Nokia Lumia 1520 - A Windows Phone Phablet

Overview

It's clear by now that phablets are gaining in popularity among consumers. Almost every phone maker has a phablet offering this year and Nokia had to step in if it wants to stay in the game. Generally speaking, most devices are classified as phablets once they sport screen sizes of 5.5-inches are larger with telephony functions.

Nokia officially unveiled the 6-inch Lumia 1520 on 22 October alongside the mid-range Lumia 1320. For the first time ever, Nokia's smartphones have caught up with the competition in terms of specs.

It has a large 6-inch Full-HD display, a 20-megapixel PureView rear camera and runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2GHz processor. This is on-par with most Android flagship smartphones. Does the Nokia Lumia 1520 stand a chance against the Android heavyweights? Read on to find out.

Design & Handling

(Note: We've done a hands-on article with the Lumia 1520, so we'll summarize the key points here instead of going into great length again.)

The Lumia 1520 looks no different from the other Lumias we've seen so far. It is housed in the now-familiar polycarbonate chassis that comes in four colors (yellow, white, black and glossy red). It is important to note that the red model is the only one to sport a glossy surface while the rest has a matte surface.

Due to its glossy surface, the red model feels more slippery and attracts fingerprints easily. While red is striking, we did not like the glossy surface as it feels and looks cheap for a premium phablet.

Being a 6-inch phablet, the Lumia 1520 requires a huge pair of hands to hold it comfortably which puts the average consumer at a disadvantage when it comes to handling the device. In terms of dimensions, it is the third longest, second widest, second thickest and third heaviest phablet we've reviewed so far. Here are the numbers to put things into perspective:

• 5.9-inch HTC One Max - 164.5 x 82.5 x 10.29mm, 217g

• 6-inch LG G Flex - 160.5 x 81.6 x 8.7mm, 177g

• 6-inch Nokia Lumia 1520 - 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7mm, 209g

• 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3mm, 168g

• 6.44-inch Sony Xperia Z Ultra - 179.4 x 92.2 x 6.5mm, 212g

If you've used a Windows Phone device before, you will be familiar with the layout of its navigation buttons. The standard three-button layout (back, home and search) are located just below the display.

The right side of the device houses the volume controls, power button and camera shutter button. As they are nearly flushed with the body of the device, we found it a tad difficult to press them.

Display

In case you don't know, the Lumia 1520 is the largest Windows Phone device in the market as it comes with a 6-inch Full-HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) display. While the Lumia 1020 uses an AMOLED panel, Nokia opts to use an IPS LCD panel on the Lumia 1520.

We find the 6-inch display to be really bright and sharp, and the Windows Phone interface really shines on a larger display. You are able to see more Live Tiles (obviously) and the option to resize them according to your preferences make more sense on a larger display.

Thanks to its ClearBlack polarization technology, the display of the Lumia 1520 remains very visible under direct sunlight which is a feat not many phones can achieve today. Even though it has a pixel density of 368ppi, you can't spot any pixelation on the Lumia 1520. Overall, it is hard to find any flaw with the display on the Lumia 1520.

Features

The Lumia 1520 is the first handset to ship with Nokia Lumia Black which is a build based off the Microsoft's GDR3 update. If you are unfamiliar with how the Windows Phone update works, here's a quick explanation on it.

The Windows Phone updates are divided into two categories: firmware and OS. Microsoft obviously handles the OS portion (e.g. the GDR3 update), while OEMs such as HTC and Nokia use the firmware to tweak settings to work with their respective hardware.

For Nokia, its Lumia Black update will bring new features such as Glance Screen, RAW camera support, Bluetooth 4.0 LE support, and new camera algorithms. For more information of how the Glance Screen works, you can read up more about it in our Nokia Lumia 925 review where this feature was first detailed.

Despite the numerous updates brought forth by Nokia and Windows over the past two years, Windows Phone OS on the whole still lags behind Apple iOS 7 and Google Android 4.4 KitKat in three areas: notifications, quick access to settings and the lack of software features developed for use on large displays.

Apple has introduced Control Centre where you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access commonly used settings such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Google Android already has this feature via a swipe down gesture from the top for some time, but it has yet to debut on Windows Phone. It feels a little time consuming to go through the different layers of menu just to enable Wi-Fi.

While Live Tiles is a central feature of Windows Phone, we still feel that the platform lacks a centralized page for viewing all the notifications. Live Tiles do tell us the number of missed calls, unread messages, subject titles and a preview of unread emails, but we feel Microsoft did not take the opportunity to maximize the use of the large screen and offer a notification center where users can manage the notifications.

There are reports of a notification center arriving in the next Windows Phone 8.1 update, but it could have been better if Microsoft had implemented this in the latest update for the Lumia 1520.

Yet another area that could have been improved upon is phone handling features. While Huawei, LG, Samsung and Sony took the efforts to develop specific features such as split screen multitasking to work with bigger displays, Nokia or Microsoft has yet to come up with a similar offering on the Lumia 1520. It seems as if both companies committed the same mistake as HTC when it offered its first phablet device.

In terms of app numbers and quality, the Windows Phone Store recently crossed the 200,000 milestone. Even though it's a far cry from Apple App Store and Google Play Store, credit should be given to Nokia and Microsoft for putting in much effort over the past two years to provide more app choices to Windows Phone users. Popular apps such as Instagram and Waze are already available on the Windows Phone Store, and it is only a matter of time before more big-name apps are made available.

Performance Benchmarks

On paper, the Lumia 1520 is the most powerful Windows Phone device as it runs on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2GHz processor and 2GB RAM. It is on-par with most Android flagship smartphones and we are interested to see where the Lumia 1520 stands among the competition.

We will be pitting the Lumia 1520 against the Android phablet devices such as the 5.9-inch HTC One Max, the 6-inch LG G Flex, the 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the 6.44-inch Sony Xperia Z Ultra. We also throw in the Lumia 1020 to see how the world's best camera phone fared.

Sunspider Javascript

SunSpider Javascript measures the browsing performance of a device. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience.

Without a doubt, the Snapdragon 800 processor helped the Lumia 1520 gain a better score on the benchmark than the Lumia 1020. Based on our reviews of previous flagship Nokia Lumia devices, its chart toppling score comes as no surprise although the Galaxy Note 3 is not far behind.

During day-to-day usage, the Lumia 1520 felt smooth and fluid in its operation. The Windows Phone OS has always been good in this aspect and the Lumia 1520 upholds that reputation.

Imaging Performance

Unlike the 41-megapixel PureView rear camera-touting Lumia 1020, the Lumia 1520 comes with a 20-megapixel PureView rear camera which is still considered pretty high-end by today's standards. According to Nokia, the Lumia 1520 comes with the same oversampling and zooming technology as the Lumia 1020.

For a full walkthrough on how Nokia's PureView technology works, check out our PureView feature. In the case of the Lumia 1520, the rear camera can be set to capture photos at 5MP, 5MP + 16MP or 5MP + DNG 16MP. DNG refers to digital negative, which means that the image is taken in RAW format.

The Lumia 1520 has a smaller aperture at f/2.4 compared to the Lumia 1020's f/2.2. The Lumia 1520 also has a smaller sensor size of 1/2.5-inch while the Lumia 1020 sports a larger sensor size of 1/1.5-inch. For comparison' sake, the Apple iPhone 5S and HTC One have a sensor size of 1/3-inch.

Software-wise, the Lumia 1520 ships with Nokia Camera, which replaces the Nokia Pro Cam found on the Lumia 1020 and integrates the best features of Nokia Smart Cam which debut on the Lumia 925.

First, let's take a look at the 5MP PureView image:

Now let's see the high-res 16MP image:

While the image quality cannot be compared with the Lumia 1020, the Lumia 1520 is still one of the most capable camera phones we've seen this year. However, like the Lumia 1020, it suffers from basic yet notable flaws such as slow focusing and taking too long to capture a photo. When you combine both factors together, its is likely that you may miss capturing a particular moment with the Lumia 1520. However, when it does get the shot, you can be sure its quality doesn't disappoint.

Battery Performance

Our standard battery test for mobile phones includes the following parameters:

• Looping a 800 x 480-pixel video with screen brightness and volume at 100%

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on

• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

Equipped with a 3,400mAh battery, the Lumia 1520 lasted 4 minutes shy of 9 hours which is considered very impressive for a Windows Phone device even though it still fell a bit short of what most Android phablets managed. Calculating its power consumption numbers revealed it was one of the highest as well, but that's not surprising when you have a 6-inch IPS LCD running a full HD resolution screen.

Portability

We measure the portability of a device by calculating its battery life to (weight x volume) ratio. The Lumia 1520 ranked in the middle of the lot; it was higher than the HTC One Max and Sony Xperia Z Ultra due to its lower weight and slightly smaller footprint.

Conclusion

While previous Lumia devices may seem inferior in the face of Android flagship smartphones, Nokia has put an end to that with the Lumia 1520. As the company's first phablet, the Lumia 1520 packs a serious punch in terms of specs and features to take on the Android phablets.

The gorgeous 6-inch Full-HD display and excellent image quality delivered by the PureView rear camera are strengths of the Lumia 1520, but its weakest link still lies in the software running under the hood.

With overwhelming demand for Apple iPhones and Android flagship smartphones, there is hardly any room left for Windows Phone devices like the Lumia 1520 to come in and be a compelling alternative. The lack of an interface optimized for large displays offers nothing new in the user experience except the extra screen estate to put more Live Tiles.

Nokia has done a great job with the Lumia 1520, but we aren't sure if consumers are willing to give up better phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for a Windows Phone device.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 has been available since 14th December for a recommended retail price of S$999 at Nokia Stores and Nokia Solution Partners in yellow, white and black. The glossy red model will only be retailing in early 2014.