Just as rumored, the centerpiece of the Nokia Lumia 1520 is a 6-inch
1080p screen. On the back you get a 20 MP PureView camera with OIS,
while its beating heart on the inside is a quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon
800 processor (the first to be integrated on a Windows Phone).
The Nokia Lumia 1520 has 2GB of RAM, 32GB built-in storage and a microSD slot to expand that.
The new 1080p 6-inch screen has a pixel density of 368 ppi and is a
ClearBlack IPS LCD unit with Super Sensitive touch. It's covered by
Corning Gorilla Glass 2 for protection and Nokia has worked hard on its
legibility in direct sunlight. The larger screen real estate now allows
for a third column of Live Tiles on the homescreen or you can simply
enjoy more large-sized tiles.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 takes after the Lumia 1020 design - it's
actually like a supersized version of the 1020 sans the camera hump on
the back. A part of the polycarbonate plastic used comes from recycling,
so it's more environmentally friendly, too.
Inside the new smartphone there is a 3400mAh battery (as compared to
2000 mAh for the Lumia 1020), allowing for up to 32 days of standby and
up to 124h of music playback.
There is a price to be paid for that battery capacity. While the
Lumia 1520 is quite slim at 8.7mm of thickness, it's really heavy at
209g. In comparison, the 5.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is way lighter
at 168 g, while the 6.4-inch Sony Xperia Z Ultra (with all the glass it
has on the back) weighs around the same at 212g.
Connectivity-wise, the Lumia 1520 comes with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac with
channel bonding, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0, LTE up to 150 Mbps, HSDPA
up to 42.2 Mbps and HSUPA up to 5.76 Mbps.
The Lumia 1520 comes with four microphones on board, which not only
get used for multimicrophone noise cancellation in calls, but also
deliver Nokia's proprietary Rich sound recording.
The Lumia 1520 uses a 26 mm wide angle 20MP PureView camera with
6-lens Zeiss optics and a 1/2.5 inch BSI sensor. The camera has OIS and
makes use of oversampling, which results into smaller res photos with
less noise and also allows for lossless zooming. There is no xenon flash
though, only a Dual LED one. Video recording maxes out at 1080p@30fps.
Nokia has also revamped the Nokia Camera app, integrating the Nokia
Smart Camera and the Nokia Pro camera functionality inside the regular
camera UI and allowing for a seamless camera mode changing.
Nokia has also developed a new app called Nokia Storyteller. It plots
out all the photos you've taken on the HERE map. You can zoom in to
specific locations and see the actual photos grouped by date of taking
and location. It also integrates all your specialty photos - like
cinemagraphs and Action shots (it would even animate the latter).
A new app called Nokia Beamer would also allow you to stream your smartphone's screen to any device with a web browser.
Software-wise, the Nokia Lumia 1520 will come with the latest stuff
that Microsoft and Nokia have on offer. It's Windows Phone 8 with a
little something called Lumia Black and it includes all the latest
software enhancements from both companies. It comes with stuff like
Nokia HERE Drive+ with global free turn-by-turn navigation, true offline
support and audible speed limit warnings, the new Nokia Camera app, the
Nokia Storyteller app, the Nokia Beamer app, but also Microsoft's new
suite of Bing apps and customized ringtones for individual contacts,
something that hasn't been available on Windows Phone so far. The Lumia
Black update premiers on the Nokia 1520, but will be available as an
update to other Lumias in the beginning of 2014.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 will launch in yellow, red, white, and black
later this autumn, starting in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, the U.S. (an
AT&T exclusive), France, Germany, UK and continuing to other
European markets for a retail price of $749 before taxes and subsidies.
