Nokia has been trying hard to play catch-up in the smartphone race for a long time now, and as Microsoft's strategic partner with the Windows Phone operating system and ecosystem, they've got their work cut out for them, with a gridiron full of Android and iOS devices offering compelling and powerful solutions. And so, Nokia, perhaps more-so than any other smartphone manufacturer in the game right now, needed to find a way to make something special. The new Nokia Lumia 1020, though it sports essentially the same internals and display as Nokia's Lumia 920, most definitely is different, and perhaps even a very attractive alternative, depending on your specific needs.

41 megapixels of resolution, floating image stabilization and a powerful camera app to back it up, will make the Lumia 1020 pretty "special" to a lot of people, some of whom might be considering a Windows Phone for the first time as a result. We're quickly working up a detailed review on Nokia's new Lumia 1020 but wanted to give you our initial impressions of the device and its camera performance, here in this quick-take preview.

First, we'll give you our nickle tour and hands-on demo of the Lumia 1020, then we'll let some pictures we took with the phone weigh in with their worth of a thousand words or so.

 Nokia Lumia 1020 Video and Photo Shoot Preview