New York: The Nokia Lumia 1520 runs Windows Phone 8, which has a sliver of the smartphone market - and thus fewer software developers making apps for it. But apart from that, the 1520 is a decent phone. It's also among the first Windows phones of its size.
What I like about Windows' approach to bigger phones is that text and images don't simply get blown up. The software adapts the layout to take advantage of the larger screen.
With big Android phones, including the Max, you see about the same amount of content that you would on a smaller phone, just somewhat enlarged. With larger Windows phones, you get a third column of apps on the home screen. You can preview two lines of emails rather than one, and you see more contact information at once for people in your address book.
There's also a new driving mode, which lets you block incoming texts and calls when you're near a Bluetooth device associated with your car. You can set it up to send automated replies to say you're driving.
Windows phones of all sizes come with a free Office app to read and touch up documents. With iPhones and Android phones, the app is available only as part of a $100-a-year Office 365 subscription. None of these Office apps are meant for heavy-duty work, though.
To me, the iPhone 5S is the best camera phone for everyday shots, but the 1520's camera does a great job in low-light situations. It has the same camera technology as the 4.5-inch Lumia 1020, though a software fix gets rid of the 1020's tendency to make images too yellow.
To keep the camera thin, Nokia dropped the 1020's protruding lens and sacrificed resolution. The 1520 can take photos of up to 19 megapixels, instead of 38 megapixels on the 1020. Still, that's more than most phones. Grabbing and storing all those pixels takes time, so both phones tend to be slower than most cameras in snapping shots.
To keep those photos organised, a Storyteller app automatically groups photos by date and location, if that feature is on when taking shots. I like that as you zoom in on a map, photos split off into smaller groups and are shown down to the street corner or backyard where you took them.
Nokia also has a new Refocus app, which takes up to eight shots with varying focus, so you can decide later whether you'd rather have the foreground or the background come in sharper. You can even have the app blend the shots so that everything's in focus.
Nokia Corp. phones are often overlooked because they don't run one of the dominant operating systems. Besides having a good camera, I find colors on the screen more vibrant than on other phones. Before you buy, check the Windows online store to make sure the apps you want are available. It's getting better, but apps tend to come to iPhones and Android devices first.
Comments
0 comment