[Real Users] My Lumia 1520 Review

[Laura Knotek]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I always like to see reviews from regular users, not just tech bloggers.

 

[lerimer]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

You can say that I'm a windows phone junkie. Ever since WP was released, I switched from a iPhone to a Samsung focus. That was a great phone. Still has to be in my top 3 best phones. After that I had a titan 1 and I have to day that I loved the screen on it even though of the poor resolution. Then after a couple of months I jumped over to the Lumia 900. I decided to go with Nokia because if the tremendous efforts they are doing to bring developers in. Samsung and HTC are not doing a thing to support the platform. Then I switched over to a 920, then the 1020, and yes.... The 1520.
So far in loving it. I love the huge screen. I love how fast it is. Having it next to my 1020 and doing some tasks you can tell the 1520 with its quadcore is really impressive. The speaker is excellent. I've played some rock and the speaker hast distorted the sound at all. Call quality is in par with the 1020. With regards to the camera I haven't really taken too many pictures, but I will say this... It processes the picture 3-4 seconds faster than the 1020. The phones thickness is ok. It feels good in the hand. And comparing its weight to the note 3, the 1520 is def heavier but not heavy enough to bother me. The 1520 with its design ,weight, and overall thickness makes it a solid phone and give the impression that its a premium device. This will infact be my daily driver.

 

[kevm14]

How do you know? I did not see the specs on there yet? I hope you're right though.

It's not down. It was just linked improperly in this forum. http://www.expansys-usa.com/mobile-phones/brand/nokia/

It specs out like the RM-938. Well, I need to confirm the radio specs (don't see them listed). But it has 32GB and wireless charging anyway.

 

[kevm14]

I played around with the 1520 lastnight. Im a Verizon Note 2 user with unlimited data and all I got to say is.........

Im extremely jealous of you ATT guys lol. I loved the phone, wish I was using it right now but sadly ATT just sucks around here. That said good luck to you guys that have it or gonna purchase it. You got a really nice phone and something to brag about.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

The screen is just unbelievable, isn't it? It's hard to imagine how I would improve it.

 

[Shockwave78]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

My thoughts are the same as above, although i am having no problems at all with the touchscreen, or maybe i just have not noticed it.

Anyway.. here are my initial thoughts.

- I said a couple weeks ago that in store it felt kind of small actually. Maybe that was just the excitement talking. But after having the phone for only 8 hrs now i can definetley say it will take some getting used to.

- Microsoft is doing some really great things with WP8 in general regarding button placement, menu's(bottom of screen instead of top) to minimize any effect a larger screen has on your fingers stretching. They need to go all out and just move ALL navigation on all apps to the bottom of the screen. Example is like facebook, twitter ect...Get all of those menu's, icons to be accessed from the bottom of the screen like in IE. If they do this it would negate almost all the complaints against large screen phones using one hand. Make the bottom right "standard" for all menu accessing, ect..

- The 3 button layout is pretty hard to get used to after using iPhone all these years, i must say it's probably the biggest thing i hate about the phone. The Iphone 5s i have pretty much spoiled me with that touch-id sensor. You press the button and your in your phone, and that's with security enabled. With this phone i have to press the side button and swipe up. Yes that may seem like a small chore but when you do it seemingly every 5 minutes it adds up to a lot of time.

- Screen is great, looks unbelievable well outside in direct sunlight, almost like the sun is not even there. That's how good it is.

- Battery life seems great, but charging with a USB port will not charge the phone that much while you are using it. It will keep you "even" while using it and charging it from a usb port in my experience.

- Oh and while typing this i took another picture and noticed something again. I am getting like a purple hue, shaped like a rainbow almost in the upper middle part of the screen on some photo's. Hopefully this is just a lighting thing and a fluke.

*EDIT*
How do i get push gmail working on this thing?

 

[Lumia Jack]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

The nano sim on my tray seems to slide into place and is held in by two anchoring pins, once in position it seems sturdy enough. I had to jab it out of place, it would not easily fall out of the tray. So either he didn't slide it into the tray right or there's some minor tolerance variations with the sim tray or even the sim card causing a loose fit. My only quibble with the sim tray is that it's inverted from what you'd expect and from how the microSD is mounted. As in the sim card goes in face down rather than face up (screen side), but since the sim card is one of those set and forget it type of deals for me. It doesn't much bother me at all.

My initial impression at first, was that the phone seemed huge and I got a little bit of "what have I gotten myself into" type doubts. But after using the phone for the past day and a half I'm 100% used to the new size and I love it. I can easily do 95% of what I want to do including typing one handed. Because of it's slim design it's very easy to hold and it fits into my pocket without any discomfort whether sitting/driving/walking etc.

I like how the web browsing is essentially tablet like, and much nicer than what you'd typically expect from a phone. And once Plex releases their announced upgrade for Windows Phone 8, I'm sure video streaming and media consumption on this device will be 2nd to none.

I would of liked an active stylus in order to better exploit the use of apps like InNote, but for Windows Phone's first foray into the 5 inch+ phone market I'm satisfied. Hopefully we'll see that kind of addition in the next generation of phones.

What they need to work on is a better music and video player. I use and like Xbox Music, but there are still a lot of limitations and the ability to manage songs and playlists isn't entirely intuitive or very organized at the moment.

So far I have not noticed any odd behavior with the touch screen as you noted, it seems as responsive and compliant to the one on my Lumia 920.

 

[lsmachado]

I just got my phone last evening and had to work today, so I really haven't had as much time as I would have liked to play with my new toy.

The thing that stands out for me right now is that when I was reinstalling all my apps last night, I noticed that the phone never even got warm! My 920 would get very warm most of the time when installing apps or playing games. I haven't had time to play any games or surf the internet, but I'm hoping that the phone stays as cool as it did when I reinstalled my apps.

I did notice that the touch screen doesn't seem to work as well as my 920 with gloves on. It doesn't seem to respond unless you tap multiple times. I have the sensitivity level set to high.

Other than that, I'm seriously loving this baby! The only other "negative" is that it's not yellow, lol.

 

[Shockwave78]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

One other thing i noticed is that on the "people" app. I am getting all sorts of weird post, ads...When i go onto facebook i do not see any of these. None of them are liked pages of mine, just random stuff that only shows up on the people app.

 

[Phrozty]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

@Lumia Jack, have you tried the nokia mixradio app? Hmm... actually I just went to load it and it's different than when I used it before. It's still a nice way to get music mixes but now it's not showing local gigs :/.

@lsmachado - Definitely didn't get warm installing stuff, but it did get a little warm playing games. I don't have experience w/other lumias to know how this compares though.

Speaking of re-installing things... windowsphone.com lost my list of apps I had installed when I transferred from my HTC titan to the 1520. They've restored some of the list but there are still a LOT missing... is there any way I can get these back? Almost all of the games I paid for are gone...

 

[lsmachado]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

Phrozty, to reinstall your apps, you can go to the app store and search for your app. You can select Buy, and if you already purchased it, you will get a message saying something like "you already own this app. Would you like to reinstall?" I don't remember the exact wording, but it's something along those lines.

 

[JaiMento]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

How do i get push gmail working on this thing?

I'm not sure you can anymore.

 

[Sniper1087]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

ok like everything I'm going to mention so far issues for me and might differ per person

size, yes sometimes is almost impossible to use with one hand, and others arent as bad, I had twice the display not responding and had to put the display to sleep and then wake it up again to make it work again propertly, I still cant believe that youtube doesnt play in HD on mobile ( more of an issue with google, but affects user experience) battery life is ok, I had higher expectations, even my nexus lasts as long, wish I could disable animations to make it even faster. o yeah Gmail not pushing email is a problem for me too.

the goods are impressive display, and speakers are great, keyboard is amazing in that big display and pretty good camera, not better than the 1020 of course.

 

[leo74]

I got my phone yesterday and today I already had several people drooling over it. Load the trailer to halo or asphalt and people are blown away. The screen is amazing.
Battery life seems to be quite good. Needless to say that I played almost all day with it and it is still showing me 3 hours worth of battery. I don't think the screen was off for more than an hour in total today.

The size of the phone is spectacular. I especially like the extra real estate for the keyboard. I am typing twice as fast as on my 920.

I also got the Belkin cover and I have to say I really like it. It is nothing special, just a flip cover made of fake leather. But it is sturdy, doubles as a stand and has a little pocked that can hold "emergency" cash or a credit card/ business card. It protects the phone nicely and I wouldn't want to miss it anymore.

The only thing that I found odd was the fact that here city lens seems to be gone... It wasn't installed on the phone and also doesn't show up in the store anymore. Not sure what happened, but it is gone. Still have it on the 920 though....

Overall, I found my ideal phone. I held my 920 for a moment today and dammit that thing is tiny

 

[Phrozty]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

Phrozty, to reinstall your apps, you can go to the app store and search for your app. You can select Buy, and if you already purchased it, you will get a message saying something like "you already own this app. Would you like to reinstall?" I don't remember the exact wording, but it's something along those lines.

Yeah.. I'm trying to look through posts I've made all over the internet to see if I an find a list of what I had. My last phone bricked, so there's no way to get a list from there. It's rather tedious :/.

 

[jonathan sink]

Ok so I spent my first day today with the 1520. Just gonna throw a few things out there. I'm about 5'10ish just tad over. I can without much problem one hand this device while not moving. That said with two hands its twice as easy to type on then any other phone I have owned. I am a front pocket carrier my jeans are I guess loose but not baggy at all, it goes in no problem with none of the phone showing. Honestly less bulge then my 920 but this is quite a bit thinner. Screen is amazing! Call quality is also very good. Speaker is really good as well better than the 920 imo. Just a few things I have noticed right away can't wait to keep using it especially start taking pics tomorrow.

 

[kevm14]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

- The 3 button layout is pretty hard to get used to after using iPhone all these years, i must say it's probably the biggest thing i hate about the phone. The Iphone 5s i have pretty much spoiled me with that touch-id sensor. You press the button and your in your phone, and that's with security enabled. With this phone i have to press the side button and swipe up. Yes that may seem like a small chore but when you do it seemingly every 5 minutes it adds up to a lot of time.

How about double tap to wake?

 

[kevm14]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

Yeah.. I'm trying to look through posts I've made all over the internet to see if I an find a list of what I had. My last phone bricked, so there's no way to get a list from there. It's rather tedious :/.

You bricked your Titan? Don't tell me it bricked while you were trying to install WP7.8...

 

[kevm14]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

I've had my phone for a day now, so there's still a lot to explore, but there are some common things, both good and bad, that stand out about it. My previous history with windows phones is restricted to the HTC Titan, which was a big phone, but also only WP 7.5. Some of these "cool things" could be WP8 related and I just didn't know about them.

Thanks for your little mini-review. I also am coming from a Titan (had it for the past 2 years) as my only WP experience. So your feedback was very valuable to me.

Incidentally, I am going to be switching the MS account I use with my phone so I'll have to start over on apps anyway. I guess I didn't buy a ton of apps on 7.5 so maybe that's ok.

 

[Phrozty]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

Thanks for your little mini-review. I also am coming from a Titan (had it for the past 2 years) as my only WP experience. So your feedback was very valuable to me.

Incidentally, I am going to be switching the MS account I use with my phone so I'll have to start over on apps anyway. I guess I didn't buy a ton of apps on 7.5 so maybe that's ok.

Just make sure you can either access the list on windowsphone.com, or at least write them down. I still can't get my full list of apps .

My Titan bricked this past monday out of nowhere. At one point while it was on my desk it buzzed and I noticed it rebooted itself. When it did, I noticed my social and email tiles missing (so tiles tied to my accounts). I also noticed that all texts/phone history were reverted back to phone numbers instead of peoples' names. After waiting a few minutes, the tiles and names came back. Before I went to bed, I tried to set my alarm and the alarm app wouldn't open. Thinking it was related to all the changes that just happened on my phone, I shut the phone down and then restarted it. When it turned back on for the re-boot, it never went past the HTC logo screen... ever again.. .

 

[Shockwave78]

Re: Initial thoughts on the 1520

How about double tap to wake?

Awesome! That takes away all the fumbling and bumbling around with your hand when wanting to use it.

The only other major issue for me is Internet explorer. I changed the settings so the favorites button will be next to the address bar at the bottom. But they place it on the left side of the screen! Something as simple as this MS needs to make it user adjustable. Instead of stretching my thumb all the way over to hit the favorites button, they should have the option to have it on the right side. Little things like that is what i was talking about earlier with button placement on large phones. They can all be easily used one handed if all button access is done from the middle to bottom right of the screen.