NOKIA LUMIA 1320

The 6-inch Lumia 1320 is the second and less-impressive of the company's two new phablets, as it's strictly a mid-range device. The 1320 actually serves to pretty much close what is perhaps that last gap in the Finnish company's product line, as it now has devices across all parts of both the size and price spectrum.

DESIGN

One could say that the 1320 is a Lumia device through and through, and it would be hard to make a passable argument. We're treated to the usual polycarbonate shell with a matte finish, and though it's profoundly plastic, it passed our initial assessment of quality – the phone looks sturdily made. And it is... for the most part.On a slightly different note, the Lumia 1320 is a device of contrasts.

So, although the device's physical form is gargantuan (6.46 x 3.38 x 0.39 inches), elements like the speaker, camera, and speaker grill, are all downright tiny. This gives the 1320 an overly modest look that feels out of touch with its proportions. Lastly, this is likely one of the very heaviest 6-inch phablets out there, at 7.76 oz (220 g). It's heavier than just about every other phablet out there, including even the 6.44-inch Sony Xperia Z Ultra.

DISPLAY

The Nokia Lumia 1320 sports a 6-inch ClearBlack, IPS-LCD panel, good for a resolution of 720x1280, or the relatively low 245 pixels per inch. This may sound a tad underwhelming, considering the current climate, but the display is still adequately detailed. Moreover, colours are accurately produced, if slightly lacking in saturation in comparison with the best panels out there.

UI AND USABILITY

This budget phablet makes use of the latest Windows Phone 8 update, sometimes referred to as GDR3. Thanks to the larger form-factor, you get to play with an extra column of tiles. You can fit as many as six of the smallest WP8 tiles on a single row, which leaves you with quite some space to arrange your homescreen to your heart's content.But despite the changes that the last update brought, the interface still is largely unchanged, in terms of both functionality and looks. This means that we're yet to be graced with a dedicated notification centre and just a whole list of 'little' things that indicate the platform's relative immaturity.

PROCESSOR AND MEMORY

Under the massive hood of the Lumia 1320, we're treated to a 1.7GHz, dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor by Qualcomm. Complimented with 1GB of RAM, the 1320's UI runs pretty smoothly for the most part, but we still wish some apps had less of a wait time attached when starting up. The 1320 is also a little short on internal storage, as it has to make do with just 8GB. Fortunately, a microSD card slot is available underneath the removable back shell, right below the slot for the SIM card.

MULTIMEDIA AND CAMERA

The Lumia 1320 has a 5-megapixel rear camera unit with an f/2.4 aperture and a 1/4'' sensor with fairly large, 1.4-micron pixels. An LED flash is available, and so is the aforementioned two-step shutter key on the lower right profile of the phablet. Up at the front, we have a lowly 0.3-megapixel VGA snapper with an f/2.8 aperture, good for nothing more than the occasional selfie and video call.

The Lumia 1320 is a pretty capable multimedia device, and not just thanks to that massive 6-inch glass. The Qualcomm chip inside manages to power through 1080p clips from a wide variety of encodings (no .mkv, though), and the tiny speaker at the back is more capable than its looks suggest.

SOUNDS

The speaker can be very loud, but clear, and the other side will hear you actual, natural voice without straining to make out what it is you're saying. Unfortunately, the tiny ear-piece is quite problematic, as more often than not, it doesn't perfectly align with your ear hole.

BATTERY

As goes with phablets, the Lumia 1320 is equipped with a pretty big, 3400mAh cell. The battery proved to be quite the endurance champ is in time with the handset, easily lasting us through a day of heavy usage. The relatively frugal chipset, and the low amount of pixels it has to push definitely help, of course, but definitely impressed with the phablet's independence from its charger.

 

PROS

·         Great battery life

·         Call quality is top notch

·         Video capture is decent

·         The dual-core chip handles the 1320 just fine-tuning

CONS

·         It's seriously heavy

·         This is a very large device, even in its class

·         Both the earpiece and speaker grill are easily muffled

·         The camera offers middling performance

- Vandhiyadevan