Taken from the lengthy review, here's Rushil's verdict:
When the Lumia 1520 was announced on AT&T at $200 (With a 2 year contract), it seemed like a really good price, undercutting other similarly sized phablet phones. Nokia then dropped it to an insane $99.99 on-contract which makes this phone a genuine steal at the price. Sure that’s for the 16GB version (but AT&T also announced a 32GB version last week), and you do lose out on wireless charging built-in. It also lacks the water-resistant properties of the Xperia Z Ultra, and the stylus-dependent features of the Galaxy Note 3.
But considering those specs, the camera quality and the gorgeous, huge screen, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is a great all-round package. I would say Nokia has gone all out in every aspect of this device other than the camera (the Lumia 1020 still holds that throne). Even at the without-contract $584.99 unlocked price, it’s still pretty good, though that contract deal is definitely more tempting.
At the end of the day, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is no doubt the best windows phone out there right now, boasting the best specs that’ll keep this beast going along smoothly for a very long time. If you’re in the market for a flagship device, don’t mind Windows Phone, and size is a non-issue, the Nokia Lumia 1520, is without doubt the smartphone you should be checking out.
The shenanigans surrounding the dropping of Qi charging for the AT&T version are somewhat disturbing - the carrier seems to think that the PowerMat standard will come to dominate, despite almost every other manufacturer and carrier in the world begging to differ.
Regardless, the overall verdict is rightly very positive, with the obvious caveat 'if size is a non-issue'!
And Clinton Jeff, UTP's founder, chipped in with equally positive thoughts:
There’s a lot to like about the Nokia Lumia 1520. For the whole of 2012 and 2013, Windows Phones seemed generally underpowered in comparison to flagship Android smartphones. I mean sure, the WP8 UI is super quick, and smooth on dual core hardware, and 720p resolution displays were generally high resolution enough. But on paper, Android devices just had a way better specs which for most people meant a much better, future-proof smartphone.
Thankfully, Nokia has bridged that gap with the Lumia 1520. It offers the same Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor found on all the latest Android flagship phones, a gorgeous, full HD 1080p 6 inch display, and the international version features 32GB of onboard memory, a microSD card slot and built-in wireless charging to boot. I mean come on, if this was an Android phone, people would be foaming at the mouth at those specs.
On a Windows Phone, it’s even better. Everything is super quick, the camera quality is rivaled only by the Lumia 1020 and Sony’s Xperia Z1, it’s hard not to fall in love with this phone. Nokia has created something that definitely gives Android manufacturers something to worry about.
At the end of the day, if you’re looking for a future-proof smartphone that is quick, solid, boasts a great camera and very decent battery life, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is where it’s at. Definitely recommended.
In terms of matching Android flagships spec for spec, the 1520 does very well - even though experienced Windows Phone users will already know that the OS really doesn't need that sort of hosrsepower in order to achieve a slick user experience (unlike Android).
You can read the whole article here. You'll also be interested in our own Lumia 1520 coverage, of course. Start with Rafe's big initial review and then see a video version, plus my look at the 1520's camera.