Lumia 1020: Great camera, lousy battery life

At this stage I have done a few quick camera tests with the 41/38MP f2.0 camera in the Lumia 1020. Speaking as a ‘photographer’ with experience of some 34 years I am prepared to state that the camera in the Lumia 1020 is very good. Probably as good as a low-end compact camera with a sensor three times the size.

The focus is very accurate.

The anti-shake mechanism works very well.

Low-light pictures taken without flash (which is ALWAYS the best option) are very good.

The Nokia Camera Pro controls are very well done and easy to use.

Assuming I continue to use it I will post more examples of just how surprising this camera is over the next few months.

BUT . . .

The battery in the Lumia 1020 is just as surprisingly BAD!

I have now ‘exercised' the Lithium-Ion battery five times and although the battery life has improved by about 30 percent it still only just barely lasts for a full day with very limited Web surfing and no Internet tethering. Whereas I can use my Lumia 720 for Web surfing and Internet tethering for a couple of hours a day and still get three full days of battery life.

What have Nokia done to burn the battery up so fast?

I do like the 1020. I love the extremely crisp screen with its vibrant colour. The touch screen is much more responsive than the touch screen on the 720. And the Windows Phone operating system is instantaneous and silky smooth.

So now I have a difficult decision to make. Continue using the Lumia 1020 and put up with less than a full day of battery life, or revert to the Lumia 720 . . . .