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This article was first published 10 years ago

Review: Nokia Lumia 1320

February 26, 2014 10:16 IST

Image: Nokia Lumia 1320
Photographs: nokia.com Himanshu Juneja

For Rs 24,300, the Nokia Lumia 1320 is value for money, says Himanshu Juneja

Nokia has been bringing out some interesting phablets of late, and the Lumia 1320 is the latest entry in that line up. The Lumia 1320 looks like a very good budget option for people with penchant for big screens and more importantly for those who have to deal with lot of office files on the go.

Nokia has smartly built this device while keeping blemishes under control; but can a phablet with relatively humble innards strike a cord with it's target audience?

Let's take a closer look at this device.

Spces:

  • Display: 6" IPS LCD @ 720x1280 resolution
  • Processor: 1.7Ghz Dual Core
  • RAM: 1GB RAM
  • Memory: 8GB internal + MicroSD upto 64GB
  • Camera: 5MP with Flash LED, Front facing VGA cam
  • Battery: 3400 mAh (Non Removable)

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Review: Nokia Lumia 1320


Photographs: nokia.com

Build and design

A bit heavy, curvy and matte. That is how one feels on the first go after holding the phone in the hand. The phone felt more sturdy than bulky. Add to it the sheer size of the display; one should be ready to operate it only while having both the hands free.

The phone has been kept curvy by Nokia and that means it sits pretty easy in your hands.

The top side of the phone houses the headphone jack, the right side carries the volume rocker, the power button and the dedicated camera key. The bottom part of the phone houses the micro USB port.

At the bottom part of the screen, Nokia has provided standard buttons: back, home and search.

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Review: Nokia Lumia 1320


Photographs: nokia.com

Display and performance

Without a shadow of doubt, the 6-inch display of the device will be the drawing factor. Build with the clear black technology, the 720x1280 resolution IPS LCD is brightly lit, and does an impressive job with colour production.

Though, it is definitely low on pixel count (~245 ppi) which means there will be the odd instances of jagged edges on apps/fonts here and there, but that is the baggage which comes along with budget choices. However nothing frequent or concerning.

The viewing angles are poor. But again, users generally hold the phones for themselves, so this factor shouldn't bother too much either.

The display is made up with Gorilla Glass 3 technology and that should provide adequate resistance from getting it damaged.

As for the performance, there were slight lags experienced at times during the transitions effects, otherwise the phone is largely smooth during it's regular operation.

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Review: Nokia Lumia 1320


Photographs: nokia.com

OS

The phone comes with the Nokia Black update which means many key features are already onboard the Nokia Lumia 1320.

The user interface will greet you with six live tiles, making full use of the big screen. Apart from the useful Glance feature, the other stellar pre-installed app contains the impressive array of Nokia Here Maps, Here Drive apps, MS Office, Beamer etc.

All these apps add value and makes the device enticing and useful straightaway, because for a budget device, such apps means the purchase is value for money right out of the box. To add more value, there are other utility apps onboard too, like Adidas Micoach for the fitness freaks, Evernote, and Xbox Games among others.

Since the phone doesn't comes with a top of the line processor, it means that the apps may have some noticeable load times, but during the execution, the phone came out with smooth performance.

One should get hold of Swift key or a similar app for typing because the defualt keyboard hasn't really been optimised and the keys are huge and placed wide apart. Hence, typing becomes quite a task here. Not to mention, the sheer size means no chance of operating the device with a single hand only.

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Review: Nokia Lumia 1320


Photographs: nokia.com

Camera

Modest, yet impressive. That is how the camera fares on this beast.

Even though the camera doesn't boast of huge megapixel counts, or a very rich camera app to assist, the pictures taken were very good and acceptable.

The outdoor pics were well captured with good colour saturation and clarity. However, when clicked indoors, the images lost details in comparison, but were still good.

The videos don't disappoint either. The camera records the video at default resolution of 720p, which can be bumped up to 1080. Videos too showed similar variation as with the photographs clicked during well illuminated vs darker surroundings, with videos taken during not so well-lit conditions being very decent and acceptable to a good level.

Nokia has supplied the Nokia Creative Studio app and Camera360 to make up for the omitted default app. Users can choose which tint from the available options of vintage, sepia, monochrome is to be applied or render other effects on to the pics clicked from the camera.

Other useful tricks are the red eye removal, colour balance etc. One effect to catch the eye of the user will be to turn the picture to black and white while choosing one single colour to stand its ground.

All in all, very satisfying experience which is a rarity for a budget phone.

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Review: Nokia Lumia 1320


Photographs: nokia.com

Battery

Given that the screen is not too heavy on the spec side, a 3400 mAh battery was expected to perform nicely. And it definitely is a happy news for users, that the battery lasts for more than 20 hrs worth of talktime on 3G.

Basically it will clock more than 10-11 hours with moderate usage of calls + media usage on a given day.

Very impressive!

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Review: Nokia Lumia 1320


Photographs: nokia.com

Verdict

Nokia has fielded a jack of trade of a device here and it impresses. The Lumia 1320 has smart features to keep the users interested and happy, even though it is not a high-end phone. It comes as a nice option for people who plan to use Windows OS platform and lay their hands on a budget-friendly big screen phone, especially while dealing with office files on the go.

The added option of using expandable memory along with a very capable camera comes as lucrative bonus.

The closest rival in the same OS category will come from Nokia 1520 and that will cost a bomb in comparison, with better features coming along of course.

Hence, at this juncture, the 1320 is very much a budget choice for people with an impressive array of features and Nokia has kept things and features smartly under control to make this device value for money.

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