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Nokia Lumia 1520 , a Megaphone

Updated on February 18, 2014
A True 'Mega' Phone
A True 'Mega' Phone

So I have been extremely lax in my writing duties over the last few months, mainly due to lack of material and also because of the fact that my current phone , the Nokia Lumia 1020 has been fully and professionally covered throughout the web with articles, videos and news coverage that I can hardly compete with. Anyway, I now have some material, a humongous amount of material in the form of the Nokia Lumia 1520 'Phablet' for the want of a better word.

I was lucky to recently attend a meeting along with some other members of the Nokia Support Discussions forum in London recently regarding future changes on the forum and at the end of the meeting all the attendees, me included were lucky enough to be presented with a bright red Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Phone handset, to say we were surprised , shocked and extremely grateful would be a massive understatement, not quite as big an understatement as the 1520 is a big phone, but massive never the less.( Full 1520 specs HERE)

Lumias Growing

Lumias, 800,1020 & 1520
Lumias, 800,1020 & 1520

I have been extremely fortunate in all my dealings and associations with Nokia and for someone who is genuinely only a fan, I find the way they have treated both myself and other members of the Nokia community totally amazing, the people I have met, places I've been and technology I have been allowed to try have bought untold enjoyment and many many happy memories to me. I only hope with the approaching takeover of Nokia's smart devices division by Microsoft they will continue, at least in part, the fantastic social interaction that Nokia has established and I honestly believe they will, time will tell

1020 &1520 at Nokia World

Thoughts

So on with my review, opinions, ramblings or whatever you want to call this, of the Lumia 1520. For starters, if you are not familiar with the Lumia 1520, it is quite BIG, I attended Nokia World in October last year and saw the Launch of the 1520 along with the 2520 10” Tablet. At the time the build quality and design of the 1520 were instantly impressive , slim and solid and the display absolutely stunning, in my brief time with the handset then, one of the things that really impressed was the way maps looked on it , HERE maps looked simply stunning. Now to take a couple of steps back, I am really not the worlds greatest Tablet fan and the 'Phablet' phenomenon really didn't appeal to me either, I know quite a few people who love the Samsung Note in its various forms and have tried a couple of times to play with the Note in phone shops and it is simply too big as a 'phone' for me personally and the 1520 is bigger than the note !! I really find in my usage, particularly when at work that a 'phone' sized phone up to about 4.5” screen, works better for me generally, partly because I can use it one handed and get it out of my shirt or trouser pocket easily and partly because at work my boss doesn't really like me spending all day 'playing' with my phone and so having something that is slightly more discreet and manageable makes my life that bit easier (well lets me be sneaky a bit easier at any rate)

Size comparisons 800,1020,1520

Click thumbnail to view full-size

1020 & 1520 screen comparisons

Click thumbnail to view full-size
1020 home screen1520 Home ScreenVideoPhoto
1020 home screen
1020 home screen
1520 Home Screen
1520 Home Screen
Video
Video
Photo
Photo

Dichotomy

I now find myself the proud owner of the Lumia 1520 which for me is a bit of a dichotomy, the thing that put me off the handset is also the thing I love the most about it. Where it is occasionally awkward to grab the phone in a spare second at work without standing up from my desk to get it out of my pocket and where it is virtually unusable without using both hands it has many, many pluses ! Media on the 1520, media of any kind is stunning, the six inch Clearblack IPS LCD screen is simply superb, video , photos, the web, apps everything looks fantastic and sound of any kind is loud , clear and rich either on the phones loud speaker or headphones wired or Bluetooth. The screen size also allows more tiles to be displayed and so you can virtually, at least in my use case, get all the applications and information required on one screen with no need to scroll. Also because of the additional real estate you can use more large tiles, which both provide a little extra info as well as looking more aesthetically pleasing .

Amongst other things that have really impressed me with the phone is the battery, Nokia has put a proper, capable, powerful 3400 mAh battery in the 1520, I hammer smartphones, the only one I haven't managed to kill before bedtime in the last year or so was the Lumia 625 loaned to me by Nokia Connects, the 1520 destroys it, despite the size of the phone and speed of its processor the 1520 always has over 30% battery left at midnight and will last a full day plus, being careful I reckon I could survive a full weekend without charging the 1520. Another highlight of the phone of course is the camera, it doesn't quite have the power and versatility of my Lumia 1020 but it does have a 20 megapixel sensor, it does have OIS (optical image stabilisation) it does have lossless zoom and oversampling and one advantage over my 1020 is that the shot to shot time on the 1520 is quicker (although with a Qualcomm snapdragon 800 processor on board and half the data to process this is only to be expected) in fact if it is possible, Windows Phone is faster than ever before on the 1520 apps resuming is instant and there is virtually no wait for things to load or when swapping from one app to another. It has also produced some very nice photographs for me and having micro sd card support is great !

Conclusion, so far....

Downsides on the 1520 are as always personal , why it has a nano sim is quite beyond comprehension to me, it is the LARGEST phone Nokia has ever made ! Then of course, the physical size, it is a little unwieldy , if I had a different job it wouldn't be an issue, but what I do and where I work the size is inconvenient. At home or if out and about the size isn't really an issue unless you are carrying something in your hands.

I am not normal and I rarely leave home with less than two phones in my pockets, so I'm in the privileged position of using the Lumia 1520 for everything I love about it and have my smaller more manageable Lumia 1020 in my top shirt pocket to quickly whip out and take a sneak peak at the virtual world, the only issue being that the more you use and get used to the screen size of the bigger phone, everything else looks tiny, my Lumia 1020 which was the largest handset I'd ever had, frankly looks like a toy in comparison which kind of forces me to think I prefer the bigger screen. If only I had a third hand , or better eyes or bigger pockets.....

That is all for now, I hope to resolve my quandary with the 1520 over the next few weeks (I have a feeling the 1520 will win) also as I have the best three camera phones in the world in my possession I plan to do a photo comparison at some point, assuming it stops raining eventually.


Thanks for reading.


Stephen Quin


18/02/2014

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