As you know for the past many weeks we had been playing with the much awaited Nokia 808 PureView and we have loved every minute of it.
Talking about the hardware aspects of the phone , Nokia is known for their solid built phones and have carried on the tradition with the 808 PureView. The phone is heavy at 169 gms but once in the hand, the weight feels solid. Nokia has divided the weight in such a way that when in hand , the camera housing (heaviest part of the phone ) is out of the palm giving it a balancing feel on hand.
In terms of build material quality, the matt plastic back and sides are sturdy and have the surface grip which will not let the phone slip from your hands as some other phones with Glass and glossy plastic backs . During our daily commute we have stuck the phone many times in the deep confines of our bag with all sort of wires and other tech stuff and the device hasn’t developed even a minor scratch meanwhile with the Gorilla Glass surface we are not worried about it getting scratched either, although the same cannot be said for the shiny black camera house which is not only a fingerprint magnet but also susceptible to scratches.
On the front of the phone is the beautiful 4 inch AMOLED Clear Black Display which enhances the colors and increasing daylight readability. The place where we felt left out is the nHD resolution of only 640 x 360 . With much higher resolution on phones available on 4 inch phones for past many years like the Samsung Galaxy S having 480 x 800 since 2010 , 808 PureView resolution does not seem adequate on paper. The average user will not notice the difference but for us surrounded by iPhones and Samsungs , the difference is noticeable .
The glass front also houses your average 0.3 MP VGA Resolution Front Cam , we could have done with a 1.3 MP Camera here , Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor.
Under the display are the three hardware buttons , Call Send/ Receive , Standby and Call End / Power .
Contrary to the Lumia and N9 series where the glass is fused with the Polycarbonate body , in 808 PureView their is a visible rubber gasket attaching the screen to the body however given the black display , it’s not very noticeable.
On the top of the phone are 3.5mm Headphone jack which can also be used as an AV Port , a micro USB Sync / Charge and USB On the Go Port and Micro HDMI Port. We love the cover of Micro HDMI Port and could have used one for Micro USB too as it will soon get dusty from inside.
Cutting down on costs , Nokia hasn’t provided Micro HDMI or USB on the Go Cable and those like us with N8 have only half the advantage , our USB On the Go Cable will work with 808 PureView but our MINI HDMI adapters will not and they are not yet available in Pakistan.
The USB on the Go work as advertised with flash disks but still it does not read our 1TB Hard Disk.
On the right side of the phone are Volume Rocker keys along with Screen Lock and Camera Key. In Camera Mode , the Volume Rocker Keys can be used for Zoom In and Out Buttons.
The Left Side of the phone is plain and at the back lies the most prominent feature of the 808 PureView, the 41MP Carl Zeiss Camera.and the Xenon Flash The Camera is framed in black metal housing for Red and Black Phones while it’s Chrome housing for White phone. As we’ve mentioned , the back is made of sturdy matt textured plastic which gives the phones a solid grip beside that there is also a Rubber foot which keeps the phone slant at an angle on a flat surface keeping the camera lens away from the surface to avoid scratches.
Removing the cover is simple , just insert your nail in the indention at the bottom and pull it , you can feel the sturdiness of the back unlike our Samsung phones which we feel we’ll break someday.
On the back Cover , you will find a black strip with NFC written on it. This is the NFC circuit board for Nokia 808 PureView powered by the two gold connectors on the body. The NFC board is stuck with the body and can be peeled away ( Don’t try it at home as it may not work later )
Nokia 808 PureView is powered by a 1400 mAh , 5.3Wh , BV-4D battery which give the phone enough juice for 11 hours of 2G talk time or 465 hours of standby time . Given the photographic gene of the phone , we would have appreciated if given how many snaps with or without flash the battery is capable of taking but these figures are not given.
Underneath the battery is the SIM card and Micro SD card slots. We can understand the SIM Card to be under the battery as it requires the phone to be booted once the card is changed , but putting the Micro SD Slot alongside makes it difficult for avid photographers to change the card on the go. In Nokia’s defense it’s due to the space constraint as the camera takes so much space that fitting in a Micro SD slot outside is not possible.
As much as we’d love to take a peek inside the phone , the body is secured by 8 mean looking screws and given the phone is on loan , we don’t want to mess it up 
Overall , Hardware wise , Nokia has shown their prowess in 808 PureView , from build quality to materials to the hardware provided including the camera this phone is a piece of art.
