The Nokia Lumia 1520 Review (Part 2): Bigger is Definitely Better

The Nokia Lumia 1520 Review (Part 2): Bigger is Definitely Better

The saying “Size Does Matter” fits perfectly well with the Nokia Lumia 1520. I’ve been fiddling with it for more than a month now and I have been thoroughly amused with it despite being slightly unwieldy. Sporting a massive 6-inch screen, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is the biggest Windows Phone to date – and we’re not just talking about its physical size. It’s the first ever Windows Phone that houses a Qualcomm quad-core processor (Snapdragon 800 no less) and while Windows Phone has been optimized to run with much less,  a quad-core processor is a welcome sight for those who feel that dual-cores are sooo, like, last century.

The 1520 stands about seven (7) one-peso coins stacked on top of each other.
The 1520 is massive! Jake agrees!

We’ve already done an initial review of the Nokia Lumia 1520  and an in-depth review which talks about the specs of the phone and its other beautiful attributes. This article tries to dig a little bit deeper on how these specs & attributes translate to everyday usage.

A bigger canvas

With a 6” screen you get a bigger canvas to consume content. Whether it’s browsing the net or watching a 1020p movie, spending 5 minutes with this device will spoil you when you get back to your 4inch phone. The screen with Nokia’s patented “Clear-Black” IPS technology produces rich black tones for more visual contrast. Colors are more vibrant than ever.

An edited screen grab when I was still playing DCUO.
An edited screen grab when I was still playing DCUO.

Even with a bigger screen the optimization done by Nokia to fit content that are not optimized to the 6-inch 1020p (full HD) resolution is quite phenomenal.

Take these screen shots as example:

 

The original phone wallpaper was made to fit the Lumia 800 screen. Look how far it's been stretched. ;) Get bent!
The original phone wallpaper was made to fit the Lumia 800 screen. Look how far it’s been stretched. 😉 Get bent!

The original format of the image was cropped and optimized for my Lumia 800 with a 3.7-inch screen. The image has been stretched for the 6” by around more than 25% but you hardly see the image break. Sure it’s not as clear but it doesn’t come out bad either.

They so lumpin' agree! Right, Beemo?
They so lumpin’ agree! Right, BMO?

With 6” of amazingly clear full HD 1920x 1080 IPS LCD screen, watching your favorite movie, concert or tv series has never been more fulfilling.

Media contents are easier on the eyes
Media content is easier on the eyes

 

Familiar and yet with an element of...surprise! :p
Familiar and yet with an element of…surprise! :p

 

The bigger screen also means Nokia added an additional column of live tiles that you can pin to your start button. So you get all the pertinent information that’s important to you in a glance! Presto!

wp_ss_20140119_0001
That extra screen real estate there is yummy!

Nokia didn’t spare any expense with the 1520 and still added the amazing camera technology that they have been perfecting ever since the 920 series. Sure it doesn’t oversample image by 41 megapixels, but 20 megapixels is no slouch, not by a longshot. After updating the phone with the latest Lumia Black update, the 1520 is the first smartphone that can save uncompressed RAW (DNG) images, something that was lost on the Lumia 1020. If you have a 1020 though don’t fret as the Lumia Black update has begun global rollout and should be in your device in no time. 

One thing I liked about the camera setting of the 1520 versus the 1020 is that it foregoes the amber-ish white balance tone. The white balance of the 1520 is closer to that of 920 or 925 giving your photos a more realistic color representation. I’m not entirely sure if the update of Lumia Black will fix this on the 1020 but here’s hoping it does. Here are some sample shots taken.

SM Aura shot

 

Look at that Bokeh!
Playing with Bokeh!

A beautiful hardware is only as good as the software it comes with. And, just like with the 925 onwards, the 1520 comes with the proprietary Nokia Pro Cam (or simply Nokia Camera in the new update) out of the box. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be using Window’s wide-range of apps to enhance the experience now, do we?

Sophie Lens HD, 6TAG and Instagram adds artistic options to your photos.
Sophie Lens HD, 6TAG and Instagram adds artistic options to your photos.

Here’s a photo taken at our friend’s wedding.

Wedding cropped

And here’s the original version.

Wedding original

THAT ZOOM!

With 20 megapixel oversampling, the 1520’s Pureview camera works almost similarly as intended with the 1020 wherein you can enjoy lossless zoom.

I expected that the Lumia 1520 will stand up to the Pureview claim and take phenomenal photos but I was not expecting it to take phenomenal videos as well. If you switch it to video mode, it captures data using a wide-angled lens. I’m not sure if this is a physical lens that’s doing it or if this is forced. But the 6-inch screen comes in very handy when taking videos. You can also play around with the ISO, flash and manual focus. The audio recording is also something to be desired. Nokia touts its lossless audio technology when recording because of the additional microphones found at the back.

more microphone slots = better audio recording
more microphone slots = better audio recording

 

SOOOO MUCH POOOWAAHHHH!

wew
Wew! That’s a whole lotta juice!

When was the last time you charged your smartphone? 8 hours ago? 12 hours ago? The usual complaint about the advancement of smartphones is that the battery life can’t seem to cope with it. With 3400 mAh and an OS that’s properly optimized for power consumption, the Nokia Lumia 1520 lasted me an average of 1 day and 12 hours before my next charge and that’s with moderate data and multimedia usage.  In fact during Christmas dinner with my battery at roughly 25% I was streaming hours and hours of music and using my 1520 as media device. It lasted me around 4 hours of continuous YouTube streaming before it died. All in all I’m thoroughly impressed with the battery life on this device.

Final Touches

Lastly, the form factor of the phone is something to be desired as well. The contours of the 1520 remind me distinctly of the Nokia Lumia 925 rather than its 920 and 1020 cousins. And I guess that’s a good thing as well as dents and physical damages are less likely to happen with a curved and tapered corners. The phone is still housed in a very premium finished matte polycarbonate except for the red variant which has a super glossy almost-Ferrari red motif going on.

Nokia Lumia 1520 Review o

There are very subtle nuances per variant. Example, our EIC, Carlo Ople chose the white variant and while the black and yellow have keys that are painted in dark chrome, the white 1520 has white keys. These subtleties remind us that at the core of their smartphone manufacturing, Nokia is still consciously thinking about design.

...And it was all Yellow!
…And it was all Yellow!

Final Thoughts

With the introduction of the 1520, Nokia is taking a step further in the right direction with their smartphone line.  With phablets being more and more acceptable, it is only inevitable for Nokia to join whilst still (a bit) early. There are 2 new phablets being released this Q1 of 2014—the 1520 and the 1320 which is pretty much an entry-level phablet of Nokia.

As with Carlo’s initial review, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is an amazing buy for 2014. If you’re looking to jump into Windows Phone, you’d best start with this device because, clearly, nothing else can come close.

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