From the Phone Arena review:
Shutterbugs will tell you that you can live with less apps, and slick design gets old quick when you use a handset daily, but if you have the typical smartphone camera module inside, you are stuck for the duration of your ownership with mediocre pics, in a time where your phone is your most used camera....
... the addition of Nokia's ClearBlack layer improves sunlight visibility a lot by bringing screen reflection down to a minimum. You won't have any troubles working the interface or framing your shots even when the sun is shining directly on the display, and this is pretty important for a cameraphone like the 808 PureView...
...Overall, in terms of functionality Symbian Belle FP1 on the Nokia 808 PureView can rank along the modern Android, iOS, or Windows Phone, and sometimes excels in things like a full landscape layout and easy file transfer. When it comes to fluidity and user experience, though, it is much less uniform, requires a steeper learning curve, and its outdated resolution and processor support stand little chance against the contemporary mobile OS players...
...Frankly, we are in awe of what Nokia has produced with the camera in this phone. The achievement makes us optimistic about its future flagships, despite the major turnaround that is going on at the company now. Even in today’s breakneck smartphone industry, it’s been a long time since we saw true innovation - something that is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, with no chance of being replicated in a few months by everybody, as was the case with dual-core processors or HD screens - the main hardware innovations in the last two years.
Granted, at the initial price Nokia is asking for the 808 PureView you can get any flagship out there, be it the Galaxy S III, iPhone 4S, Optimus 4X HD or the HTC One X. They are all svelte, with high-res displays, decent cameras, speedy processors and hundreds of thousands of quality apps behind their backs, but get quickly overshadowed as soon as the next best thing is around the corner with upgraded specs, design, and a clever software trick or two.
Enthusiasts that will purchase the 808 PureView, however, know that they can live without many less important things, but if they want the best photography a mobile device can deliver, that’s precisely what Nokia’s groundbreaking invention offers.
Nice observations and bang on the money. With the 808, every owner will know that they're not getting the most rounded smartphone experience or the fastest mobile Internet experience. But they'll put up with weaknesses like this because for things that matter in the long term, memories that you'll refer back to in photo, video and audio form, in years to come, the 808 is superlative.