Smartphone manufacturers are always trying to differentiate their products from those of their competitors, especially in the hard-fought sphere of top-end devices, which have to offer excellent features on paper to be attractive. Giving them quad-core processors, exclusive native apps and UI customization, or access to specific services, manufacturers aim to make their offerings stand out from the crowd.
A recent trend, one led by Nokia in recent times starting with the Nokia N8, has been the inclusion of a top-notch camera, coupled with exclusive camera apps. The Nokia 808 PureView took that trend one step further, with its 41MP sensor, though it could be argued the Symbian-based 808 was not really a smartphone in the current sense. Nokia’s latest Lumia 920 fits the bill however, boasting of an 8.7MP camera with PureView technology, as well as a smartphone operating system – Windows Phone 8.
Of course, all top-end smartphones feature adequate cameras, with manufacturers always promising exceptional quality. The newly announced iPhone 5 from Apple also embraces this philosophy, with new optics for its 8MP offering.
With the announcement of the Nokia Lumia 920, we felt it was necessary to gauge just how important a camera is to smartphone consumers, and asked you the same question in out weekly poll. We’ve received 1,335 responses, with most readers agreeing that the camera was very important.
The majority of readers (721, or 54%) chose the option, “It’s good to have, but I won’t buy a phone for its camera alone.” 34%, or 458 readers, chose the option, “Very, I use my smartphone as a camera.” The remaining votes were split between “Not much, I’d rather use a proper camera” (119 readers, 9%) and “Cameras in smartphones are useless” (37 readers, 3%).
Check out the results in graphical form below. You can see previous ThinkDigit Weekly Poll results here. Do also share your views on this week’s poll: “Does the Apple iPhone 5 live up to your expectations?”
