Judging by the comments, many of our readers are actually liking the N9, Nokia’s inaugural smartphone running MeeGo software. Some even deemed it the worthiest iPhone wannabe to date (and a killer Android apps phone), even if it borrows slavishly from Apple. An eight-megapixel back camera with Carl Zeiss lens and autofocus is one of the N9’s selling points so Nokia took it upon themselves to tell the world in a blog post that it’s also one of the fastest smartphone cameras around (see the below chart).
The N9’s camera launches from the lock screen in 2.6 seconds, Nokia says. This is the time to turn on the camera app, ready the viewfinder, focus on the subject and capture the image. Yes, the N9 beats Apple’s iPhone 4 (three seconds), HTC’s HD7 (8.3 seconds), Samsung’s Galaxy II (5.8 seconds) and even Canon’s Powershot S95 point-and-shoot digital camera. Nokia’s test doesn’t take into account an iOS 5 optimization which cuts down latency by providing direct camera access from the lock screen, by double-pressing the Home button. More N9 camera features and another nice promo clip below.
According to product manager Jens Wilke, the N9’s camera has the following resolution measures: 3248-by-2448 pixels for 4:3 ratio, 3248-by-2160 for 3:2 and 3552-by-2000 for 16:9. It also supports up to four times digital zoom while the camera focus range is from 10 cm to infinity and shots video clips in 1080p at thirty frames per second. Other features include the continuous auto focus, geotagging, dual-LED flash, automatic motion blur reduction, face detection and various exposure settings. And non destructive editing is a first on any mobile phone, Nokia says. Another surprising bit: Nokia dropped the hardware camera key on the N9. Apple took the opposite route with iOS 5, allowing you to hit the hardware volume up key in order to snap photos in the Camera app.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfE3B6L-Otw]
