( CNN ) -- Smartphone competition is n't just about choosing the biggest screen , fastest processor or sleekest operating system . As phones continue to replace point-and-shoot cameras , a new battleground for smartphone manufacturers is camera quality . And the bar keeps getting raised . Nokia 's new Lumia 1020 smartphone , which goes on sale July 26 through AT & T , features a whopping 41-megapixel camera . The Finnish company is fighting to stay competitive in the phone market , where it has been overtaken by Samsung as a top mobile phone vendor , and where Windows 8 , its smartphone operating system of choice , is a distant third behind Android and iOS . Nokia has decided to focus on adding the best possible camera technology into its phones , a mission that started with its PureView 808 camera . Unveiled in early 2012 , the 808 also featured a 41 megapixel camera but was bulkier and ran the now obsolete Symbian operating system . If 41 megapixels in a smartphone sounds too good to be true it 's because in some ways it is . The beefed-up pixel count makes for an excellent marketing soundbite when you compare it to the competition . The iPhone 5 's back-facing camera is just 8 megapixels , the Samsung Galaxy 4 's is 13 megapixels and the Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera , favored by many professional photographers , is 22.3 megapixels . A megapixel -- that 's one million pixels , if you 're counting -- is a broad measurement of image quality : The more megapixels , the sharper the image and the more you can enlarge a photo without it looking blurred or grainy . But there is more to a good image than megapixel count . Most amateur photographers do n't need more than 8 or 10 megapixels . Some experts believe a better measure of a camera 's quality is the size of its light sensor : The larger a sensor , the more light it lets in and can use to create an image . Large sensors can capture crisper photos in low-light settings . The sensor on the Lumia 1020 is larger than what 's found in other smartphones , but smaller than compact cameras . Beneath the 41-megapixel number is some impressive proprietary technology , called oversampling , that combines data from a cluster of pixels for a single , more accurate final picture . The end result , typically a 5-megapixel image , benefits from improved zooming capabilities and better low-light performance , but the images are far from DSLR-quality . So is all this technology the start of a new battle over megapixels , this time between smartphone companies ? Maybe not , says Seattle photographer and camera-phone evangelist Chase Jarvis . `` The idea of continuing to pack more and more megapixels into ( phone cameras ) will have diminishing returns , '' said Jarvis , who recognized the potential of smartphone photgraphy early on , writing a book and app around the idea that the best camera is the one that 's with you . `` The megapixel wars are by and large moot . '' The benefit of high-resolution photos from phones is limited . People who primarily upload their images to social media sites are already compressing their images , and their friends and family are increasingly viewing them on small smartphone screens . It 's even possible make a decent 8-by-10 inch print from an iPhone photo . To upload pictures over Wi-Fi and cellular networks , the image file needs to be a workable size . There are also memory limitations on smartphones , where apps , songs and videos are already competing for limited space . Jarvis believes there are still plenty of other areas where smartphone cameras can improve . He cites better low-light performance , increased dynamic range ( producing sharper contrast between an image 's shades and colors ) , and external features like better flashes and lenses . Phone makers are moving fast to put the best features of compact cameras into smartphones . But the same is not yet true for camera companies . Traditional camera manufacturers have been slow to integrate connectivity features and app ecosystems into their devices , which would require entering a strange new world of relationships with wireless carriers . Samsung has started releasing cameras that run Google 's Android operating system , but for most manufacturers , true integration is still a long ways off . Smartphones have another advantage in the battle to be your primary camera : a surplus of sensors tracking things like location and movement . `` What we 're going to see accelerating dramatically is the contextualization of photography , '' said Jarvis . The additional metadata collected by the various sensors inside smartphones -- not just size and sharpness -- are what will add value to photos in the future , he said . Jarvis predicts being able to sort your past images based on such factors as your heart rate or how fast you were moving when they were taken . With big data , people will be able to make more sense and add context to all photos uploaded publicly . Imagine seeing what colors are trending in photos around the world in real time . If this is the future of amateur photography , smartphones already have the platform , the connections and the sensors in place . `` Images are not about dynamic range and megapixels , they 're about stories and about moments , '' said Jarvis . Sensors , not megapixels , will help tell those stories .
Nokia 's new Lumia 1020 smartphone will feature a 41-megapixel camera . Smartphones have advantage over cameras because they allow instant sharing . The next wave of phone cameras may display information collected by sensors . 41 megapixels is more than some professional cameras .