Weekend Read: the logic behind the Lumia 1520. “the Bandit”

LAWLESS

Its been circulating the news kind of like a dangerous criminal on the loose and its the second worst kept secret ever right after the Lumia 1020.

Its been photographed, screenshot and compared to other phones and lets just say it dwarfed all the phones that got near it on the physical side of things.

Even if you didn’t read the title most of you will know what I’m talking about; its the Nokia Lumia 1520, appropriately named the Bandit.

 

Specs speculations (see what I did there :D)

As far as specs goes its what every spec geek wanted until Apple started the 64 bit hype just a mere week ago.

The Lumia 1520 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest the Snapdragon 800 with two gigs of ram, a 1080p display and a monstrous 6″ display, and  it also packs a 3400mAh, a Carl Ziess 20mp snapper that takes 5mp/16mp pics  (hopefully with OIS) and an SD card to the joy of everyone.

Creating the demand

As Samsung created this genre of phones, it focused on the taking notes aspect of things as a way of justifying the extra screen state and the overall sacrifices of carrying a big phone (at the time), or at least it seemed this way.

Almost no one can claim that the note taking abilities in the Note series is gimmicky, after all its being made using Wacom technologies; a leader in interactive pen displays & digital drawing tablets.

BUT it would seem that the note taking experience for many comes second to watching YouTube, browsing the web and playing games using the edge of a big screen with large battery combination.

This is what inspired Sony not to follow the way of the PEN.

Take the Sony Xperia Z Ultra for example it didn’t include a pen or an active digitizer though you can buy one from Sony or use a pencil/metal pen down to 1 mm accuracy. (seems like Super sensitive touch or a variation on it; Synaptic or Atmel)

Sony’s pitch made up for that loss with an incredibly thin device a great display and by waterproofing it making the Xperia Z Ultra the best phablet to use while taking a bath or out near a pool.

 

Nokia’s pitch

• A great bright display that is bigger than the Note’s one and smaller than the Xperia Z ULTRA who everyone who reviewed it agreed, it was just too much.
  If my Lumia 920’s beautiful screen is anything to go by, it’ll go head to head with the Xperia Z Ultra for first place, specially in outdoors readability. and with a constant 60hrz refresh rate, we’ll be in for a treat.
  
• A respectful lead on other leading phablets in the battery department
  (if the rumor held up though). although the large 6″ 1080p will take its toll the Snapdragon 800 is so energy efficient that I’m not worried.
  

Lumia 1520 – 3400 mAh

Samsung Note 3 – 3200 mAh

Samsung Note 2 – 3100 mAh

LG Optimus G Pro – 3140 mAh
source: WPcentral

 

• A impressive Carl Ziess camera as usual, with a 20mp camera hopefully with OIS.
  With 20mp being within the limits of the new Snapdragon 800 it’ll make for a lag less shooting experience at 1080p and even 4k if Nokia choose to.
  

  Camera: Up to 21 Megapixel, stereoscopic 3D

  Dual Image Signal Processors for Snapdragon Camera support simultaneous camera/video, ultrafast 640 Megapixel/second capture speeds and computational camera

  

   

• Nokia’s camera and location apps that can both benefit from the extra screen real estate.
• Nokia’s famous build quality and excellent radio reception.
• Snapdragon 800 will usher an equal gaming experience to Android, and the 1520 is the first of many, GDR3 phones will run games as their developers intended.
  It’ll reduce the time hit games arrive to Windows Phone, as optimizing new games for old processors is tiresome. (games will still hit our old phones but later on much like how games hit the 512mb phones a month or so after it hits our flagship phones.
• Hopefully a great audio experience finger crossed that it’ll be inspired by its old Xpress Music phones which had very decent stereo loud speakers.
• A FINAL legacy phone to remember Nokia by if it decided not to return to the game, with all the support carried on by the same people who made it right at Microsoft.
• Probably a surprise or two. 🙂

Nokia’s Achilles heel with the Bandit.

1. Windows Phone; its an incomplete OS specially for a phablet; GDR3 is just a nicotine gum to chew on until Blue arrives which if the past two years were any indications it’ll be late.
   ( the fact that the Bandit’s launch have been delayed another month can support my premise even GDR3 is late, and the Lumia 920’s momentum was crushed last year because of Microsoft’s unfinished software)
2. Lack of an active digitizer (probably due to WP hardware restrictions)
3. Lack of a decent YouTube app is WORRISOME.
4. AVAILABILITY and PRICE POINTS, will drive people interested in the 1520 mad.
5. Marketing concerns where people might shy away of Nokia products thinking its going to end up without customer support/future.
6. Lack of 3rd party accessories.  (this is a general Lumia Achilles heel)
7. lots more.

What about you? would you be interested in buying this bad boy. (See what I did there :D)

Thanks for reading and have a good weekend.

P.S we apologize for any picture that went without being credited I just couldn’t find the actual original source for them.

Tags: 1520, bandit, Elop, Lumia, Nokia

Category: Editorial