Nokia: No U.S. release for 41-megapixel PureView 808 smartphone

By Nathan Olivarez-Giles

March 6, 2012 9:01 AM PT

If you got your hopes up about owning Nokia’s 41-megapixel-packing PureView 808 smartphone, then prepare to be let down big time. The PureView 808 won’t be coming to the U.S.

Or Canada. Or Mexico.

On Nokia’s developer website, a page listing details of the PureView 808 says that when the phone goes on sale later this year, the new gadget will launch globally, “excluding North America.”

But, while our entire continent won’t get the chance to purchase a PureView 808, the company has said in the past that the phone’s camera technology will make its way into future Nokia smartphones.

Phone makers holding back on releasing devices to specific regions or making them regionally exclusive isn’t an abnormal move. Nokia’s not-yet-released Lumia 900 smartphone, for example, is currently set to a U.S. exclusive.

So, if you really want a smartphone that can shoot photos at a resolution of as much as 7,728 x 5,368 pixels (to display on the PureView’s surprisingly low resolution 640 x 360 pixel 4-inch screen), you’ll either have to wait for Nokia to drum up a U.S. PureView device of some sort or import a handset.

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