Nokia Lumia 1320 review

Nokia Lumia 1320 Camera

Another compromise Nokia has made on the 1320 is downgrading its camera to a mere 5-megapixel sensor. This is a big step down from the 1520’s 20-megapixel model, and you don’t get Nokia’s Pro Cam app either, with all its fancy effects. As a result, our outdoor shots weren’t much better than those we’ve seen from budget smartphones. Noise was present throughout the image, and detail was lost in muddy patches of pixels. The sky was overexposed, too, with sunlight appearing as searing white patches in the background.

This is mildly disappointing when the rest of the handset is so close behind the 1520, but one area where the 1320 truly excels is battery life. In our continuous video playback test, its 3,400mAh battery managed an impressive 13 hours and 22 minutes with the screen set to half brightness, which beats both the 1520 and 1020 by a good hour. This is superb for a mid-range phone, making it perfect for keeping you entertained on long journeys.

Bear in mind that the 1320 also only has 8GB of storage, which will limit how many films you can take with you on the move. There’s a microSD card slot just below the micro SIM card slot underneath the back panel, though, that can take cards up to 64GB in size.

Nokia Lumia 1320 Apps

The Windows Phone Store still isn’t quite as wide-ranging as the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store, but you should still be able to find most essential apps. BBC iPlayer, Netflix and 4oD are present for on-demand films and TV catch-up while Spotify, TuneIn Radio and Deezer should cover most music tastes. National Rail still hasn’t made an appearance, but Trainline’s there to fill the gap for commuters, and the National Rail mobile website works well enough.

The 1320 also comes with a few Nokia-specific apps that are surprisingly good alternatives to Microsoft’s. Our favourites were Nokia Beamer and HERE Maps. Nokia Beamer builds on the Photo Beamer app, but rather than simply displaying photos from your photo gallery in another device’s web browser, it will also mirror the 1320’s whole screen, effectively turning your phone into a portable projector. You just need to go to beam.nokia.com on your other device’s web browser and use your phone to scan the QR code shown to begin beaming. It’s no good for video, though, as there’s a significant delay between each refresh on your other device, but it’s a fun way of showing off photos without having to worry about connecting any cables.

HERE Maps, on the other hand, has offline mapping support, which is incredibly handy if you’re lost and can’t find any signal for data, or want to find your way abroad without incurring large data charges. Its Point of Internet data isn’t quite as comprehensive as Google Maps, but we think it’s a small price to pay for its extensive offline support.

Nokia Lumia 1320 Conclusion

The Nokia Lumia 1320 is a great mid-range Windows phablet. While the camera’s by far its weakest point, it’s a superb alternative to the considerably more expensive Lumia 1520 and we greatly prefer it to other Android phablets such as the HTC One Max and Samsung Galaxy Mega. If you’re not fussed about taking pictures then the 1320’s great screen and excellent battery life is just the thing for surfing the web and watching films and TV on the move, all without breaking the bank.