In the days of Windows Phone, Nokia was the leader, but it didn"t just sell the most Windows Phones. It had the best cameras too, and if you were a Nokia Lumia fan, you knew it. One of the guys behind Lumia PureView was Ari Partinen, and he"s returning to Microsoft.
Well, more specifically, he"s joining Microsoft. You might recall that back in 2014, Microsoft purchased Nokia"s devices and services division. While one of the PureView chiefs, Juha Alakarhu, actually stuck around at Microsoft until mid-2016 when it was clear that Windows phones weren"t going to be a thing anymore, Partinen left right away. He actually moved on in May 2014, right after the deal closed on April, and he actually joined Apple.
But now, he"s at Microsoft, and he"s joining the imaging team for Surface. He made the announcement on Twitter today (via Windows Latest).
First day in Microsoft Surface imaging team. Very exciting times ahead! #Microsoft #Surface
— Ari Partinen (@Partinen) March 1, 2021
If there"s one thing to hope for out of this, it"s that a better camera is going to arrive in a future iteration of the Surface Duo. In fact, we know that Microsoft is looking for someone to do it from job listings. Unfortunately, there"s only so much the camera can be improved before physics becomes the barrier. The Surface Duo is incredibly thin, and since the camera is on the inside of the device, there can"t be a camera bump.