To be honest it comes down to what you need in a phone and what your budget is. If you have a big budget and are willing to spend the money then there is absolutely no reason why you should buy the Lumia 1320 over the 1520. Some people feel that the rounded design of the 1320 looks better (like myself) than the flat and sharp edged 1520 but I don't think that is enough of a reason to choose the 1320.
The 1520 is better in every way but the reason I chose the 1320 over the 1520 was first and foremost the price. Where I live, the 1520 is almost double the price of the 1320 and for my usage I could not justify this difference.
- aluminium build quality vs plastic matte finish: Matte plastic is my favourite. I am not a fan of the glossy plastic seen in Samsung phones and although aluminium phones tend to be lighter, I do not like the fact that they dent easily when you drop them and I hate how cold they feel in the hands during winter. I guess you could put a case on them but I never use anything apart from a screen protector on phones. Cases kill the design in my opinion.
- 1080p screen vs 720p : Like you may have read in my other post before, I did not need 1080p. Surface RT looks great and is a 10.1" 720p screen. I did not need 1080p on a 6".
- quad core 2.2GHZ S800 vs dual core 1GHz S4 : Windows phone OS has always run smooth. I remember how smooth WP7 was on HTC HD7 which had 1GHz processor and 512MB ram. I know technology has come a long way since then but the 1320 pretty much has double the specs of the HD7 and WP8.1 runs smoothly. Youtube, other videos, news, productivity apps like Office all work without a hitch. I do not play intensive games but I downloaded a few like "Angry Birds Go!" which seemed graphically intense but the phone handled them flawlessly although I did notice the phone heat up a little bit.
- 2GB RAM vs 1GB RAM : Same reason as above
- 32GB storage vs 8GB : Both phones have micro SD card slots. I am someone who streams videos and doesnt take a lot of photos. My music collection isn't the biggest either so the majority of the space is taken up by apps. And with the ability to install apps on a SD card means this is no longer as much of a deal breaker as it might have initially seemed
- 20MP PureView rear camera vs 5MP : Not much of a photo fiend but I can see this being the single biggest reason why people would want a 1520 over the 1320. The 5MP camera on the 1320 is better than decent though and even better than the 8MP on my previous phone HTC One X.
- 1.2MP front camera vs 0.3MP : Same as above
- lighter, thinner, shorter : Not significantly lighter and thinner. Just a tiny bit. So not a dealbreaker again.
As for the battery, i think both phones have the same battery so I don't know where you heard that the 1520 has a better battery life. I guess the Snapdragon 800 could be better optimized than the S4 but the difference shouldn't be night and day given that the 1320 has a lesser resolution screen. Like I said in my other post, I charge my phone every evening but judging by how much battery I have left at the end of the day before I charge it (with 3g on: around 85% on light use and 60-70% on heavy use), I think it will easily last for atleast 2 full days on moderate-heavy use and 4-5 days on light use and forever on standby. And I get this battery life on the developer preview of WP8.1 so it can only get better with the final release.
The only deal breaker for WP is the app store. I was talking to a mate today and he told me that he switched from WP to Android as the banks/airlines and other apps he wanted were not available in the WP app store. While I understand this is an issue, I personally prefer the browser for most of the things he mentioned and IE is solid if not excellent and the big screen just adds to the experience (no more zooming in and out)! Hope this helps in making your decision. I did not intend to be biased towards the 1320. I am just stating my reasons for choosing it over the 1520. It is just excellent value for money but you won't go wrong with the 1520 either
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