The Guardian's Photographer reviews the Nokia Lumia 1020, iPhone 5S, Sony Xperia Z1 and Samsung Galaxy S Zoom

The Guardian’s photo editor  have posted the above review of the current crop of camera-centric smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 1020, iPhone 5S, Sony Xperia Z1 and Samsung Galaxy S Zoom.

As expected the Nokia Lumia 1020 performed pretty well, with Rubin noting:

“In terms of usability, it’s a tie between the Nokia and the iPhone, but of all the phones the Nokia is the only one I don’t want to give back – I have an emotional attachment to it. Nokia has always been known for making good hardware and that hasn’t changed – it feels exceptionally well-made and the reason I loved it is that it feels like it’s been lovingly built.

“It’s the only phone of the four that has a slightly more colour-saturated default setting: a barely perceptible difference but a bonus for people who just want to take good snapshots. More interestingly, there is a hardware gyroscope inside the phone to perform image stabilisation, which is very impressive. It means you don’t need a steady hand or a faster shutter speed because it’s doing physical adjustments. As a software designer I’d say that the camera app on the Nokia is very elegantly designed – the others are garish, while this is very clean. Windows phone as a platform falls down a bit, however, because there aren’t many apps available yet: you can’t have either Snapseed or Instagram, and I hope that changes because I like this device. It wouldn’t stop me from owning one though. As an iPhone owner I would still buy a Nokia, and that says a huge amount to me.”

Read his review of all the other handsets at the Guardian here.