Nokia has taken the wraps off its first ever ‘phablet’ device – the Nokia Lumia 1520, in Malaysia. The new device is the biggest and fastest Lumia to date, packing a 6-inch Full HD IPS LCD display and one of Qualcomm’s fastest processors – the quad-core Snapdragon 800 rated at 2.2Ghz.
Made with the same design language of all other Lumia devices, the Nokia Lumia 1520 exudes quality and a premium feel with its polycarbonate body. Measuring 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7mm and weighing just 209g, the device is sensibly thin and light despite its large footprint.
Read about my first impressions of the Lumia 1520.
Nokia made sure they didn’t skimp on hardware specs packing the best processor they could into the new flagship device – a top-of-the-line, 2.2Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor from Qualcomm, complemented with 2GB RAM. Internal storage is 32GB, with a microSD slot for further expansion. Also get 7GB of cloud storage on SkyDrive.
The 6-inch Full HD 1080p IPS LCD display with ClearBlack technology is as crisp and bright as it comes, protected by the famed Gorilla Glass 2. If you’ve ever felt that the screen real estate on the Lumia 925 was limiting, then you’re in for a treat. The Windows Phone 8 Start Screen has never felt this spacious before.
It would be an understatement to say Nokia makes good camera optics. It makes great camera optics. While the Lumia 1520 does not get the full-blown 41MP whopper of the Lumia 1020, it does get a 20MP PureView main shooter with Carl Zeiss optics, OIS, f/2.0 aperture and dual LED flash. One word: impressive.
Other notable features included are NFC, 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n.
Nokia has packed a considerably big battery into the Lumia 1520 – a 3,400mAh lithium-ion, good for 25.1 hours talktime on 3G, 750 hours of standy or 10.5 hours of video playback. The battery supports Wireless Qi charging.
New Nokia services
With the launch of the Lumia 1520, Nokia also announced its free MixRadio music streaming service, available to all Lumia owners. Read about Nokia MixRadio.
Nokia has also announced a partnership with local telco DiGi to enable an operator billing feature that enables DiGi customers to pay for their app purchases on the Windows Phone Store by deducting the amount spent from their prepaid balance or by adding it to their postpaid bill. Nokia has said that it is also talking to other telcos to offer this service to other customers.
Pricing and availability
The Nokia Lumia 1520 will be available in the first week of December in the Klang Valley and in mid-December for the rest of Malaysia at RM2,159 (SRP). Pre-orders registered on the Nokia Malaysia Facebook page from the 26 November till 4 December will be entitled to a free Nokia Coloud Boom headset and a RM160 discount voucher (so you get the device for just RM1,999!).
Pre-orders for the Nokia Lumia 1520 will also be available on the 26 November on the Digi Online Store and LowYat.Net’s StoreKini. Pre-orders from StoreKini will be packaged with a free powerbank, 32GB MicroSD card, and a stylus.
The Lumia 1520 will be available in four colours – yellow, white, red and black.
