Nokia Lumia 1520 Quick Review

As I’m doing a bigger review elsewhere, I’ll keep this one brief.

Nokia brought out the Lumia 1520 earlier this month, so I grabbed one. Details on the phone are at Nokia’s site here: http://www.nokia.com/au-en/phones/phone/lumia1520/

Here’s the basic specs taken from that site:

• Display

  • Display size: 6 ”
  • Display technology: ClearBlack, IPS LCD
  • Display resolution: Full HD (1920 x 1080)
  • Touch screen technology: Super sensitive touch

• Photography

  • Primary camera sensor size: 20 MP, PureView
  • Camera Flash Type: Dual-LED Flash

• Power management

  • Maximum 2G talk time: 27.4 h
  • Maximum 3G talk time: 25.1 h
  • Maximum music playback time: 124 h

• Processor

  • Processor name: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 800
  • Processor type: Quad-core 2.2 GHz

I’ve been using the Nokia Lumia 1520 for a little while now, and it’s grown on me.

I’d been using the Nokia Lumia 1020 before this, and wrote about it here: https://adamfowlerit.com/2013/10/04/nokia-lumia-1020-whinge/

Yes I had a bad start, but after getting a faultless phone it was a good experience.

I’m happy to say that I’ve had no such issues with the 1520 – the first one I got just worked which was a huge relief.

I do have one concern though, and I don’t think the Windows Phone 8 OS is properly calibrated to the size and resolution of this large phone yet. I have had multiple issues of typing and double pressing letters – which I’ve had someone else using my phone also do. Also, when scrolling around sometimes it takes it as a press on an item rather than a swipe to scroll. Maybe it’s just the way we’re doing it which is wrong, or maybe it’s been designed around smaller screens and resolutions. Either way, we’ll see if I do get used to it or an update from Microsoft or Nokia fixes it.

It’s a very large phone and does take some getting used to, but two points I’ll raise:

1. My wife disliked the Nokia Lumia 1020 as she wasn’t used to the OS and found it confusing. After handing her the 1520 she liked it – same OS (OK, almost the same, slightly different versions – Lumia Amber and Lumia Black) but the screen size made her immediately like the phone. I was suprised.

2. I briefly tried to type a message on a Samsung Galaxy S3 I was setting up, and thought ‘wow the keyboard keys are small’. Shows how quickly you can get used to a new normal, and it does worry me that I’ll now be stuck on giant phones due to this :)

Oh, the battery life is awesome on this phone too but makes me run it all the way down, as I don’t plug it in every night!

Anyway I’m overall quite happy with the phone, and look out for my ‘proper’ review soon :)