Nokia Lumia 830 vs Nokia Lumia 1020

The Nokia Lumia 1020 has a distinct design as a result of its massive 41MP PureView camera protruding from its back. Interestingly Nokia chose a similar design for its camera on the Nokia Lumia 830. But how does the new device compare to the veteran camera champ?

The Lumia 830 is pitched as an "affordable" flagship, and Nokia (and Microsoft) want to give attention to its 10MP Pureview camera with (OIS) Optical Image Stabilization.

Given that the Lumia 830 is is nearly two years younger than the 1020, and it reaps the benefits: a more powerful Snapdragon processor; integrated wireless charging; a larger display with smaller bezels; a removable battery; expandable memory; changeable back covers; a slimmer, more modern industrial design … the list goes on.

The smaller, leaner size of the Lumia 830 also makes it easier to pocket and hold. It even sits more comfortably on the table, while the camera on the Lumia 1020 doesn't allow you to place it comfortably.

But when you compare cameras,  the 41MP sensor on the Lumia 1020, which includes digital oversampling and xenon flash, utterly dominates the 10MP camera on its younger sibling. Also, the so called "affordable" Lumia 830 is actually $100 costlier than the Lumia 1020.

Interestingly the camera app launches much faster on the Lumia 830, thanks to its quad-core processor. It even snaps photos at a much faster speed, despite having only half the RAM of its older sibling. This is also because the older Snapdragon S4 processor has to handle a much larger 41MP camera, while the quad-core Snapdragon 400 has only a 10MP camera to deal with. The Lumia 830 camera will perform even better with the updated Lumia Camera version 5, which is unfortunately not available for the older Lumia 1020.

Still the Lumia 830 does improve on the Lumia 1020 in certain aspects. For example its minimum focal range is 10cm compared to the 15cm on the Lumia 1020, allowing the newer device to get much closer to subjects. Nokia has also greatly improved the software, removing any tinting which shows up on the Lumia 1020.

Lumia 830	Lumia 1020
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Interestingly, despite the jump from a dual-core to a quad-core processor, the Lumia 1020 and Lumia 830 perform almost in par, with the newer handset getting only a slight edge in day to day use. When it comes to games however, the four-core power does shine brighter.

At the end of the day, the Lumia 1020 may seem like the better choice with its 41MP PureView camera, Xenon Flash and digital zoom. However you should only pick it up if you are strictly looking for the better camera. The Lumia 830 on the other hand is always going to be the better purchase in every other way. In any case, we would recommend that users consider the more powerful Lumia 930 (Lumia Icon) or Lumia 1520 which offers even better cameras and hardware, and doesn't cost much more than the so called "affordable" flagship.