Nokia Lumia 1520: Finnish fable

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is just like the rest of the premium Lumia smartphones we've seen, but bigger and faster. The advanced imaging and the custom app selection by Nokia will make the difference against Android phablets, with the Snapdragon 800 making sure the Finn won't feel outgunned. Sounds like a promise for the best experience yet on Windows Phone.

A few months ago Nokia was in the headlines for what seemed the wrongest of reasons to people who fondly remembered the Finns from their glory days. Voices were rising once again above the lamenting choir, about what might have been had Nokia gone with Android instead.

Oh well, we're well past the what-ifs and should-haves. And no, it's not because Microsoft's check has already been written. Nokia's first phabet has crossed into what was, until now, a strictly Android territory. And not just average droids either, but some of the biggest, meanest species of Android we have seen.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 didn't just tip-toe in, looking over its shoulder. Armed with a PureView camera, a 1080p display and a quad-core Snapdragon 800, the Finnish giant entered with a bang!
The latest GDR3 version of Windows Phone finally has support for quad-core Krait processors and Full HD displays. There's an attempt too, to make better use of the size and resolution by adding an extra column of contents across the interface. It was about time Microsoft brought the platform back in the hardware race and we are delighted to finally meet the first Windows Phone to aim for the pole position.

Design

With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the HTC One Max, the smartphone war appears to have moved on from processor cores and camera megapixels and into the realm of screen inches and pixel density.

It's not what your phone does, it's how at how large a scale it does it, and how sharply.

This trend towards the pocket-filling may run counter to the whole concept of a "mobile" phone, but that's to misunderstand what customers these days want from their phones (or at least think they want).

People have the taste for HD films, uncompromized web browsing and expansive gaming on the go. They don't want mobile phones, they want mobile tablets.

Android has several "phablet" champions, including the ones mentioned above. Now here's the Nokia Lumia 1520 to provide the first large-screen Windows Phone 8 flagship.

In fact, scratch that: the Nokia Lumia 1520 is the new Windows Phone 8 flagship, full stop.

It's evident in the spec sheet alone. This is the first Windows Phone 8 device with a Full HD 1080p display. It's also the first to run on a quad-core processor.

We're not just talking about any HD display either. We're talking about a 6-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD screen (producing 367ppi) with Nokia's ClearBlack and super-sensitive technologies. The former means that you can see it better when outside, and the latter means you can use it with your gloves on - two immensely practical features that tend to get brushed over too quickly.

While we're at it, this isn't just any quad-core processor, either. This Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip, clocked at 2.2GHz and backed by a healthy 2GB of RAM, is the most powerful quad-core chip currently on the market. It's the same processor as can be found in the Galaxy Note 3 and the Google Nexus 5.

With these two components alone, Nokia has lifted the Windows Phone platform to specification parity with its Android rivals after three solid years of trailing firmly in its wake. It's quite a big achievement.

There's that word again. Big. The Nokia Lumia 1520 is big in every way. Opening the box drew a genuine gasp from this typically stony-faced writer, who moments before had been typing out an email on his teeny-tiny iPhone 5S.

Initially, the Nokia Lumia 1520 looks ridiculous next to Apple's stubbornly compact phone. After a few hours' company with the 1520, you might well find that the iPhone 5S looks and feels like a toy.

That's not to say that we prefer the Lumia 1520 as a day-to-day tool. Let's be straight - it's too big for most general users.

At 6.41 x 3.36in, it will slip into the back pocket of your jeans, but only if it's that pair you bought in preparation for the forthcoming festive pig-out. And there won't be space in there for anything else.

In fact, now might be the time to acquaint yourself with a good tailor, because you'll either need to reinforce those pockets or repair them. At 206g, this is one hefty piece of kit.

To place the Lumia 1520's size and weight in context, it's a good 40g heavier than the Galaxy Note 3 with its similarly sized 5.7-inch display, and is a whole centimeter taller. It's also 6mm wider.

Having said all that, the Nokia Lumia 1520 feels surprisingly sleek in the hand, and that's partly down to its 8.7mm thickness. Compared to other Lumia phones like the Nokia Lumia 1020 or the Nokia Lumia 925, it's proportionally flatter.

Even the 20MP PureView camera barely breaks the rear contour with its subtle blister shape, unlike the angry carbuncle on Nokia's last phone, the Lumia 1020.

Then there's Nokia's customary high-class build quality. We've said it before, but Nokia is the only other smartphone manufacturer out there capable of rivaling Apple for strong, distinctive design.

The Lumia 1520 continues Nokia's predilection for unibody polycarbonate designs. This means that it's essentially carved out of a single solid chunk of posh plastic. If you've never held a Nokia Lumia device before, then think of last year's HTC One X and you'll have an idea of how it feels.

We didn't dare put it to the test, but the Lumia 1520 feels like it would survive its share of drops, and certainly a little rough and tumble - although its sharply pointed corners are asking to be dinged, and it doesn't use the very latest version of toughened Gorilla Glass.

There's a slight ridge where the display meets the chassis. When Nokia introduced this design with the Nokia Lumia 800, its display melted into its body, which added an extra feel of class. It's a shame that's not been included here.

Curiously, after the flamboyant flourishes witnessed elsewhere (especially in the shocking yellow of our test model), the Nokia Lumia 1520's physical buttons seem almost coy. They're practically flush with the chassis along the right hand side - even the two-stage physical camera shutter button barely raises its head.

This helps with the ergonomics of this unwieldy device, but doesn't help when you're fumbling for the volume controls in the dark.

On the opposite side of the device you have the microSD card slot and the SIM slot. The former is in addition to the 32GB of internal memory, raising the possibility of a whopping 96GB of storage.

The latter accepts a nanoSIM, which is even smaller than the micro SIMs found in previous Nokia phones. It's the same standard used by Apple, and it serves to free up a few valuable millimeters of space for other internal components. Although we doubt that the Lumia 1520's innards are exactly struggling for air.

In summary, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is certainly striking, but we wouldn't want to be struck with one. You're getting a lot of phone here for your $749 (around £460 / AUS$775). An awful lot.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Quad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
Penta-band LTE Cat4 support, 150Mbps downlink, 50Mbps uplink
6.0" 16M-color ClearBlack IPS CLD capacitive touchscreen of 1920 x 1080 pixels; Corning Gorilla Glass 2; Nokia Glance
20MP PureView sensor (15MP effective), 1/2.5" sensor size, ZEISS lens, Optical Image Stabilization, dual-LED flash
1080p@30fps video recording; 2x lossless digital zoom
1.3MP front-facing camera
Windows Phone 8 GDR3 OS with Nokia Black
2.2GHz quad-core Krait 400 CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset, 2GB of RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS support
Free lifetime worldwide voice-guided navigation
32GB of inbuilt storage
microSD card slot, up to 64GB
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
Wireless charging with optional accessories
Built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
microUSB port
Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP and file transfers
SNS integration
Xbox Live integration and Xbox management
NFC support
Digital compass
Nokia Music
FM radio

Main disadvantages

Screen has average sunlight legibility
Non-user-replaceable battery
No system-wide file manager
No lockscreen shortcuts

At first glance the Lumia 1520 looks like a magnified Lumia 1020 - it has the same design and build, only without the camera hump. The trademark unibody is the right bit more impressive at that size, while the PureView camera has lost some of its sensor area and half of its pixels, but hopefully kept the amazing image quality.

Nokia's Lumia Black update isn't bringing as many new features as Amber, while the GDR3 version mostly makes sure the OS would happily accommodate the new chipset and screen resolution. Users will perhaps have to wait for the 8.1 update for a notification center (hopefully) and a file manager (not too likely) among other things.

Nokia Lumia 1520 lice photos

Yup, the Lumia 1520 sounds just like what the doctor ordered for the ailing Nokia cellphone business. It makes us sad that they've decided to scrap any future effort altogether, but that doesn't mean it won't be closing the show with a bang. We may be well into their farewell season, but the finale is not close. It's too early to write Nokia off just yet - what we have ahead seems like the climax of its work. And the hardware inspection of one of their finest specimens is just a click away. So, shall we?

Screen quality
Most of the phone's chassis is taken up by its 6-inch 1080p HD LCD screen, which made the Windows Phone start screen pop.

Colors look bright and edges crisp on the Lumia 1520's screen, which has a pixel density of 367ppi. The One Max and Note 3, with their slightly smaller screens, do pack in more pixels, but the difference is hardly noticeable.

Nokia always wins my appreciation for its work on ratcheting down screen reflectance with a polarizing filter called ClearBlack Display. Not only is it intended to fight glare in direct sunlight -- which makes screens easier to read -- it also helps keep light bounceback in check indoors. With the sunlight readability setting on (relax, it's default), the Lumia 1520 automatically adjusts when it registers bright rays, and backs off when you go back inside. This makes a big difference when you're relying on your phone to read directions or reference a Web site while you're walking outside.

*The Lumia 1520 is too large to comfortably fit into small pockets. Josh Miller/CNET*

Indeed, with all three phones on both automatic settings and maximum brightness settings, the Lumia 1520 was the easiest of the trio to read outside in the direct noonday sun. Colors were punchier, text looked sharper (and also rendered larger), and glare was easier to dodge. If you're a fan of a different color tone, you can adjust the phone's color profile in the settings.

Thanks to its sensitive screen, you can operate the phone with (most) gloves or with a fingernail.

OS and features
Along with the midlevel Nokia Lumia 1320, the Lumia 1520 is the first to ship Microsoft's slightly updated OS, imaginatively called Windows Phone 8 Update 3 . The main thing you need to know is that this tweak introduces a three-column view for device screens measuring 6 inches and above.

This layout fits naturally on the 1520, not toylike as it could have looked if Microsoft had just opted to increase the size of its already large live tiles. The three-column view has the bonus of bringing more icons to the screen, which means less scrolling for you, especially if you make use of the smallest tiles. You'll also find that more e-mails and gallery photos fill the screen, another fringe benefit of upsizing.

Windows Phone gives you standard calendar and alarm tools, Xbox gaming tie-ins, podcasts, and the mobile version of the Microsoft Office suite. Also included is 7GB of Skydrive cloud storage. Multitasking, multiple inboxes, integrated social sharing, music identification, and a barcode scanner are also woven into the Windows Phone platform.

*The Lumia's 1520 uses Windows Phone's new three-column interface for ultralarge devices. Josh Miller/CNET*

Perhaps more important than what's there is what's missing. Microsoft's outdated TellMe software can open any installed app, make calls, send a text, and search the weather (among other things,) but it lacks the kind of deeply-integrated natural language engine powering Apple's Siri and Google's Voice Actions (commonly called Google Now).

Microsoft is hard at work on Cortana, its belated answer to these two, but that doesn't help the 1520. Unlike iOS and Android, you can't specifically search for much, and the phone sure won't read out answers to you. You can't even dictate text into messages using a keyboard toggle; it doesn't exist. For a phone as large and sometimes hard to hold as the 1520, voice dictation integrated into every keyboard (not just e-mail and text composition) is something I yearned for throughout my testing period.

Also conspicuously absent is a native Microsoft store for buying and renting TV shows and movies, a shame since the 1520's 6-inch screen is primed for extended video playback. Of course, there are plenty of third-party ways to get content: Hulu+, Netflix, Vevo, Vimeo, YouTube, and Crackle, for example, plus AT&T's aforementioned U-Verse Mobile TV service. But don't let those distract you from Microsoft's missed opportunity in closing the loop itself.

As for preloaded apps, a plethora from AT&T, Nokia, and Microsoft and their partners awaits -- like Nokia Music and Here Maps, AT&T's subscription Mobile TV ($10 per month), and Bing Finance and Weather, to name just a few. The Vine video snippet creation app, Yellow Pages Mobile, and Zinio are other examples of partner installations.

*This slim metal tool now opens two doors: the SIM card tray and the microSD card slot. Josh Miller/CNET*

Seek out Nokia's many branded apps, and you'll find a new one that the company is pushing hard. Called Nokia Storyteller, this optional app (whose shortcut is preloaded by default) essentially mashes up your photo gallery with geotagging to create a timeline of your happenings which you can follow on a map.

The interface looks clean, and I love the idea of Nokia software intelligently using metadata to cluster together photos by theme (yes, you can edit them if the groupings are wrong). Over time, and travels outside your home city, it promises a more comprehensive way to tell family and friends about recent trips, especially since the app uses Nokia's Here mapping software to pull in nearby businesses and landmarks.

At these early stages, it just isn't clear if Storyteller is a pretty but minimally useful addition, or a feature that people will learn to use. Folks who prefer a spatial reference to locations (like my dad, who endearingly interrupts stories to ask for cross streets), are likely to get the most excited.

Back on the hardware end of things, there's NFC, or near-field communications, onboard the 1520, and Qi wireless charging makes its return.

User Interface: GDR3 + Lumia Black

The Nokia Lumia 1520 comes with Windows Phone 8 GDR3 (the Lumia Black edition) out of the box. The Microsoft-issued GDR3 reelase and the Nokia-made Black enhancements add a handful of new features, but most importantly bring support for 1080p screens and the Snapdragon 800 chipset, without which the 1520 would've been impossible.

That said, the user interface still feels very familiar if you are coming from another Windows Phone device. Yes, you can fit more Live Tiles per row on the homescreen (6 of the smallest ones, up from 4), but that turned out to be a function of the screen size rather than a Lumia Black specific feature. There are a couple of other changes, we'll get to those in a minute.

Here is a quick video to get you started:

A push on the unlock button or a double tap on the screen reveals the lockscreen, which displays the current time and date and shows calendar events, emails and missed calls. Pushing the volume rocker in either direction will bring the sound switch and music controls on top of the screen.

Swiping the lockscreen up unlocks the device or you can just press and hold the camera shutter key to unlock the phone and jump straight into the camera app.

The lock screen • Music controls on the lockscreen

There's a reasonable level of flexibility and functionality to the lockscreen - the Live Apps service allows apps to display notifications and images. You can set one app to display big notifications ("detailed status") and up to five more apps to show a less detailed quick status. There are already apps in the Store that display the battery percentage on the lockscreen via those kind of notifications.

The lockscreen wallpaper can also be controlled by apps - you can let the music player replace the lockscreen image with the album art of the currently playing track, or let one of the installed apps choose the image (e.g. Bing's beautiful background images or photos from your Facebook account).

The Modern UI is a vertical grid of Live Tiles, which can be reordered any way you like. Almost anything can be pinned to the homescreen - apps, contacts, web pages and more. Unfortunately, the app launcher is still just an alphabetical list of all apps, no folders, no icon grid. We don't think it works too well on a 6" screen.

The home screen and main menu

Windows Phone 8 lets you resize the live tiles. Upon a tap and hold, you'll get an extra resize button, next to the unpin one. You can opt between quarter, normal and double size. If you select the smallest one though, the tile will be just a static icon (as is in the regular menu).

Resizing a tile

Most Live tiles display relevant info such as the current date, pending calendar events, missed calls, unread emails and more (third party apps do it too). The Marketplace tile displays the number of updates available, while the Pictures tile is essentially a slideshow of your photos. It's nice to have all that info always available at-a-glance. You can look at them as homescreen widgets of sorts.

WP8 can do multitasking, though not with the level of user control that Android allows. Apps not in the foreground are suspended, but the OS has ways to take over and carry out the task for them (e.g. continue playing music). If an app needs to run in the background (sat-nav clients, messengers, etc.) it can. Microsoft is expected to bring better multi-tasking with the Windows Phone 8.1 update.

The multi-tasking interface

The new feature in GDR3 is that you can "close" apps by hitting the X button. It's not as comfortable as swiping apps away, but at least now you have control over the recent apps list.

Opening the settings menu displays two sets of options: like on the start screen, you can swipe between System and Applications. System covers all the settings you can think of like sounds, color theme, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Accounts, etc. The Application settings let you configure each app you have on the device.

We would've liked to see some kind of quick toggles in Windows Phone 8 to spare you the need to go all the way to the settings menu to enable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and the likes. There's a new Screen rotation lock feature, but it requires you to exit the app, find it in the settings, enable it and then get back to the app. The same goes for all the other settings, it's just too many steps for such a common task.

There is one new setting as part of the GDR3 refresh - screen rotation, where you turn on/off the automatic UI rotation.

Windows Phone 8 settings menu

Another feature we feel is missing is a place where you can see all of your notifications from various apps. Live Tiles manage to show notifications from each app to some extent, but they don't really have enough room for things like e-mail subject and such, while Android and iOS notification areas do. Microsoft has confirmed working on just such a feature and that we should see it in a future update.

Android, for example, has a widget that shows you a list of emails complete with the subject and a line of the message body. You can scroll through that list and hit a specific message to read it. There are more examples of how widgets are more interactive than Live Tiles and while the difference is relatively minor on the small 4" screen of the Lumia 520, the setup feels limiting on the large, high-res screen of the Lumia 1520. Let's not even mention the split-screen multitasking and mini apps that are popular on 5+ inch devices and are certainly not present here.

The Lumia 1520 comes with the Data Sense app, which shows you the amount of data you've used. Both cellular and Wi-Fi traffic is accounted for. There are different data limit types: one-time, monthly and unlimited. The first two accept custom bandwidth limit values, while the latter is applicable if you have an unlimited data plan, but would still like to track your usage. With GDR3 there's an option to prevent data usage when roaming.

Data Sense can also restrict the background data usage for all apps, provided you're near a preset data limit. This will prevent some apps from functioning properly, though.

Data Sense is useful if you're on a limited data plan

Naturally, Nokia Lumia 1520 comes with a special feature for kids conveniently dubbed Kid's corner (HTC liked it well enough to put a similar feature on the One series). You can select the apps and the types of media content that goes in and password-protect it, so you can safely share your smartphone with your kids without worrying that they will mess up your settings or access inappropriate content. When activated, the Kids corner is accessible by swiping left off the lockscreen. If you've secured it, your kids won't be able to return to your standard lock and home screen without the password.

The Kid's corner

Driving Mode can be enabled automatically when the phablet connects to a specific Bluetooth device (i.e. your car's stereo). This mode mutes all notifications except calls and texts, but you can mute those too. If you do, you can set an automatic reply text.

Driving mode

Microsoft is trying to appeal to business users too - a company can create its own Hub where employees can find news, calendars and other info relevant to their work. Companies can also create their own apps that only employees can install.

Being a WP8 handset, the Nokia Lumia 1520 also supports voice commands - you can dictate or have the phone read text out, you can initiate searches and so on. Unfortunately, the Windows assistant is still far behind the competition as far as recognition speed and accuracy are concerned. Microsoft is said to be working on a new virtual assistant dubbed Cortana, which should premiere with WP8.1 in US English in early 2014 and before the end of 2014 for the rest of the world (in 44 additional languages).

Battery life

The battery in the Lumia 1520 is sealed, but it has the reasonably big capacity of 3,400mAh. The phablet comes with built-in wireless charging, a feature that was missing in the 1020. To make use of it however, you would have to buy separately a Qi wireless charger - these days those come in many shapes and sizes.

The massive battery, light-weight Windows Phone OS and power-efficient display were made to count in video-playback and web browsing test. They surely helped the Lumia 1520 achieve an amazing score despite the huge estate to light up. Talk time and the overall stand-by endurance are great too thus the 107h top-notch rating is no surprising.

Anyway, with an overall rating of 107 hours, the Lumia 1520 is well ahead of the other phablets we've tested so far. What this number means is that the Lumia 1520 should manage four and a half days on a single charge if used for one hour each of calls, web browsing and video playback daily.

20MP PureView camera

The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a brand new Nokia PureView camera. It uses a 1/2.5" sensor with 20MP resolution. To put that in context, the sensor has 15% smaller surface area than the 20MP 1/2.3" sensor in the Xperia Z1 and about a third of the size of the Lumia 1020's PureView sensor. On the other hand the Lumia 1520 camera imager is still almost twice the size of most of its competitors, and 30% larger than those who tout "big" 1/3" sensors - like the iPhone 5s and the HTC One.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 offers ZEISS lens, but it has a relatively narrow f/2.4 aperture (compared to f/2.2 on the 1020). There's no xenon flash either, all of which should affect the low-light performance.

Still, the good news is that Nokia managed to keep the optical image stabilization and the dual-LED flash is stronger than the common single-LED units, so the Lumia 1520 should still be competitive against other devices in the dark.

Nokia has created a special app for its flagship Lumias dubbed Nokia Pro Camera. Being one of the phone's key software features, it's there to compliment the PureView camera with a simple user interface that allows users to fine tune the camera settings. It may sound intimidating, but Nokia has done a great job of making the app simple to use for both novices and professionals alike.

The Nokia Camera is the successor of Nokia Camera Pro and is the advanced imaging software the Lumia 1520 is meant to be used with. It features transparent box in the top center with six camera settings. From left to right they are flash, white balance, focus, ISO, shutter speed and exposure compensation.

Nokia Pro Camera app user interface

Tapping on each of them opens a ring-based interface on the right side of the screen. You can access all of them simultaneously by sliding the on-screen shutter button to the left. This will stack sliders for all six settings next to one another allowing you to easily fiddle with them all at the same time. The settings you modify are kept at the values you chose, with the others adjusted accordingly by the software. We really like this interface - it's intuitive and powerful at the same time.

One major complaint about the Lumia 1020's camera is how slow it is to save photos. We're happy to report the Lumia 1520 camera is a significant improvement in this respect - it's clearly faster (about three times depending on the scenario) and while still not the snappiest around it's certainly not bothering.

As we mentioned earlier, the Camera lens has another cool trick up its sleeve. It snaps two photos at once - one in full resolution (16MP or 19MP depending on the chosen aspect ratio) and another one in 5MP, which benefits from the pixel oversampling technology, while at the same time being far easier to share.

You get lossless zoom of just under 2x for the 5MP shots. It's not completely lossless as it using it means you will have to do without oversampling, but it's miles ahead of the digital zoom competitors are offering.

Nokia Camera also comes with a brand new option - shooting in RAW. It's DNG - digital negative - format developed by Adobe, which has wide support in photo editing software. While casual consumers are way better off sticking to JPEG, photo enthusiasts can use the RAW files, which contain all the information captured by the sensor, to produce even better results. Without the JPEG compression applied you get more headroom for editing.

Keep in mind that those DNG files are around 20MB big, while a full-resolution JPEG is around 4MB, the 5MP JPEGs are a mere 1MB. RAW files cannot be viewed by most desktop software either (e.g. web browsers) without processing, which is another thing to keep in mind if you want to share photos.

The latest version of the app also has the Nokia Smart Camera suite, so you don't have to switch from one app to the other to get the cool effects. The Smart camera makes you hold the phone steady for a few seconds for each shot, but then allows you to remove moving objects, change the faces of those in the photo, simply pick the best shot from the bunch of clips it makes.

Nokia Smart camera features

Nokia Smart Camera shoots a burst of 10 photos at 5MP resolution and allows you to edit those photos later. When editing a Smart Camera photo you choose one of several modes by swiping through their respective cards, each with a helpful label.

The basic feature here is best shot - automatically selecting the best photo out of the 10 (you can manually override the selection). You can also select the best expression for each individual face in the photo.

The multiple photos can be used to remove moving objects as well.

Smart Camera can pick the best expression for each face • or remove moving objects

Then there's Action shot - a moving object is overlaid on the photo several times to create a sense of motion. You can pick which of the 10 photos are used to create the action shot and the multiple copies can either be opaque or semitransparent.

The other mode that enhances motion is Motion focus - it locks the moving object, but blurs the background around it. Imagine turning the camera to track a fast moving object, that's the effect that Motion focus simulates.

Action shot • Motion focus

Nokia has a number of cool camera lenses, which we've covered before and are exclusive to the Lumia line, but the most impressive is the new Refocus lens. It snaps several photos at different focus points and allows you to interactively change the focus of the image after the fact or bring the whole image in focus.

Best of all, these interactive images are easy to share by email, Facebook and messaging, unlike some other proprietary camera apps that lock you into the maker's ecosystem.

Here's a Refocus images in action:

Panorama lens is self-explanatory - you press the shutter and then align the camera as instructed (the app will put circles you have to aim for). It's good, but you always shoot right to left (can't switch direction), which is a bit annoying. Shooting in portrait orientation is impossible too.

Cinemagraph lens creates photos that are mostly static, but a part of them is animated. You have to hold the phone steady while shooting - a tripod works best. When you're done, the Lens will offer two (sometimes three) areas that can be animated and when you pick an area, you can tweak the animation, trim it, and set the loop pattern. You can get back to the image later and correct it if you didn't get it right the first time around (we did that to reduce camera shake visible in the background).

The Nokia Camera app isn't limited to shooting still images, it can capture video too, and does quite well. Tapping the video icon at the top gets you to the video part of the app. There you have access to just the relevant settings: flash, white balance and focus. The focus can be set to either manual, auto or infinity.

Video recording also makes use of OIS and oversampling. Zoom is enabled even during video capture and it can go up to 3x in 1080p mode and up 4x in 720p mode. The 1080p videos are recorded at 30fps, but you can pick 24fps and 25fps too.

The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a total of four mics (two at the front, two on the back) with the company's proprietary Rich Audio Recording for distortion-free sound recording in loud environments. These can be used for another intriguing feature as well - it's dubbed Directional stereo. When you enable it, the sound in front of the camera is recorded clearer than the rest, potentially dealing with unwanted noises in your video and enhancing a subject's voice.

Source

GSM Arena Nokia Lumia 1520 Reviews (Design 8.2/10, Features 8.1/10, Performance 8.3/10) -Des 20, 2013

Engadget Nokia Lumia 1520 Reviews (Critic Reviews 7.7/10, User Reviews 9.3/10) -Jan 29, 2014

CNET Nokia Lumia 1520 Reviews (CNET Editor Rating 4/5, Average User Rating 4/5) -Nov 21, 2013

The Good Nokia's Lumia 1520 delivers a large, glare-fighting screen, a fast processor, plenty of storage, and a strong 20-megapixel camera for the same on-contract price as a smaller premium phone.

The Bad Its size makes one-handed operation difficult, and call quality was muddier than on most Nokia phones. Limited voice dictation and voice assistance in the OS hobbles its usefulness as a phablet.

The Bottom Line Though it lacks some features found in its big phone rivals, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is a great buy for Windows Phone fans seeking a supersize smartphone with premium hardware.

Techradar Nokia Lumia 1520 Reviews (Design 4/5, Features 4.5/5, Performance 4.5/5, Usability 3.5/5, Value 4/5) -Nov 25, 2013

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