After the very positive unboxing experience I have with the Nokia Lumia 1520. I have a chance to play with it for awhile. I will begin with a review on this fabulous new addition to my collection now.
Alright, without further ado, I would get into the review now.
Previously, when I did the unboxing, I found that the Nokia Lumia 1520 is solidly build, there are no shaking parts, everything is very well made. The handset felt like it was able to withstand tremendous punishment and rough day to day usage without need of fear that the set will be damaged.
The first thing I noticed after powering on the handset was that it the display was incredible... bright, very fast and responsive and everything was so smooth... a total contrast to my old phone. Some people that I talk to mentioned that Windows OS are not as user friendly as Android OS and iOS... but when I was using it... I don't need one or two hours... it took only a couple of minutes and I am thoroughly familiar with the set up and was so happy with the user experience.
The battery... even when it was only less than 60% when I receive this new set, just go on and on and on... till evening when I was exploring the many other application, camera system and downloading some updates to the phone before I plug it in for charging.
Did I mentioned that the phone uses the standard micro USB cable? I didn't even need to take out my Nokia charger and use the universal charger that I have been using all these while to charge my various devices.
It works tremendously well... I am so please with it.
After charging the phone fully (I do need to mentioned that it take longer than other devices to fully charge a Nokia Lumia 1520 though. Or it feels that way, anyway, I will confirm it when I have more time with the handset), I downloaded quite a number of applications from the play store and surf a bit of net when the handset was connect wirelessly to my wifi network.
I am very please to find out that connection to the wifi network is fast and there are no lagging at all. What I am pleasantly surprised was that during charging and also during surfing of the net, my Lumia 1520 didn't heat up as much as my old phone.
I play a couple of games on the Nokia Lumia 1520... again... performance are stellar, fast and responsive (without any lagging) and there are no heating up on the handset too.
Unlike the Android and Apple handsets, the applications available for Windows phones are really not that incredible. The basic functions, plus games are there though... but I found that I needed to pay for the Angry Birds which I can get it for free when using the Android phones and some of my favourite games like the Defender II and Hellfire are no longer available though. And there is an app that I really wish was available to windows phone... and that was the Blackboard Inc. I needed that for my university parttime course. But I think I can survive... I am using a Asus Nexus anyway.
Another application that I find a bit different from the android phone is the Whatsapp application... I cannot change the ringtone now. And the ringtone is seriously quiet... and short. I had missed a couple of message thus far.
The sound of the Lumia 1520 is also not that loud, something that can be potentially frustrating if you are stuck in a train and surrounding is noisy... you might just miss the call.
Sound quality is great though. Unlike my old phone, whereby I cannot hear the other party quite a number of time... I am not finding this issue with the new Lumia 1520... it is so clear.
So... many asked, why Lumia 1520 and not the smaller and supposedly easier to carried 1020 (with a mega camera - 41MP and 1/1.5" sensor which is bigger than most premium point and shoot compact cameras which sport 1/1.7" sensors). Well... there is a time I simply would wave off the 1520... that is mainly because I thought my 1020 was already in the mail.
However, after receiving news that my 1020 is not coming in anymore, I started reading reviews of the 1520 and 1020. There are a couple of things that came in that totally change my mind.
1) there is an memory expansion slot for the 1520. It is important... the 32GB in build memory for 1020 and 1520 might seemed pretty large for a smartphone. But a look at their camera system and file size, 32GB is simply not enough. An expansion slot means more memories and I can even arrange my files and data more efficiently.
2) Much longer battery juice 3400mAH vs 2000mAH. The 1520 battery life would give an edge over the 1020 and that is important for me. Having to travel quite a bit, I want my phone to be able to use when I needed it and not when it was drained. I have a problem with my old phone's battery life and seriously speaking... I hated it. So the much larger battery of 1520 is a welcoming advantage.
3) Thickness. Yes the 1020 is not that thick overall... but the camera just bulge out so much that I don't find comfortable with.
4) Larger Display, better for reading books. I read a lot, Chinese novels mainly. I am very short sighted, I have motion sickness... so I want something big enough for me to read comfortably even when I am in a train, without feeling nausea and wanting to throw out.
Although I love photography and would definitely welcome a better camera system. The 1020 had the best camera system in today's smartphone. It will replace all other point and shoot (except for some crazy PnS system with 1" or larger sensor) camera in my opinion. However... lets face it. 1/1.5" seemed massive for a smartphone but it is still a tiny sensor, I would not imagine cramming 41MP into such a small surface. I mean, the image quality might still be good, but I find that 20MP is good enough for my day to day usage and even for using in my workplace.
Camera
Now lets talk more on the fabulous camera system in my Nokia Lumia 1520. It make use same technology as used in both Pureview 808 and Lumia 1020. The Nokia Lumia 1520 could shoot in two aspect ratio - 16:9 and 4:3.
Now lets talk more on the fabulous camera system in my Nokia Lumia 1520. It make use same technology as used in both Pureview 808 and Lumia 1020. The Nokia Lumia 1520 could shoot in two aspect ratio - 16:9 and 4:3.
In the 16:9 aspect ratio we have three choice of resolution
1) 5MP (JPEG)
2) 5MP (JPEG) + 16MP (JPEG)
3) 5MP (JPEG) + 16MP (DNG)
In the 4:3 aspect ratio
1) 5MP (JPEG)
2) 5MP (JPEG) + 19MP (JPEG)
3) 5MP (JPEG) + 19MP (DNG)
So what is a DNG file, I heard...
It is a digital negative file... which is some form of RAW format that most photographers would be familiar with. You cannot open the file using normal software, but a Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop would have no problem at all. The Digital RAW file is useful for editing of the photo and then converting it to JPEG file to be saved.
It give us much much more option to play with our file.
Like the Nokia Lumia 1020, the Lumia 1520 shoot in two resolutions - 5MP (which is for viewing in the phone itself and a 19MP (or 16MP) file for viewing in your PC or for editing easily.
This would slow down the write time of the camera, so I would recommend a faster SD card (Class 6 and above would do). Actually, I find the Autofocusing pretty good and not as slow as what was mentioned by many people and writing of the files into the SD card is pretty fast (I have seen slower cameras), so I really have no complain there.
The quality of the image?
Very good for a smartphone. One of the best, I would say. Of course you cannot compare this to a DSLR or a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera.
As seen in the above photos, the shots are quite sharp and very detailed. Of course at its full resolution, I am seeing fine grains on the photos, but knowing that it is a tiny sensor that cramped 19MP... I am not expecting extremely clean shots.
What I am receiving is already out of my expectation. I am very please with the performance.
Nokia is also well known for their camera system that could take very low noise even at high ISO pictures. So I did a test on it. Of course my test is not very professional and I didn't use any chart, yet I keep my test variable as close as possible and crop the image as close as possible.
ISO: 100
ISO: 200
ISO: 400
ISO: 800
ISO: 1600
ISO: 3200
ISO: 4000
As far as I can tell, the camera perform very well up to ISO 400, after that bad noise started forming. It is still usable at ISO 1600, but 3200 and 4000 is actually just nice to be there in my opinion.
Other than the good camera performance, Nokia Lumia 1520 gave you an incredible amount of control, a bit like what I am getting using a EPM1.
Basic camera function whereby everything was set to auto.
Notice the amount of camera function that you can play around with? It is incredible. They even give you assess to manual focusing, which is very important if you are shooting a close up subject or at a high contrast environment whereby it is very difficult for your Autofocus system to get an accurate lock-on.
I have tried the manual focus quite a number of times and it worked like a charm. The big screen of the Lumia 1520 enable manual focusing to be more accurate and easier.
Next, we come to look at the flash of the camera. Unlike the Lumia 1020, the Lumia 1520, lacked a proper Xenon flash and instead sported two LED flashes. Although it is smaller and the intensity is lesser, the flash is still pretty strong. It should pose no problem if your subject is close. However, I find that the flash is not too wide and it somehow was more concentrated.
After thoughts,
I only had the Nokia Lumia 1520 for slightly more than a day, I haven't had time to fully explore every area and aspect of the phone yet. But I am very positive that it will do very well. I provide more updates on this phone as soon as I have more information and/or time to play with it more thoroughly.
The next review I will be doing will focus more on the battery life, videography, NFC function, Video and music playback and some applications that I find very useful (in my usage).
Summary:
What I like:
- Not too heavy
- Large, bright and very responsive LCD display
- Very fast performance
- Very solidly built
- Share same data transfer/ charging micro USB cable
- Very nice ID (industrial design)
- Very nice button feeling
- Long battery life (as far as to my usage)
- Good camera system
- Massive control over camera system
- capturing RAW image
- Expansion Memory Card Capability
- Quite large internal memory
What I don't like:
- nano SIM card (different from most other phones except for Apple's iphone).
- No option to change aperture on camera (which happen to be my favorite option in photography)
- Very large camera (dimension) and I always touch the lens with my fingers accidentally even during shooting.
- Still very expensive (S$568 with contract).
- Limited accessories
- Not too many application (yet, but I believe this will change soon enough).
So looking at the above... do you think I will change back to Android system? I am not sure, but right now, I am fully enjoying my new Lumia. And I love almost everything about her.
Appendix
Nokia Lumia 1520 spec (extracted from http://www.nokia.com/sg-en/phones/phone/lumia1520/specifications/)
• Dimensions
o Length: 162.8 mm
o Width: 85.4 mm
o Thickness2: 8.7 mm
o Weight: 209 g
• Display and User Interface
o Display size: 6 ''
o Display resolution: Full HD (1920 x 1080)
o Display features: Brightness control, Orientation sensor, High brightness mode, Refresh rate 60 Hz, Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2, Easy to clean, Nokia Glance screen, Lumia Color profile, Wide viewing angle, Sunlight readability enhancements
o Display colors: TrueColor (24-bit/16M)
o Aspect ratio: 16:9
o Pixel density: 368.0 ppi
o Display technology: ClearBlack, IPS LCD
o Touch screen technology: Super sensitive touch
o Sensors: Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity Sensor, Magnetometer
• Keys and Input Methods
o User Input: Touch
o Dedicated hardware key: Volume Keys, Camera Key, Power/Lock key
• Connectivity
o SIM card type: Nano SIM
o Charging connectors: Micro-USB
o AV connectors: 3.5 mm audio connector
o System connectors: Micro-USB-B
o USB: USB 2.0
o Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
o Bluetooth profiles: Object Push profile (OPP) 1.1, Hands-free profile (HFP) 1.5, Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) 1.2, Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) 1.4, Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP) 1.1, General Audio/Video Distribution Profile (GAVDP) 1.2
o Wi-Fi: WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
o WLAN Security: WPA2 (AES/TKIP), WPA, WPA-Personal, WEP, WPA2-Personal, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise, PEAP-MSCHAPv2, EAP-SIM, EAP-AKA
o NFC: Secure NFC for payment, Sharing, Pairing, Tagging
o Other wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi Channel bonding
• Data Network
o LTE network bands3: 1, 3, 7, 8, 20
o LTE max data speed DL: 150 Mbps
o LTE max data speed UL: 50 Mbps
o WCDMA network: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz
o WCDMA max data speed DL: HSDPA - 42.2 Mbps
o WCDMA max data speed UL: HSUPA - 5.76 Mbps
o GSM network: 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz
o GSM max data speed DL: EGPRS 236.8 kbps
o GSM max data speed UL: EGPRS 236.8 kbps
• Power Management
o Battery: BV-4BW
o Battery capacity: 3400 mAh
o Battery voltage: 3.8 V
o Removable battery: No
o Maximum standby time: 32.0 days
o Maximum 2G talk time: 27.4 h
o Maximum 3G talk time: 25.1 h
o Maximum music playback time: 124 h
o Maximum video playback time: 10.8 h
o Maximum Wi-Fi network browsing time: 13.6 h
• Processor
o Processor name: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 800
o Processor type: Quad-core 2.2 GHz
• Memory
o User data storage: In device, Memory card, SkyDrive cloud storage
o RAM: 2 GB
o Mass memory: 32 GB
o Expandable memory card type: MicroSD
o Maximum memory card size: 64 GB
o Free cloud storage: 7 GB
• Main camera
o Camera Focus Type: Auto focus with two-stage capture key
o ZEISS optics: Yes
o Sensor size: 1/2.5 inch
o Camera F number/aperture: f/2.4
o Camera focal length: 26.0 mm
o Camera minimum focus range: 10.0 cm
o Camera image format: JPEG/Exif
o Camera Flash Type: Dual-LED Flash
o Flash operating range: 3.0 m
o Flash modes: Off, Automatic, On
• Main camera features
o Camera feature: Optical image stabilization, PureView, Backside-illuminated image sensor, 6-lens optics, High resolution zoom 2x
o Digital camera add-ons: Cinemagraph lens, Bing vision, PhotoBeamer, Creative Studio, Nokia Camera
• Image capturing
o Capture modes: Video, Still
o Scene modes: Automatic, Sports, Night
o White balance modes: Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Daylight, Automatic
o Light sensitivity: Automatic, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO 3200, ISO 4000
o Photos viewed by: Camera Roll, Month, Timeline, Photo editor, Favorites, Album, Photos from social networks, Nokia Storyteller
• Secondary camera
o Secondary camera resolution: 1280 x 960 pixels
o Secondary camera f-number/aperture: f/2.4
o Secondary camera - other features: HD 1.2 MP wide angle, Video recording, Still image capture, Video call
For full spec, please visit: http://www.nokia.com/sg-en/phones/phone/lumia1520/specifications/
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