Nokia Lumia 1520 Hands-On Review

The wait is finally over. At Nokia World 2013 today, Nokia finally unveiled the much awaited Lumia 1520 smartphone. It is the first Lumia smartphone to come with a 6 inch display, and its also the first Windows Phone smartphone to tout a full HD 1080p display. There’s not much that wasn’t already known about the Lumia 1520 prior to its official announcements, leaks were plenty months after the event. Nevertheless, rumors don’t compare with an actual hands-on review, that’s when you get a feel of how the device really looks and performs. So here it is, our Nokia Lumia 1520 hands-on review.

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Display:

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If you’ve used Lumia smartphones in the past and found their 4.5 inch displays a bit too large, then you’re going to be blown away by the Lumia 1520. At 6 inches diagonally, the display is massive which in turn makes the device itself quite large. Though it certainly won’t be alone in the market, a number of manufacturers already make smartphones with displays as high as 6 inches. Nokia has finally caught up with the trend of phablets, an affectionate name for a tablet/smartphone hybrid. The viewing angles of the Lumia 1520 are particularly great, if you compare them with previous smartphones.

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Nokia has done some amazing things with its display technology, with particular focus being on high visibility under direct sunlight. The Windows Phone OS adapts the 6 inch display nicely, it allows the Lumia 1520 to have three columns of Live Tiles, thus making it easier for users to put more of their favourite apps front and center.

Design:

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This phablet’s design is undeniably Nokia and undeniably Lumia. The design elements we’ve come to love in previous Lumia smartphones can be found on the 1520. It touts a unibody construction and employs the use of polycarbonate for its outer shell, which not only makes the device sturdy and tough, but also allows Nokia to offer it in a range of colors. The Lumia 1520 is going to be available in red, yellow, white and black. As far as dimensions are concerned, the Lumia 1520 is 6.4 inches tall, 3.36 inches wide and just 0.34 inches thick. The entire device weighs in at 7.37 ounces.

Hardware Specifications:

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Here’s where the Lumia 1520 leaves all previous Lumias behind. The phablet is powered by a quadcore Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, the same that’s powering Nokia’s Lumia 2520 tablet. The processor is aided by 2GB of RAM. With the Lumia 1520 touting such a powerful package, it is immediately evident from the moment you play around with the device that the OS feels a lot more responsive. Multitasking feels breezy as well, no doubt aided by the quadcore processor. There’s 32GB of internal memory, and if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, there’s a microSD card slot which allows external expansion up to 64GB. Wireless charging (Qi compatible) is built into the device, and so is NFC, BT 4.0 LE, a number of sensors, NFC and A-GPS with GLONASS.

Camera:

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Imaging has almost always been Nokia’s forte. We’ve seen the company make some radical innovations in imaging technology, which debuted with Lumia smartphones. The most recent example is the Lumia 1020, which packs a 41 megapixel PureView camera. The Lumia 1520 has a 20 megapixel PureView Auto Focus camera with Zeiss optics as well as Optical Image Stabilization. There’s advanced oversampling technology, 2x lossless zoom, a dual LED flash on the back and the ability of record full 1080p HD video at 30 frames per second with optical image stabilization.

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On the front there’s a 1.2 megapixel wide angle camera for all of your video conferencing and selfie taking needs. Couple all of this with Nokia’s new Nokia Camera application, which basically brings over features from Nokia’s previous Smart cam and Pro cam apps, the Lumia 1520 can allow users to take brilliant photos as they’re able to control and adjust advanced settings such as shutter speed, ISO, white balance, exposure and more.

Pricing/Availability:

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The Nokia Lumia 1520 is priced at $749 without taxes and carrier subsidies. It will be available in select markets, including the U.S., in the coming weeks with broader roll out in the first quarter of 2014. Carrier subsidies, particularly in the U.S., might bring down the price to $299 along with the customary two year service contract.