lens (similar to a decent compact camera), whilst the larger DSC-QX100 will have a 1-Inch 20.2 MP Exmor R sensorwith a F1.8 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens with 3.6x zoom, which is the same as used in the Sony RX100MII (a serious bit of point-and-shoot tech that retails for about £700).

US pricing is said to be $250 for the DSC-QX10 and $450 for the DSC-QX100. If that converts 1:1 across the pond – as it normally does – then they’re going to be an extremely hard sell. If I had a £550 smartphone (such as the iPhone) and add a £450 lens then I’d expect to get picture quality of a professional standard. I maybe a cynic, but I can’t see that being the case.

The Smart Shots will be officially revealed along side the Sony Xperia Z1 at IFA in Berlin on 4th September.

Sources – Sony Alpha Rumours and Digicame-info (Japanese)

I work in IT and marketing, I spend my spare money on smartphones and tablets. My friends have grown weary of my fascination with mobile technology, so I write about it in the hope that someone out there is as obsessed as me… and it seems there is. Welcome to my world.

My current devices are: Oppo Find 5, Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung Ativ S and a Huawei G300.

Follow me http://twitter.com/ronnie_whelan or email me at [email protected]