Windows Phablet 8

The Lumia 1520 runs the latest version of Windows Phone 8 and the latest Nokia-specific firmware, known as Lumia Black. It’s taking advantage of the update to Windows Phone 8 which supports both 1080p displays and the new processor, and it has gained a couple of minor enhancements along the way. It’s great to finally be able to close apps directly from the multitasking menu and toggle screen rotation, but this latest version is a minor update in the grand scheme of things — designed for more screen sizes, not more features.

Everything on the 1520 is just big, and the display isn't being used to its fullest

The Lumia Black firmware on the 1520 includes all of the latest platform enhancements Nokia has developed, such as double-tap to wake, Glance notifications, and Bluetooth 4.0 LE. But Windows Phone still doesn’t have a proper notification center and other basic features that Android and iOS have had for years, which can still make it difficult to use.

When designing a large, high-resolution device, there are two paths to take. Everything can be the same size as on smaller devices, therefore displaying much more content at once. Or the interface can be scaled up, displaying the same amount of content but with much larger icons, fonts, and interface elements. Microsoft chose to more or less just scale the Windows Phone 8 interface up, and I’m not sure that was the right thing to do.

Everything with the 1520 is big, and it doesn’t feel like the giant display is really being used to its fullest. Fonts have grown to enormous proportions, there’s empty space all over the place, and the interface elements and icons feel as if they were designed for someone with very poor eyesight. The Windows Phone virtual keyboard is a joy to type on (with two hands, of course), but it still takes up half of the display, which is seriously excessive on such a large screen.

The one area that Microsoft optimized Windows Phone 8 for big screens is with the new third column for Live Tiles on the Start screen. You can now fit more tiles across, so scrolling through your home screen is less work. Unfortunately, the largest tiles are still only two columns wide, and having so many Live Tiles flipping and dancing in a cacophony of animations can be overwhelming.

Aside from the extra column of tiles, there isn’t much else in the way of optimization. I counted one more preview line for emails in my inbox, and one more visible email; two more contacts in the People hub; 1.5 more hours of appointments in the calendar app; and about four more apps in the app list before I had to scroll to see more. In the browser and third-party apps, the experience is virtually identical.

Other big phone makers, namely Samsung, have implemented stylus support and special features that can take advantage of such a large screen. But Nokia isn’t going that route at all — reps said adding a stylus to the 1520 would mar the phone’s sleek design — and there isn’t really anything you can do on a 1520 that can’t be done on a Lumia 1020 or any other, smaller Windows Phone. Perhaps Microsoft and Nokia will refine Windows Phone for large screens in future revisions, but right now, it feels as if the bare minimum of effort was put into optimizing it for 6-inch displays.

Nokia points out that the larger screen is great for gaming and watching video, and for the most part that’s true. High-definition video from Netflix, Vimeo, and Hulu looks amazing, though I really wish there was a proper YouTube app on the 1520 (third-party app MetroTube works in a pinch). But Google, Apple, and Amazon have also put a lot of effort into building vast content stores for their devices, which pays off when you have big, amazing screens to watch TV shows and movies on. Nokia and Microsoft haven’t yet done that (the Windows Phone Store offers music for sale, but no movies or TV shows), and I longed for the ability to purchase an episode of New Girl or rent The Fast & Furious to watch on the 1520’s display during my commute. Microsoft has promised to bring Xbox Video to Windows Phone 8 some time in the future, but it’s not here yet and as a result the experience is lacking. Without a great media store, Microsoft and Nokia aren’t taking full advantage of the 1520’s big, beautiful display, and that’s a crying shame.

Update: As of December 18th, 2013, Microsoft has released the Xbox Video app for Windows Phone 8. It addresses one of our biggest complaints with the media options on the Lumia 1520, though unfortunately the video content is not available in high definition. You can download it from the Windows Phone Store now.