Nokia launches 41-MP camera smartphone

At this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia announced the 808 PureView, a smartphone with an astounding 41-megapixel image sensor. The Nokia 808 will be the first smartphone by Nokia to include its new PureView imaging technology, which combines a high-resolution sensor with Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia-developed algorithms.

You can expect to find a 4-inch 640×360 touchscreen, 1.3GHz single-core processor, 512MB RAM, 16GB storage, NFC and a 1,400mAh battery. It’ll be available in black, white or red when it launches, though Nokia hasn’t given up precise launch information just yet.

There are a few professional cameras — from the likes of Canon, Nikon, Hasselblad, etc. — that are capable of higher resolution, but Nokia’s banking that you won’t have one of them in your back pocket when you see that magic, serendipitous shot you really want to get.

Despite the splash (the company also showed off an inexpensive Windows phone in Barcelona), Nokia stock went down five percent after the announcement. The PureView doesn’t run Google’s Android software — the market leader — or Apple’s iOS5. Instead the phone runs on Nokia’s own Belle operating system. No price or release date yet announced, though $600 (without a data plan) in May have been mentioned by Mashable. Would you want to have one?