MrWhiteman said it all! Thats effin true!
Just a few people do write FAIR reviews about services, products, etc. I do because I love to know what I am buying or using. I love to make good use of my money in something that is worth every cent. Is it good? Has good support? Is it worth it? Hotels, companies, products, services, anything!
But most people won't, only if they have problems, complains or something is not right! I do fair reviews all the time, we all want to get what we paid for, and for every cent to be worth it. Good companies will get costumers, bad companies will not.
Now let me say what I think of 1520, a review.
HARDWARE
Aesthetically this phone is BEAUTIFUL, a master piece! I like minimalist and simple things. I love the 1520 design, everything is placed where it should. Buttons are placed nicely!! The camera button comes very handy!
The back camera? Amazing, wonderful! As a photo enthusiast I can say the camera is one of the best phone cameras I have seen with many advanced features! And the camera button comes really handy! The flash sucks. It should have been xenon.
Front camera? Still needs some work, for my taste it sucks pretty badly. Grainy and slow if dark! Bad, bad, bad resolution.
Sensors are precise and work perfectly, I always turned them off in my S3, S4, Note, HTC's, Moto's because they were random and not precise... they made me rage more than once. Only thing missing is an IR blaster, that would be really useful! And maybe fingerprint scanner ONLY if it works as it should, I think that technology is not ready yet for prime time.
Also about Qi charging, once you go for it there's no way back! I even put a DT 900 hidden on my desk and nightstand, charges fast and it is so convenient!
Processor? Powerful. You can throw anything at it! If you updated to WP 8.1 DP... It is a DEVELOPER PREVIEW so it will lag a little sometimes and some things won't work as intended, you will have to make a soft reset-restart and hopefully it will resolve your issue or you will have to wait for the official release.
The battery in this thing is amazing, I'd never have thought that it would last forever with the screen size but it does! Using Xbox music to stream music all day! Whatsapp, FB and web browsing all day, by 10 PM is still around 15-20%.
It has micro SD slot, YES! No micro SD slot is a deal killer for me!
SIM tray is loose! BAD!
Touch screen sensitivity is good, perfect! And I have no more issues with it!
Signal is good but it will chose slowest networks (EDGE, 3G, HSDPA+) if they are stronger than the fastest ones. And you CAN'T force it to HSDPA or LTE.
Screen is gorgeous, crisp, clear, stunning! But there's a defect with most lumias, in white backgrounds you will see brighter spots in a specific part of the screen exactly where the back camera is placed. Other than that is perfect for me! Anyway you won’t notice the bright spot!
Glance feature is wonderful! I think it is not supported by 930 and some others phones because of the screen technology used.
VERY IMPORTANT. Screen seems to be fragile, still haven't drop it! Case or insurance could save your life, screen replacement is expen$ive. I have seen many post talking about broken digitizers and screens. Replacing only the digitizer is NOT easy at all if you manage to replace it without breaking the screen, that if you are lucky enough and didn't break the screen.
SOFTWARE
I've had about everything but iPhone, I do love my 1520 but as a power user WP 8.1 is still lacking advanced features/options. About the apps, I have the ones I need but they are lacking advanced options/features because of WP limitations and some others because apparently programmers aren't putting much effort in WP apps. But with WP 8.1 they finally added so much stuff that was missing and with WP 8.1 Microsoft is finally giving more freedom for making apps with everything we need but still not as much as Android.
For most people 8.1 will do! I am a power user, but most people are not! They have everything they need in 8.1 (just a few things missing, maybe some advanced options would be nice) BUT the 1520 is BLAZING FAST! Butter smooth! Not like my any other phone I've had!
Size of everything is about perfect on a 1520! The keyboard and the new swipe thing is amazing! Cortana is nice, and we have music recognition integrated (I'd suggest MS to improve it, is slow sometimes and if you don't have internet connection you are done. Some apps in Android store the recording so you can search that song later, you can’t do that with Bing)! Also integrated translation and QR scan, pretty sweet to translate things just with the camera.
Now WP and Lumia has some unique features and apps that I love so much and are freaking good: IE sucks on Windows but on WP is way too good, beats any other browser! Nokia apps are awesome, beamer, maps, camera, etc.!
The integration with Microsoft services is good, you will love it! It integrates with many services very nicely!
For music lovers, Xbox music pass is the way to go! Better than Pandora, Spotify, etc.! Music player is mediocre but it will do. Gallery is GOOD! Better than android!
Clean and simple OS, very good looking! I'd only add a few more advanced options and more transparent tiles for this new image backgrounds! And a color palette to choose our own accent and background colors, that would be sweet!
OVERALL
Hardware is good and this thing is damn pretty! Problems? Loose SIM tray, bright spots on the screen (you won't notice unless someone told you so), front camera sucks, FRAGILE screen. No IR blaster, no fingerprint yet. Battery, screen, processor, sensors, etc are amazing! Micro SD slot up to 128GB!
Software? You get everything you need, still missing some advanced features! But 8.1 is getting close to iOS and Android. Still has some advantages and unique design and features, and it is BUTTER SMOOTH. Integrates very nicely with MS services and some others.
By the way, got mine in India so it's a Black Lumia 1520 RM937 INDIA. Have been using it around the world with no problems in 4G-LTE. China, India, Europe, America (But no LTE in US)... everywhere but Japan!