Previously I am more into the overall feeling of the Nokia Lumia 1520 and its camera function (for still shots) I did a couple of experimental shots and touch on the noise performance of the Lumia 1520. As seen in the previous review, the Lumia 1520 can take pretty amazing picture (more shots will be up when I manage to get them and when the weather is good enough).
There are still a couple of other things in the camera that I will explore soon. One of the most interesting feature is the Smart Shooting whereby the camera shoot a couple of shots, and saved them as one single photo, you have the choice to select from different categories to finally present your final shots, I will talk about this more in the next review.
In this review I will touch mainly on the following,
1) Interesting pre-loaded Application and features that I find useful
2) Download able applications that I like
Pre-loaded Application and Features of Lumia 1520 that I find useful
Being a powerhouse in her own rights, the Lumia 1520 is features loaded and it came with some really useful applications that I liked. Of course I will not go about explaining all the features and applications, it will take more than a couple of hundreds of pages to finish speaking and I am not writing a dissertation. I will however touch a bit on some of the applications and features that I like.
Double Tap
This is a good and innovative idea. All you need is two light tap on the LCD screen when it went dark. It make operation fast and very effective. Of course you can still to press on the lock/unlock/power button to get out of the lock screen. However, lets face it, this button is pretty small and depending on the pouch or casing you keep your Lumia, it will make finding and reaching that button pretty hard.
Also depending on what time you are trying to unlock your phone... imagine waking up in the middle of the night then try to unlock your phone. Two light taps on the phone LCD screen would bring you to the tiles where I can activate many of my application (like the flashlight)... it would definitely be easier and faster than trying to locate the small button especially through the hard case of my phone.
Data Sense
The first was the Data Sense application. Like most Android phone, the Data Sense enable the user to limit the amount of internet usage (downloads) one can have. It is very expensive if we overshot the limit of our data plan (S$10 per GB), and so it would be good if we can limit that usage to add a control over ourselves (because we all know that sometime human being are not easy to control).
To prevent myself from going overboard when surfing and end out having to pay extra, I set my data usage to having a 3GB limit per month (the maximum amount I am allowed), and restrict my background data to on when I am near my limit and finally to restrict my background data when roaming. I will also reduce data use when browsing by sending URLs to the Data Sense service when I am oversea to further restrict and hopefully save some data limit.
Tiles
The first thing that you would notice when you enter the windows was the tiles layout. Some people really hated it. Some loved it. I am those persons that love this design. I can pin all the useful applications that I wanted to the tiles (and frankly speaking, most people doesn't use that much application most of the time and so doesn't really need to pin so many application there.)
Somehow with the windows os, I find it neater and more pleasant as compared to my old Android system. I am not dumping the Android though. It is basically personal preference and I like Windows OS.
Office Mobile
Okay. Not to mistaken this as a full fledged windows office that you find in your Window RT, Windows 7/8/XP, etc.
You do get to review your documents (excel, words and powerpoint) and edit the documents as seen fit. But up till now, I am still not able to find a way to create a totally new documents using the window office mobile. I will continue to look for it online and keep you updated. And if there actually is a way... but I cannot find it immediately without searching for solutions on line, I would deem it a failure, because I believe I would not be the only persons who couldn't find a way to do it.
Either way, the office mobile is a great thing to have and I really like this system. It came preloaded into the Lumia 1520 and with its big LCD screen, I find editing and viewing of the documents a breeze. The Android system don't come loaded with this system (or if there is one at all).
OneNote
Now... this is something that I used alot to take notes for various reasons. This is simple to use and really effective. I do wish that I can easily draw on it like I have on the sketch application in my old phone. But one thing about Lumia 1520 was that she don't support digitizer pen... and the touch pen that Lumia 1520 did support are frankly craps.
Neat Game Arrangement
Okay, I don't know about many people, but I do downloaded quite a bit of games in my phone system. I like to have a game or two when I am on board an aircraft. In my old phone, my games are all over the place. And making my entire front screen very messy. Now with the tile layout and lumping my games and arranging it neatly in that folder.
NFC (Near Field Communication)
Now this is a blast to use. Extremely cool feature. This is not a new technology though and frankly it is around for a long time now. Many android devices already featured this system and I am longing to have one.
It enable you to connect to NFC enabled products and link your device to that product (like your bluetooth) with just a tap of your phone. It is useful in my line of work and also for my own entertainment purposes whereby I can link my phone to a speaker and play my musics (in the phone) using the speaker's much better drivers and acoustic system.
I can even make a hands free call or utilize this system to link to some 'intelligent speaker system' like Creative Technology's SBX 20, SBX 10, AXX 200 and with this I am able to have a very clear and sharp teleconferencing device.
Music/ Video Players
Worked excellently, good and easy to use.
The layout is easy to follow and use. It is self explanatory, sound quality is great, and video plays smoothly with no lagging at all.
Files Transfer
This is something I really like. It make things really easy to use.
Blocking off of Background task
I read that the Lumia 1520 is the first system in Nokia to offer the capability to block off background task (I am not sure about this, would check to see if it is true). And it is a great application. Sometime I don't need a background task and it can easily be blocked off.
(Photo courtesy of http://www.wpcentral.com/conserve-windows-phone-battery-life-managing-background-apps)
And this would certainly conserve some of the battery juice in the already massive battery life of the Lumia 1520.
Others
The other standard features that I find useful and would be using them was the Wifi system, bluetooth, airplane mode, etc.
All these are standard features that could be found in most if not all smartphones in the world, and so I will not go into them. The thing I am trying to bring out is that I am able to assess these systems easily and quickly with minimum fuss.
I can also use the Lumia to be a portable mobile wifi hotspot to be shared between five devices so I can have wifi accessibility anywhere in the country, although I would seriously not advise that, you might go pass your monthly limit easily and for me... I will only use this as the last resort.
Download able application that I like and find useful
When I got this phone, one of the biggest thing that I looked into, was its capability and what it can do to assist me in my line of work. Being in the consumer electronic market, involving the manufacturing and production of consumer electronic products, I needed my phone to be able to expand beyond what was already pre-loaded. The windows phone allowed me to do that easily. Although many had claimed that the applications that are available for the Windows Store are not as much as compared to the Android and Apple devices. But I find it adequate for my uses.
The applications can only be downloaded through windows store, but don't worry, it is easy to assess and very user friendly. Assessing to the store give you the following - Singtel (or other telco), Nokia Collection, apps and games. All these are category are different location within the store that offer applications and games for you to choose and download. You can go straight into the store whereby they show you columns of different applications under different category like Photography, Games, etc. If you have a vague idea of what you want you can search the store easily.
Note that not all the applications are free though and some of it needed you to buy.
One of the first applications I downloaded are the updates available for my camera functions... which also gave it the ability to shoot in digital RAW format (I have already mentioned that in my previous review so I will not go into this aspect).
Other applications that I downloaded was as follows,
Brightest Flashlight (Tiny Smile)
I admit that this is not the only application that provide me with the flashlight capability. But it is a small application that is good enough for my use.
The interface is simple (as shown), it showed you the percentage of your battery left and basically give you everything a torch light should give. I have no complain with this small program at all. And what is more important is that it is free.
Whatsapp
This is a popular program. A must have for free messaging and chatting... as long as you can assess internet, or have wifi, you can chat with a friend or a group of friends anywhere in the world free of charge.
Wechat
This is something like the whatsapp. I would like to call it China's whatsapp... most of my friends, vendors and partners had wechat and we talk to each other through it quite a lot, especially when I am in China.
Lenses
Okay... there is this function for you to add new creative features to your camera. The pro-camera program that are pre-installed are great for still shots, but didn't include much other add-on capability. You can download other capability like,
a) Panorama - stitching of a couple of photo together to allow you to capture a wider scene then your camera could normally shoot.
b) Re-focus - let you choose the focus point in your picture after you have taken the shot.
c) Fisheye - shooting artistically distorted fisheye shots.
d) etc - there are heaps of others... but many needed you to buy.
Barcode Lens
I admit that this application might not be for anyone, I needed it for my line of work. It is basically a barcode scanner which can scan normal barcode and QR code. I have tested it for a while and it worked beautifully. Haven't got a chance to try it on QR code yet. Will update once I managed to do it.
Games
Yes. I keep going on and on that I needed this phone mainly for work... but who says you can't have fun with it once in a while.
I have downloaded quite a number of games from the store (all of them free), although what I found strange was that, some of the games that are free for Android and/or Apple are not free for Windows... things like Angry Birds. You need to pay for it.
There are actually less game for the Windows as compared to both the Android and Apple, but I am not a game person, I need a few easy to play games and that was it. So yeah.
Which Application I wished Windows have
I have recently taken up a course in UniSim and I really need the Blackboard app (http://www.blackboard.com/). However, the windows phone do not come with it and there is no such application found in the stores. As of such I couldn't do a number of things when I do not have my PC with me.
I really wish that the company that come out with the Blackboard also supported the Windows. I am seeing a great and big market for these windows devices so it should be incredible to have them.
Summary
All in all, the Lumia 1520 did live up my expectation for a Phablet in term of features and applications (pre-loaded and installable). I especially like the file transfer capability of this phone and also its ability to block off some of the background tasks and thus helping to conserve battery juice.
Although there are not as much application available as compared to the Android and Apple devices, I find the essential applications (for me) are all there except for the Blackboard which I needed for my university course. But that is certainly not a deal breaker for me.
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