I have been off contract since last fall, and I have been following the Icon closely, because in WP there's no other choice with Verizon. I am not worried about having the latest bleeding edge hardware, but I want something that offers the top specs now so it can keep up during the entire 2-year contract.
I was super psyched when Nokia announced the 1520, My wife has a Note 2 and loves it, so I am not afraid of a bigger phone. I was crushed to find out that ATT got an exclusive on it, and switching carriers is not an option for me. We have over 15 phones on the account, heading to 20, and the coverage in our area isn't even close.
So I am not looking to resist a phone I have waited months for. I am looking to be talked into the Icon, but I have some concerns about the battery life and only 32gb storage, considering the lack of an SD card slot. My 2-year old Razr Maxx has Icon covered on both of these specs with a 3300 mAh battery and SD slot in which I have a 32gb Micro SD - so even with 8gb internal I have 40gb total memory now. Also, my Maxx's 3300 mAh battery gets me through all but the busiest days without a recharge, but it is only powering a dual core processor and a AMOLED 540x960 pixel display. I am sure that the Icon will burn more juice to power that pixel-rich full 1080p display, and unless WP is an extremely power-thrifty OS I just don't see making it through the day. I really don't want to take a step backward in functionality just to switch to WP.
The 1520, with its beefier battery and SD card slot would have made the choice a lot easier. So I feel like I am at 80% going to buy this phone. I will definitely be in the store launch day to hold it in my hand, but realistically, no one is going to be able to answer the battery question any more accurately for weeks or months. If I don't pull the trigger now I will probably go with the Note 3, and just kick myself for not moving sooner.
I would own the Note 3 long ago but I really want to get away from Google (which has increasingly made me feel like a product and not a customer) and can't imagine using a tiny iPhone. So WP has a strong chance of gaining me as a customer - and would have already had me if it wasn't for this stupid ATT exclusivity.
I can't believe that whatever promotions ATT offers Nokia actually net them more sales overall than a unified platform would.