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" Nokia&amp;#039;s Lumia 1520 is fast. Windows Phone 8 already seemed quick running on dual-core handsets, but coupled with the quad-core Snapdragon 800 inside the 1520, it feels positively rapid. In fact, in terms of pure hardware alone, we would argue the 1520 is the best handset of 2013. Nokia has nailed absolutely every aspect of the 1520&amp;#039;s spec sheet, from the gorgeous screen to the amazing camera.  But it isn&amp;#039;t perfect. The 1520 gives us so much to love, but leaves us wanting something more. It&amp;#039;s a major step in Nokia&amp;#039;s growth process and one that has us extremely excited for what the future holds. Hardware and Design Not much has changed here on the hardware front from the rest of Nokia&amp;#039;s lineup. It&amp;#039;s the usual slick and brightly coloured polycarbonate coupled with a speaker grille at the bottom. The size of the 1520&amp;#039;s camera unit is different from Nokia&amp;#039;s current imaging flagship, the 1020. Resolution has dropped from the 41-megapixel sensor you find in the 1020 to a - still impressive - 20 megapixels. &amp;amp;gt;Nokia Lumia 1020 review As such, there is less of a bulk on the back of the phone, making it feel about as pocketable as a handset this size will ever get. Talking of size, the Lumia 1520 is a big thing. It has a large, but absolutely incredible 6-inch 1080p IPS display. This is encased in a 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7 mm polycarbonate shell. In the hand, it feels thin and light, but is definitely a big phone. It&amp;#039;s a hard one to describe really, as the 1520 isn&amp;#039;t bulky, it&amp;#039;s just a large-screen smartphone. We had no issue keeping it in our pocket. Build quality is absolutely solid. The 1520 handles just as nicely as an iPhone or HTC One, and easily feels as much of a premium product. This is a smartphone to make tech lovers proud, and we love how much effort Nokia has put into the device&amp;#039;s construction. That said, the Lumia &amp;#039;look&amp;#039; has very much been done now. Just like the iPhone, it&amp;#039;s starting to feel a little old. Perhaps next year Nokia will try something different. We hope so.  Inside, the Lumia 1520 is an absolute beast. You get a 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor to play with, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage.  The ability to expand up to 64Gb microSD storage is rather useful, and makes the Lumia 1520 much better suited to music and media fans. The new Nokia is the most powerful Windows Phone yet, and it shows. Every app switch and load is rapid, while functions such as load times for the camera are much improved. If we had to pick a Windows Phone right now based on hardware alone, the Lumia 1520 would be the one. Camera Nokia has a history of making fantastic smartphone cameras, with the Lumia 1020 proof of just how far ahead of the competition it is when it comes to taking photos on your mobile. The 1520 might cut the resolution in half over Nokia&amp;#039;s flagship, but it still takes an absolutely brilliant photograph. In fact, we would argue that in day to day usage, the difference is negligible. The main draw of the 20-megapixel unit on the back of the Lumia 1520 is in the dynamic range it manages. A lot of smartphones are guilty of capturing bland and flat images, but the Lumia 1520 almost always goes down the vibrant and detailed route.  It&amp;#039;s also a bit of a belter in low light. While pictures don&amp;#039;t compare to, say, a DSLR, they are far beyond what most mobile competition can muster. Nokia uses the same oversampling and split imaging technology found in the Lumia 1020 here. As such, pictures exist in both 16 and 5-megapixel format, the latter being better suited to sharing. Optical image stabilisation is fantastic as well, particularly when shooting video as it lets you wander about with the Lumia 1520 without getting wobbly and blurry shots. Nokia Pro Camera also makes a return here. As camera apps go, it comes close to the most complete mobile photo experience you can get right now. Every single aspect of the camera can be tweaked, from focus to exposure and white balance. There&amp;#039;s also a Nokia Smart Cam app, which lets you create off the cuff Instagram-style shots. You can apply a number of quick filters to pictures after you have snapped them, like sepia effects and tilt-shift looks. Ultimately, the camera on the 1520 is very good. It&amp;#039;s not quite up to what the Lumia 1020 has managed, but then the amount of bulk it adds to the phone is less. User interface and apps Windows Phone 8 is finally becoming an operating system to rival the competition.  First up, before we even start on talking about the rest of the OS, Instagram has now arrived for the OS in beta form, which plugs a major gap. Vine is also present, so social media is now covered on pretty much all fronts. As for Windows Phone itself, the 1520 absolutely zips through the OS. Apps load quickly, and everything feels slick and smooth. This handset is running on the Windows Phone &amp;#039;black&amp;#039; update, which brings with it support for Full HD 1080p screens. That means an extra column of live tiles to play with, but little else in terms of big-screen optimisation.  It&amp;#039;s not so much about adapting Windows Phone for bigger displays, more just making it fit. This is a shame, as the screen on the 1520 is so nice that we feel a few &amp;#039;phablet&amp;#039;-centric features would&amp;#039;ve made for a better experience. The keyboard in particular is massive, taking up a large part of the screen when typing. This could have been reduced for the 1520. Black also comes with a &amp;#039;Glance&amp;#039; screen. A new function for Windows Phone, it lets you see up to five notifications straight on the smartphone&amp;#039;s display, before you unlock it. It&amp;#039;s definitely handy, but not a game changer. Finally, multi-tasking has been given a rethink. Now apps can be closed simply by hitting the X in the top right hand corner of the app switching menu - much simpler. As is always the case with Nokia&amp;#039;s Windows Phone offerings, it&amp;#039;s the apps the company has built for the OS that truly stand out. Maps, Nokia&amp;#039;s entire camera suite and Drive are all fantastic here. Now, finally, with Instagram and Vine&amp;#039;s gaps plugged, we feel the Windows Phone is pretty much there in the apps department. Sure, it doesn&amp;#039;t have all the games that iPhone or Android handsets might muster, but there is definitely plenty. In the end, the 1520 starts to feel very much like a bigger Lumia 1020, which is no bad thing. Windows Phone is as easy to use as ever, and the apps that are included out the box are mostly great. It&amp;#039;s a shame Nokia didn&amp;#039;t opt for some Note 3-style pen-centric features, but you can&amp;#039;t have everything. The competition At the moment the Galaxy Note 3 and HTC One Max are the only two real big-screen competitors to the 1520. There is Sony&amp;#039;s Xperia Z Ultra, but that thing feels so big, it&amp;#039;s closer to a tablet than a phone.  Samsung&amp;#039;s Note 3 is arguably the Korean manufacturer&amp;#039;s best phone this year, and is a handset we most definitely love. However, we don&amp;#039;t think its screen can quite match what the 1520&amp;#039;s puts out. Then there is the HTC One Max, which we enjoyed, but didn&amp;#039;t feel like as complete a package as the Note 3. In this sense, the HTC is similar to the Nokia, as neither works particularly hard to take advantage of the extra screen size. That said, Nokia&amp;#039;s user experience and camera quality is arguably better in a lot of cases. It&amp;#039;s certainly simpler, so ultimately it comes down to what operating system you fancy committing to. Verdict The Nokia Lumia 1520 is yet another corker from the Finnish manufacturer. The brand has really pulled it out of the bag this year, with rapid product releases and well-made, well-performing devices. The 1520 is no different. It has a fantastic screen, feels absolutely rapid and looks and handles brilliantly. Windows Phone has finally started to plug the gaps that Nokia has been working so hard to fill. The apps are almost there, while the majority of user interface issues are gradually getting fixed. 2014 is going to be a great year for Nokia and Windows Phone, but for now, we have the Lumia 1520 to enjoy.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/smartphones/news/a535737/nokia-lumia-1520-review-the-best-windows-phone-of-this-year/>