Being bloggers with full time jobs, Sammy and I are always looking for things to make our lives easier so when the lovely people at
Nokia gave us the opportunity to have a go with the
Nokia Lumia 1320 we thought it would be a great opportunity to see what could be done with it for blogging on the go and as we are both iPhone users we wanted to see what other phones out there had to offer.
The first thing to note is that this phone is advertised as a part phone, part tablet, a 'Phablet'! If you are on the fence about the need in your life for an iPad (other tablet computers are available) then I would think that this would be a good way to ease yourself in to one, as the price is way more competitive. As far as using it as a phone, we both have small hands and it is significantly bigger than a normal phone so making sure we didn't drop it was our first challenge! We loved the yellow back cover and yet you can easily get hold of a variety of cases and covers if you get a bit bored of it. We also liked the look and feel of the phone as its smooth and good to look at.
One of the best things for Sammy about the Nokia is that it is a
WindowsPhone and runs
Windows 8 so you can sync it with your PC, if you are a
Windows 8 user rather than a Mac user (like we both are) this is a great feature. This is also where the size of the screen really comes into it's own as you can clearly see documents when you are away from your computer, you can use Microsoft Word, Excel and OneNote on the move. It is great for viewing blog pages and internet sites clearly and the screen didn't make our old, squinty eyes ache.
Unfortunately for us small, right handed people all the function buttons are, quite awkwardly, positioned on the right hand side. If we held it in our right hand, the side of our palm managed to press the buttons by mistake all - the - time! But if we held it in our left hand our fingers just wouldn't quite reach comfortably to press the buttons whilst using our thumbs to navigate. We are both used to working our iPhones one handed, so it took a while to get used to, but once we did get used not holding it too tight and using two hands it navigates quickly and smoothly.
For both of us having a good quality camera on the go is important, looking at the stats for the phone, the camera on this one is at a similar level to the iPhone 4, however because of the larger screen it did feel like the pictures were lower in quality with a very grainy feel. I would say that the larger screen highlighted the flaws in the camera quality. However, we found an article in
Creative review where they had used the Lumia for a fashion centrefold and so it is clearly an issue that can be worked around, maybe you just need some better lighting, great editing software and bigger hands!?
These are some of the photos we took with the
Nokia 1320. These are all unedited, fresh from the phone. Sammy took it to work with her for the day to see how the camera coped with colour and texture. Then I took it to Liberty with us for our adventure there and found that it took great photos in low light without needing to use its built in flash.
Sammy had a play with 'selfies' and the standard editing apps available on the Lumia. The cinemagraph app was great fun, letting you apply some super funky filters, great for us Instagram lovers.
There are also a bunch of apps you can add via the Windows app store, check out Reddit's run-down of the best ones.
All in all we did like the
Nokia Lumia 1320, but for us perhaps just a little too large for a phone and not big enough for us to be a useful tablet. Sammy was disappointed with the camera quality compared to her iPhone 5s, what you get for the price though is brilliant. As we said for those unsure if a tablet is the way to go, this would be a great alternative as it can be used as both a phone and tablet in one. Great for blogging on the go if you are a Windows 8 user as it has flawless compatibility with your existing apps. The look and styling of the phone is both classy and trendy, and the Windows 8 functionality is a dream to use on this device thanks to the larger screen.
If you are interested in learning more about the
Nokia Lumia 1320, you can check out the
Nokia website for more technical information.
H and Sammy x
