Nokia has officially unveiled the Lumia 1020 a device that had been leaked so much that even minutes before the reveal event started yesterday, leaks still keep flying.

So what does this new Lumia phone have over other smartphones?  41. MEGAPIXEL. CAMERA.

Okay, I know you’ll say, “Wait, they’ve already done that last year with the PureView 808, that’s not something new.”  You may be right, but of course, the PureView 808 did not belong in the Lumia line and Nokia added some really interesting features to make photo enthusiasts drool over the Lumia 1020.

So let’s check out what’s under the hood then leave the camera bells and whistles for last.

Dimensions: Height 130.4 mm x Width 71.4 mm x Thickness/Depth 10.4 mm, Weight: 158g

Display: 4.5 ” ClearBlack AMOLED with super-sensitive touch technology featuring PureMotion HD+, Brightness control, High brightness mode, Refresh rate 60 Hz, easy to clean sculpted glass, Nokia Glance screen, Lumia Color profile, Wide viewing angle, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, Sunlight readability enhancements

SIM: Micro SIM

Connectivity:  3.5 mm audio jack, micro USB, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 3.0, WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n, WiFi channel bonding, NFC for payment, Sharing, Pairing, Tagging

Data Network: GSM network: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, GSM max data speed DL: EGPRS 236.8 kbps, GSM max data speed UL: EGPRS 236.8 kbps, LTE network bands: 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, LTE max data speed DL: 100 Mbps, LTE max data speed UL: 50 Mbps, WCDMA network: 900 MHz, 2100 MHz, 1900 MHz, 850 MHz, WCDMA max data speed DL: HSDPA – 42.2 Mbps, WCDMA max data speed UL: HSUPA – 5.76 Mbps

Battery and charging: 2000 mAh built-in battery with a maximum 2G talk time of 19.1 hours, maximum 3G talk time of 13.3 h, music playback time of 63 h, video playback time of 6.8 h, maximum WiFi network browsing time of 5.5 h, and supports wireless charging via an accessory cover.

Processor: Dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4

Memory: 2GB RAM, 32BG mass memory, 7 GB free SkyDrive cloud storage

Physical keys: Volume keys, Camera key, Power/Lock key

Sensors: Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Magnetometer

Color and pricing: Comes in matte black, matte white and matte yellow and is exclusively available on AT&T for $299 with a two-year contract.  Pre-orders start on July 16 and the device will be available online and retail stores on July 26, 2013.

“AT&T has sold more Windows Phones than any other U.S. carrier and we’re thrilled to add the Nokia Lumia 1020 to our growing portfolio,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president – Devices, AT&T. “This smartphone will change the way you think about taking pictures, from its professional camera-like controls to the ability to zoom-in a photo you’ve taken to discover new details you missed initially. We were the first carrier to launch a 4G LTE Windows Phone smartphone with the Nokia Lumia 900 and I can’t think of a better network to share and experience the impressive imaging capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 1020 than the nation’s largest 4G network.”

Location technologies: Magnetometer, A-GPS, A-GLONASS, Barometer

Special features: HERE Maps, HERE Transit, HERE Drive.  These navigation features delivers public transportation routing guidance, save favourite destinations, free maps, live traffic information, free voice guided turn-by-turn walk navigation, free voice guided turn-by-turn drive navigation, offline maps, speed limit warnings, and LiveSight

Camera

Secondary camera: HD 1.2 MP wide angle, 1280 x 960 pixels, f/2.4, capable of video recording, still image capture, video call.

Main camera: 41 MP, PureView, 7712 x 5360 camera resolution, with autofocus , Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, 1/1.5 inch sensor size, f/2.2 aperture, 26mm camera focal length, 15cm minimum focus range, JPEG camera image format, Xenon flash, 4.0m flash operating range, with on, off and automatic flash modes.

The main camera features Optical image stabilization, PureView, Backside-illuminated image sensor, 6-lens optics, High resolution zoom 3x with digital camera add-ons such as Nokia Smart Camera, Cinemagraph lens, Panorama lens, Bing vision, PhotoBeamer, Creative Studio, Nokia Glam Me, and Nokia Pro Camera.

The Nokia Pro Camera app lets the inner photographer in you come out.  You can enjoy it as is in its auto mode or you can take full manual control over exposure, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and focus – just like on an expensive DSLR camera.

The beauty of this high resolution camera is that when you take a picture, you can zoom in on the photo and still get crisp images, crop it, save it and share.  You can do this over and over so you’ll never have to miss the perfect moment.  Sometimes we get too preoccupied on how to get the right settings on our cameras that we often miss the perfect shot.  With the Lumia 1020, you never have to miss anything, just point and click, and crop the photo to your like afterwards.

So, did the Lumia 1020 impress you?