We venture again into the realm of phablets, one that at the beginning seemed to promise little more than a short burst of action, has become the scene of some of the most thrilling battles this industry has seen. The showdown we're about to witness though could well be the climax and a new beginning, all at once. A new dimension of a rivalry that's been going for years but is now more heated than ever.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 emerged from every battle without so much as a scratch. The lineup has defined the segment and the third generation is an impressive all-rounder with rock-solid still imaging, probably the best video a phone can produce, processing power to spare and plenty of value-adding software features. The S Pen also makes sure the Note 3 caters to artists and creative in a way hardly any device would.
Nokia is only just entering the phablet space, but years of design and imaging excellence are finally made to count, now that Microsoft has finally taken the platform up to speed, enabling support for the latest in screen resolution and computing power. What once put the N and E series at the top of the smartphone food chain must be running in the veins of the Lumia 1520 too.
Ironically, it's phablets where Windows Phone is finally able to stand up to Android in a meaningful, unconditional way. In the end though, there couldn't have been a more appropriate scene for this battle. A battle that may never have happened. A killer droid against a droid killer.
Nokia Lumia 1520 over the Samsung Galaxy Note 3
- A little more screen real estate
- Bigger camera sensor - 1/2.5" vs 1/3.06" and higher resolution - 20MP vs 13MP
- Optical image stabilization
- FM Radio
- Superior battery life
- Four microphone setup, WDR audio recording
- Offline maps and voice-guided navigation
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 over the Nokia Lumia 1520
- S-Pen stylus input and good software backing
- Notably Cheaper
- More compact - 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm vs 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7 mm
- Lighter - 168 g vs 209 g
- More RAM - 3 GB vs 2 GB
- 64 GB of built-in storage version
- Slightly higher-clocked chipset - 2.3 GHz vs 2.2 GHz
- 4K (2160p) video recording over 1080@30fps
- 2 MP 1080p front-facing camera vs 1.2 MP 720p one
- Temperature and humidity sensors
- IR port for remote control functionality
These two are powered by identical Snapdragon 800 chipsets and have massive full-HD screens. It's Super AMOLED against ClearBlack LCD, PureView against S Pen, Nokia against Samsung, Android against Windows Phone. Apps and services is where the battle will be fought too. PureView and the software behind it, Nokia Music, Nokia Drive and Microsoft Office against the stylus-enabled apps and features, the latest TouchWiz treats, and the Google services.
Both devices at HQ
What will decide this one though is perhaps between the lines of the spec sheets, and the fight will be one to watch, we promise you
Design and handling
Let's get something straight right from the start - we're dealing with two devices that are well above average in size. The Lumia 1520 and the Galaxy Note 3 are phablets that can't match the portability of the standard 5" flagships.At 162.8 x 85.4 x 8.7 mm the Nokia Lumia 1520 is notably larger than the 151.2 x 79.2 x 8.3 mm Galaxy Note 3. The 0.3" difference in screen size partially explain the larger footprint, but there's no escaping the fact that the Galaxy Note 3 also has much slimmer bezels, particularly above and below its screen. Giant slabs like these two are particularly sensitive to that kind of thing and you can really feel the difference.
The Nokia phablet is also a lot heavier at 209 g compared to the far easier to swallow 168 g of the Samsung device.
While both smartphones opt for a plastic bodies they're very different in terms of styling and layout. The Nokia Lumia 1520 continues its maker's lineup of polycarbonate unibody designs. The clean lines and high-quality materials make this one a real looker and an instantly recognizable member of its family, but we have to admit at this point the design is starting to get a bit played-out. Introduced as far back as the summer of 2011 with the Nokia N9, the polycarbonate goodness has now lost its wow factor even if it still remains one of the better designs out there.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on the other hand debuts a new soft-touch plastic back panel, which mimics leather with impressive ease. The faux stitches also contribute to the look and the overall result is quite pleasant and stands out. Had this been the first iteration for both designs, we'd probably have a hard time picking between them, but since the Galaxy Note 3 is the only one to bring a dash of novelty we are giving it the nod when it comes to looks.
Nokia Lumia 1520 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 side by side
Both hand over dominance at the front to the screens but while the Lumia 1520 features a seamless all-glass design with only capacitive buttons and a recessed speaker at the top, the Galaxy Note 3 has protruding home button and earpiece. And while the Lumia' screen feels like its sloping towards the edges the Note 3's ends with a sharp rendezvous with the faux metal rim.
If we were to assign a theme to each device we'd have to go with soft and rounded for the Nokia Lumia phablet and sharp and squarish for the Samsung one. However each device feels solid in the hand and overall solidly built.
The Nokia Lumia 1520, in its matte black finish, is more slippery than the Galaxy Note 3 and thanks to its bigger body isn't as comfortable to hold and operate with one hand. The Galaxy Note 3's textured backside adds a lot more grip and the smaller size and sharper edges help it fit better in the hand.
Handling both beast
So let's talk controls for a bit. At its front, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has the standard layout to which we've got accustomed to. Under the 5.7" screen there are three buttons - a physical home button an two capacitive side-buttons for menu and back. The tow side keys are backlit when used, but when their backlighting is not on, they blend in and seemingly disappear.
Above the screen there's the protruding earpiece, proximity and ambient light sensors and a 2 MP 1080p-video-capable front-facing camera.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 up front
The Lumia 1520 has the majority of its frontal surface dedicated to the 6" screen. Under it there's the standard Windows Phone capacitive button trio - center-placed home button, and a Back and Search keys on its sides. Under them lies the main in-call microphone of the Lumia 1520.
Above the display there is the earpiece, which also has the proximity sensor built-in, the ambient light sensor is located next to said earpiece and finally, there's a 1.2 MP 720p-video-capable front-facing camera. Given that the display on the Lumia 1520 has a resolution of around 2 MP it's unclear why Nokia went for a front-facing camera with such a low resolution.
Nokia Lumia 1520 up front
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has the power button on the right side and the volume rocker on the left - there is nothing else on either side of the device. The microSIM and microSD card slots, along with the removable battery are located under the unremovable back panel.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 side view
The nanoSIM and microSD card slots of the Lumia 1520 are located under lids on the left side of the device. You'd need the ejector tool Nokia provides in order to pop those lids open. The rest of the controls are located on the right side, as per Windows Phone usual. Those are, in order, the two-piece volume button, power button and two-step physical camera shutter button. The camera key is a rare find on modern day smartphones outside the Windows Phone realm.
A solid feature on the Nokia Lumia 1520 is that you can unlock the screen using a double tap, which saves you the need to reach for the power button. The help text warns that enabling that will eat into your battery life, though.
Nokia Lumia 1520 side view
Both smartphones have buttons with good feedback and we can't pass judgment as to which ones are better. However the power button and volume rocker on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 are tougher to reach as they are mounted too high up on the device, while those same keys on the Lumia 1520 come closer to the thumb, which in our minds makes the bigger Nokia Lumia 1520 easier to use, in regard to buttons.
The noise-reducing secondary microphone on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is placed on the top of the device next to the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Completing the tally, on top of the device lies the infrared blaster, which can be quite handy for controlling home appliances and TVs.
On the bottom lies the speaker under a small grille, the primary microphone, the S Pen holster and a microUSB 3.0 with a compatible microUSB 2.0 port built right into it.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 top and bottom
The Nokia Lumia 1520 does with only microUSB 2.0 and lacks the nifty IR blaster - there go two points from Nokia, but only if you care about those features.
The 3.5 mm headphone jack sits alone at the top of the gigantic Nokia, whereas the microUSB port is placed at the bottom.
Nokia Lumia 1520 top and bottom
Anyway the 13 MP camera lens has its own protruding pedestal at the center of the top and shares it with the single LED flash. There's also a Samsung logo in the center.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 view from the back
The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a much bigger camera lens protruding from the back and it's accompanied by a double LED flash. The second microphone is above the camera and flash and the loudspeaker grille is at the bottom. The back of the Lumia 1520 lacks the textured finish of the Galaxy Note 3 but still feels just as elegant at your fingertips.
Nokia Lumia 1520 view from the back
Overall both devices are hard to handle single-handedly and reaching the top part of either display would be nearly impossible for the average Joe. The Lumia 1520 is undoubtedly the bigger device out of the two. It's slightly wider and noticeably taller but thanks to an intuitive placement of the controls on the right side it is a little easier to unlock it, set the volume level and operate the camera.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Although the Nokia Lumia 1520 has a friendlier button layout, a real camera key, and tap-to-wake up, there's no going around the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is smaller, lighter and overall, easier to operate. Thanks to its textured plastic back panel it's also less slippery. However in terms of build quality we'd have to consider this round to be a tie.
Displays
Moving on to displays. Both devices have top-notch screens. First off, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is more generous in terms of size - 6" vs the 5.7" of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Resolution is the same - 1080 x 1920 but the pixel density is slightly higher on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - 386 ppi against the 367 ppi of the Lumia phablet. However at these densities you can rest assured that both devices offer sharp and crisp on-screen content without pixilation anywhere to be found.It's also worth noting that while Samsung offers a Super AMOLED unit on the Note 3, the Nokia Lumia 1520 comes with a ClearBlack IPS LCD - but more on the natural characteristics of these panels in a bit.
The displays are gorgeous
In terms of software adjustments, both manufacturers offer rich options for their devices.
The 1520 comes with the Lumia Color Profile option in the settings, which gives you two sliders to play with - one for color temperature (which spans the cool, neutral and warm range) and color saturation (natural to vivid).
Lumia Color Profile settings
Nokia Glance screen keeps the clock and notification counters visible even after you lock the screen. This could be set to appear only for a little while after you lock the screen, intermittently on and off and always on. There's a separate always on setting for when the device is charging. A Night mode allows you to pick a different color for the Glance screen info - Red, Green or Blue - if the default White setting is too bright for your sleepy eyes.
Nokia Glance Screen settings
Samsung has included different color modes for the Galaxy Note 3. Dynamic is the most saturated of them, while Professional photo provides real colors. While different modes don't give you as much freedom as the fine tuning sliders of the Nokia they still provide enough flexibility and are somewhat easier to use.
Then there's adapt display, which optimizes the color range and saturation when you're browsing content through the gallery, camera, browser, etc. The mode, however, won't apply setting when you're using third-party apps.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 display modesFinally, to save power the Galaxy Note 3 can automatically adjust screen tone depending on the on-screen content. Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 doesn't provide always-on glanceable information while locked, which would have been nice given that the AMOLED needs only illuminate a couple of pixels to display clock and unread message count, leaving the rest of the pixels off. Oh well.
The LCD on the Nokia Lumia 1520 has the standard pixel alignment of the RGB matrix - an equal amount of red, green and blue pixels lined together in a row. The screen on the Galaxy Note 3 uses the diamong PenTile matrix type, which is known to be the cause for visible pixelation - but that's not a problem on screens with such a high pixel density. The PenTile matrix uses OLED sub-pixels of different sizes as each color has different levels of power efficiency and longevity. Sub-pixel rendering is employed to properly distribute each of the primary colors.
Nokia Lumia 1520 • Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Looking at the numbers in our display test both devices look really good without being the best. Being an AMOLED, the screen on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has the deepest blacks and a practically infinite contrast ratio. It's the maximal brightness that's usually the weakest point of these displays.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 has pretty good (read deep) levels of black and almost double the brightness level at both 50% and 100%. As for contrast the Lumia 1520 is a good performer with solid numbers but falls short of leaders in this field, such as the LG G2, HTC One or Sony Xperia Z1. But both phablets beat the Sony Xperia Z Ultra in the contrast section.
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| Nokia Lumia 1520 | 0.22 | 263 | 1174 | 0.43 | 522 | 1207 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | 0 | 149 | ∞ | 0 | 379 | ∞ |
| Oppo N1 | 0.25 | 285 | 1118 | 0.47 | 553 | 1164 |
| HTC One Max | 0.14 | 224 | 1591 | 0.40 | 629 | 1572 |
| LG G Flex | 0 | 131 | ∞ | 0 | 411 | ∞ |
| Sony Xperia Z1 | - | - | - | 0.38 | 580 | 1513 |
| Nokia Lumia 1020 | 0 | 172 | ∞ | 0 | 398 | ∞ |
| LG G2 | 0.10 | 149 | 1522 | 0.45 | 667 | 1495 |
| Sony Xperia Z Ultra | - | - | - | 0.47 | 467 | 1001 |
| Sony Xperia Z | - | - | - | 0.70 | 492 | 705 |
| Huawei Ascend Mate | 0.23 | 222 | 982 | 0.67 | 711 | 1053 |
| Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 | 0.12 | 160 | 1364 | 0.32 | 440 | 1379 |
| Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4 | 0 | 201 | ∞ | 0 | 404 | ∞ |
| HTC One | 0.13 | 205 | 1580 | 0.42 | 647 | 1541 |
Next up is the sunlight legibility test. It provides readings on how well the screen performs in bright outdoor light by showing the contrast level. The AMOLED unit on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 proves unreflective thanks to it having one less glass layer, which compensates for the average brightness level.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 proved to be very reflective, which cost it dearly and put it way behind its competition.
- Samsung Galaxy Note 33.997
- Nokia Lumia 15201.813
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
Battery life
Battery performance would be an interesting fight between these two phablets. The Nokia lumia 1520 has 200 mAh more than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - a total of 3400 mAh vs 3200 mAh.Right off the bat the Nokia Lumia 1520 wanted to send a message. It managed a whopping 10 hours more in the call test compared to the Galaxy Note 3 for an insane 28 hours. Still the Galaxy Note 3 got a great 18 hour result in this test, which is a really good result on its own, too.
Talk time
- Nokia Lumia 152028:34
- Samsung Galaxy Note 318:12
Web browsing
- Nokia Lumia 1
- Sort by Label
- 52012:40
- Samsung Galaxy Note 39:04
Video playback
- Samsung Galaxy Note 313:32
- Nokia Lumia 152012:31
Winner: Nokia Lumia 1520. The Samsung Galaxy Note is a genuinely great performer in our battery life test but the Lumia phablet was simply out of this world.
General UIs
We're looking at two of the best smartphones, representing two well-respected platforms. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is among Android's flagships (even if it doesn't have Android 4.4 KitKat yet), while the Nokia Lumia 1520 is the first Windows Phone with a quad-core Snapdragon 800 and an extra large, FullHD screen.While the Lumia 1520 runs the only version of Windows Phone available - purely stock - the Galaxy Note 3 runs on a heavily skinned Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, dubbed TouchWiz. If you're unfamiliar with how both are navigated you can check out our video walkthroughs for each below.
The lockscreen on the Lumia 1520 is pretty straight forward. You can swipe up to unlock or hold the camera button to jump straight to the camera app. A push on the unlock button or a double tap on the screen reveals the lockscreen, which displays the current time and date and shows calendar events, emails and missed calls. Pushing the volume rocker in either direction will bring the sound switch and music controls on top of the screen.
There's a reasonable level of flexibility and functionality to the lockscreen - the Live Apps service allows apps to display notifications and images. You can set one app to display big notifications ("detailed status") and up to five more apps to show a less detailed quick status. There are already apps in the Store that display the battery percentage on the lockscreen via those kind of notifications.
Nokia Lumia 1520 lockscreen
Samsung's lockscreen gives the user an option of five app shortcuts that will take you straight to the corresponding app. The lockscreen has multiple panes, each containing one widget. The page to the right of the default one is special and can either be a list of favorite apps (the default TouchWiz setting) or a shortcut for the camera (as in pure Android).
Samsung lockscreen
Unlocking the Lumia 1520 reveals the Modern UI, which is basically Windows Phone's start menu. It's comprised of live tiles, which are pinned to the homescreen. Almost anything can be pinned to the homescreen - apps, contacts, web pages and more.
The Lumia 1520 premiers a third column of live tiles, which brings up to six the total of the tiles you can place on any line. Upon a tap and hold, you'll get an extra resize button, next to the unpin one. You can opt between quarter, normal and double size. The third row of tiles really augments the experience of using a bigger display by giving you more room to work with.
The Windows Phone start screen
The homescreen on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 doesn't feel as space efficient - you get the same room for apps and widgets as you would on a much smaller 5" Galaxy S4, which isn't ideal. The homescreen is comprised of two parts - the dock, which can support up to five icons, including the app drawer - and the rest is reserved for widgets and app shortcuts.
Widgets, like Windows Phone's tiles are actionable and give out glanceable information, but Samsung's preinstalled widgets are too large and could take up an entire homescreen, depending on the widget.
TouchWiz homescreen
We critiqued the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 for bringing an upsized Galaxy S4 UI to the much bigger display but Samsung did make up for that in other areas of the software.
First off, you can shrink down the UI by performing an edge swipe. You can still use the Galaxy Note 3 as you'd normally would and the whole navigation process becomes usable with just one hand.
Miniature UI
Another multi-tasking boost is Multi-window. It allows launching two instances of the same app - i.e. you can have two Chrome windows next to each other - or two different apps for that matter - side by side.
There's a pretty decent app support for the multi-window service at launch with even more supported apps on the way.
Multi window
Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 has an ample screen not just for immersive viewing of content. The provided S Pen gives a whole new dimension to the experience. Once you pull the S-Pen out, the OS will pop up the new Air Command menu. The new menu is available everywhere throughout the UI too, you just need to press the side button on the S-Pen.
The Air Command menu is a virtual ring with five shortcuts - Action Memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window.
Air Command
S Pen can be used with a myriad of provided apps. Action Memo pops up a memo on which you can white or doodle and it can be coupled with a variety of actions like calling a number you scribbled on, etc.
Scrap booker lets you highlight just about every part of the on-screen content and save it to your Scrapbook, Screen Write creates a screenshot of your screen and lets you write and draw on it, Pen Window allows you to open a set number of apps into a pre-selected area of the screen (using S Pen), which really improves multi-tasking. Then there's S Note, which is like a personalizable diary on your Galaxy Note 3.
Although different both mobile OSes are usable and give you diversity and variety of features and apps. Both are operated differently and targeted at different users. While Windows Phone wants to concentrate your interaction with apps and services to the Modern UI homescreen, Android is more about customizations, multi-tasking and productivity. The addition of the S Pen functionality and its related software Samsung has brought a whole new dimension of possibilities to the Note 3. You can draw and write and retain any on-screen content with a personalized touch.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The Samsung phablet deserves the win here as it offers much more in terms of multi-tasking (two app view mode) and productivity and fun (S Pen) than the Lumia 1520.
Telephony
A smartphone should be equally smart as it is a phone. So here goes a comparison of what it's like to use both devices as phones. First we take a look at their phonebooks.We consider the Windows Phone People Hub to be the best phone/social book to date. The first tab shows you a list of all your contacts (phone contacts, social network friends, email contacts - everything). We appreciate the extra convenient Search feature that only allows you to punch letters that match your contacts names.
The What's New tab lists all the social network activity of your contacts in a neat scrollable fashion. You can also view a contact's activity, including photos, on social networks straight from their contact entry.
Finally, there are Rooms and Groups. Groups organizes your contacts and lets you text or email everyone in the group. Rooms is like a private social network of sorts - they allow group chats, sharing a private calendar, notes, to-do lists, photos and videos.
The WP phonebook and the excellent search interfaceThe TouchWiz phonebook found on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 isn't as flashy and lists mainly contact information. If you link a Google contact with their Facebook page you'll get latest updates but not much more - there are no photos in their phonebook entry like on the Lumia.
A neat feature in the TouchWiz phonebook is swiping on a contact listing - a swipe to the right will call the contact while a swipe to the left initiates a message.
TouchWiz phonebook
The dialer on the Lumia 1520 is nothing special. It lacks smart dialing, which is a major no-no in our book. It basically gives you the option to enter a number and then either call it or save it as or to a contact.
Calling on the Lumia 1520
The TouchWiz dialer is much more advanced. For starters you get smart dialing, or if you already have a contact at the top just raise the phone to your ear and the phone will automatically initiate a call (this works in the messaging app as well).
Calling on the Galaxy Note 3
Sound quality was excellent on both handhelds with great noise suppression with each. Loudness was also great but we give the nod to the Nokia Lumia 1520 for voice clarity in both ways.
You can block calls and texts from preset numbers on the Lumia 1520 as well as the Galaxy Note 3. However the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 features an advanced Blocking Mode, which mutes notifications and calls from everyone except a group or contact you've chosen to exclude.
We performed our loudspeaker test on both devices and they came pretty much on par with each other with both scoring Good results. The Nokia Lumia 1520 was a little louder on the voice and pink noise tests and slightly inferior in the ringing phone test.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overal score | |
| Nokia Lumia 1520 | 73.7 | 67.7 | 74.7 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | 70.5 | 66.6 | 78.0 |
Winner: Nokia Lumia 1520. Even though it doesn't have Smart dialing or Dial-on-pick-up, we enjoyed the Lumia 1520 phonebook better. It's a close call though and we would have called it a tie had it not been for the clearer voice quality in both call directions.
Messaging
Messaging on the Nokia Lumia 1520 is pretty straightforward. The Messaging app is divided into threads - those are the threads of SMS conversations you've had - and online, which uses Facebook chat to connect with your contacts.
The Lumia 1520 messaging app
The Samsung messaging app also divides conversations into threads but lacks the online feature. ChatON is a Samsung app that comes preinstalled. Since a recent update it now supports SMS but the feature is heavily region-dependent and may not be operational where you live. A third option is Google's Hangouts app, which can also give you SMS and online chat support - you chat for free with online Hangouts users. Plus Android gives you the option to set just about any app to be the default messaging one, which is quite handy.
The Galaxy Note 3 messaging app
As for the keyboards - the Lumia 1520 has the standard Windows Phone keyboard at hand - and the only options you have are changing the language of the keyboard and resetting the dictionary that displays word suggestions.
Landscape Lumia keyboard
The Samsung keyboard on the Galaxy Note 3 is much niftier to use. It has a well-spaced design but also offers a numpad above the QWERTY keys, which really helps when typing letters and numbers. You can switch between letters and symbols with a swipe across the keyboard too.
Finally, you can enable trace typing - in this mode you slide your finger over the keys of the keyboard and it will recognize what word you're looking for.
Landscape Galaxy keyboard
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The set number of options and the sole messaging app on the Lumia 1520 are great but the Samsung phablet offers much more versatility than its rival.
Watching movies
With such big screens on tap you can bet the Lumia 1520 and Galaxy Note 3 are second to none when you're choosing which gadget to use for watching movies in your commute. After all, the screen you would most likely use is the one you have always with you - and that more often than not will be your smartphone.At 6" and 5.7" in screen diagonals these devices offer as much screen real estate as practical for a phone. So how's watching movies on either?
The video app on Windows Phone has a very simple interface - you have fast forward and rewind controls, a timeline and a video size button that toggles full-screen viewing. It supports XviD, DivX, MOV and MP4 videos up to 1080p resolution. The few things it won't play are MKV files and videos using the AC3 audio codec. There is no subtitle support at this point.
Watching a movie Lumia 1520
The TouchWiz video player is among our favorites. It lists the last watched video on top for quick access. Under it there are three tabs - personal (showing you the videos on your local storage), Download (which lets into the Videos store) and Nearby devices, which shows the PCs and players on your local Wi-Fi network. The grid view would actually play the videos in small thumbnails instead of showing static images.
There's a chapter preview which detects chapters in the video and shows a rectangular grid, with live thumbnails (just like the grid view above).
Hovering your finger or the S Pen over the timescroll lets you preview part of the video in a small thumbnail - just like YouTube videos do when you hover the mouse of your computer.
Watching a movie on the Galaxy Note 3
Samsung also has Pop up play as an option - it let's you pop out the video as an overlay to the OS and use other features while watching - such as texting with a friend or checking your location on Google Maps, you name it. You can use pinch zoom to adjust the size of the video and also you can move it around, too.
Pop up play
The Samsung Galaxy Note handles every video file type you can imagine all the way to 1080p with ease. It's really in a league of its own when it comes to video playback.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3. While both smartphones have great and big displays for enjoying video, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 elevates the whole experience to new levels. The great codec support and feature list of the Samsung phablet easily place it at the top.
Listening to music
The music player on the Lumia 1520 is embedded into Xbox. It's made up of albums, songs, playlists, genres and artist with a lack for dedicated folders.The music hub has a simple and straightforward interface. You won't have any difficulties using it. However there are some things missing, like an equalizer. Another missing feature is the ability to scrub through a song - you have to press and hold on the FF/rewind buttons to simply jump back and forth.
Nokia's Mix Radio offers free music streaming (it works out of the box) and has an extensive library of tracks. While it is mostly streaming oriented, you can make tracks available offline in Mix Radio (they remain on the device only temporarily though). The app also offers playback of local storage and features Dolby sound enhancement and equalizer settings.
Now playing on the Lumia 1520The TouchWiz music player on the Galaxy Note 3 is jam-packed with features. Then there's Music square - it's quite similar to the SensMe feature of Sony smartphones. It automatically rates a song as exciting or calm, passionate or joyful and plots those songs on a square (hence the name). Aside from the usual sorting options there's also Folder support, which is great if you have loads of folders with music on your device storage.
Samsung has enabled equalizer presets that simulate the environment that you're in. You can choose only the effect that you wish to be simulated (Tube amp effect, Virtual 7.1 channel, Concert Hall, etc.)
The Now playing screen gives you the usual options - a timescroll of the song, play/pause and back/forth controls, repeat and shuffle, volume control but it also adds lyrics support, AllShare shortcut and a direct sound settings shortcut.
Now playing on the Galaxy Note 3
Once again the TouchWiz app is much more feature rich than its competitor covering a wider base of must-have features - like equalizer and folder support.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
Audio output
The Nokia Lumia 1520 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 both have excellent audio outputs in both our test scenarios - first, when connected to an active external amplifier and second, when you plug in a pair of headphones.The Nokia phablet has the upper hand with an external amplifier as in this case it matched the Galaxy Note 3 for cleanness, but it was slightly louder.
Yet, when you plug in a pair of headphones, the Galaxy Note 3 does better to retain its spotless output, making it the better performer. The Lumia on the other hand takes a hit to its frequency response and distortion and stereo crosstalk levels increase. Albeit minor, these deviations are enough to make it second best here.
And here go the scores.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| Nokia Lumia 1520 | +0.02, -0.04 | -89.3 | 90.0 | 0.0097 | 0.016 | -89.4 |
| Nokia Lumia 1520 (headphones attached) | +0.50, -0.07 | -88.5 | 89.2 | 0.013 | 0.302 | -52.8 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | +0.02, -0.07 | -96.5 | 92.8 | 0.0035 | 0.0099 | -96.3 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (headphones attached) | +0.01, -0.09 | -96.2 | 92.7 | 0.017 | 0.017 | -62.1 |
Nokia Lumia 1520 frequency response
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 frequency response
You can learn more about the whole testing process
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The superior output with headphones attached helped the Samsung device to the win here, as this is the more frequent usage scenario.
Photo viewing
The Windows Phone Photos hub is the place for your camcorder shots, albums and - you guessed it - social images from your contacts. The main view of the Photos hub offers four options - camera roll, albums, date and people. A swipe to the left reveals what's new, which displays your Facebook friends and liked pages' new picture galleries. Another swipe shows your favorites section, where the photos you've faved are displayed.
Images on the Lumia 1520
The TouchWiz gallery is more of an app that stores all your photos instead of a hub. You get thumbnails for your albums and upon selecting one you have two viewing modes. By default you get a list of thumbnails for the album you're currently in with all your other albums on the left - you can swipe the latter away, leaving you seeing only the album thumbs.
Images on the Galaxy Note 3
Viewing an image on the Nokia Lumia 1520 shows the image itself and a little settings menu in the top right corner - that's it.
Viewing an image
Viewing an image on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 shows you a strip of thumbnails representing the other images in the album you're in and a couple of buttons overhead for sharing, AllShare for streaming your content to another screen, editing and finally to delete the photo.
Viewing an image
Both image galleries are good for what you're most likely ask of them - showing you your photos. However Samsung has stacked more features at hand without the need for you to go looking for them in folders. Both galleries will fetch you albums from online services such as Facebook, SkyDrive and Picasa, if you need them to.
Camera breakdown
The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a brand new version of Nokia's PureView camera line. It uses a 1/2.5" sensor with 20MP resolution (19 MP of which effective). To put that in context, the sensor has 15% smaller surface area than the 20MP 1/2.3" sensor in the Xperia Z1 but it's bigger than the 1/3.06" sensor of the Galaxy Note 3 by 50%.The f/2.4 aperture of the Lumia 1520 is also smaller than the f/2.2 of the Note 3, giving a little edge to the Note 3 in terms of the quantity of light it lets through.
Finally, the Nokia Lumia 1520 has optical image stabilization on tap, which aids greatly in low light, as it can shoot handheld at lower shutter speeds than other phones. Lower shutter speeds also translate into more light reaching the sensor, hence better exposed low light photos.
Thanks to its immense resolution, the Nokia Lumia 1520 can also zoom in 2x times from either 19 MP or 16 MP resolution without losing any detail. Things could get pretty shake at zoom levels, though, so you might want to hold the device steady despite the OIS on board.
Nokia has created a proprietary camera app for its flagship Lumias dubbed Nokia Pro Camera. From left to right the available options here are flash, white balance, focus, ISO, shutter speed and exposure compensation.
Nokia Camera app user interface
The Pro Camera lens has another cool trick up its sleeve. It snaps two photos at once - one in full resolution (16MP or 19MP depending on the chosen aspect ratio) and another one in 5MP, which benefits from the pixel oversampling technology, while at the same time being far easier to share.
Oversampling 19 MP (or 16 MP) shots into a 5 MP-sized image holds the benefit of reduced noise.
Another advantage to Pro Camera is that it allows the Lumia 1520 to shoot in RAW. It's DNG - a digital negative - format developed by Adobe, which is widely supported by various photo editing applications. While casual consumers will probably stick to JPEG, photo enthusiasts can work wonders with a RAW file - since there's no software processing or JPEG compression applied, editing RAW files gives you more headroom for editing than a JPEG image.
Keep in mind that those files are around 20MB big. A full-resolution JPEG is around 4MB, while the 5MP JPEGs are a mere 1MB. RAW files cannot be viewed by most apps either (e.g. web browsers) without processing, which is another thing to keep in mind if you want to share photos.
Finally, Nokia and third-party app makers can develop different lenses for the Lumia 1520 - each doing something different. The Cinnemagraph lens creates animated images (read GIFs), there's a Panorama lens and many more, all designed to teach the camera app a new skill.
The TouchWiz user interface is based on the Galaxy Camera interface. A single viewfinder handles both still and video capture, so you don't have to switch modes. However, this is certainly not the most convenient solution wince when you're shooting full resolution 13MP photos, you'll have to frame your videos using a 4:3 viewfinder.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 camera app
The Galaxy Note 3 comes with a variety of shooting modes too. There's Surround Shot, which brings Google's Photo Spheres to life, as well as Best Photo and Best Face snap multiple images and then shows you the best possible result. There are lots more fun effects like animated images with or without sound.
Different shooting modes
Let's look at the field of view on both devices. In 4:3 aspect the Nokia 1520 shoots 19MP photos, while in 16:9 aspect it snaps 16 MP stills, both of which have a wider field of view than what the Galaxy Note 3's maximum 13 MP can offer. you can check out the difference bellow.
Both the Nokia Lumia 1520 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 offers a wide variety of available options to work with when shooting images. Both can record panoramas, GIFs, dramatic shots with more than one instance of the same object, etc. And while Samsung's camera app is stocked with all these features, Microsoft and Nokia have allowed developers to freely make new lenses for the camera apps.Still quality: Daylight
Outside the dry specs, what's most important about camera comparisons is the quality of the stills. In order for us to be fair we tested both devices in their maximum resolutions - 19 MP and 13 MP respectively - and then compared the oversampled 5 MP image of the Lumia 1520 with 5MP images that we've manually downscaled from the 13 MP Galaxy Note photos.Crops: 19MP (Lumia 1520) vs. 13MP (Note 3)
First off, let's check out the quality from the maximum resolutions that the phones are able to produce.
What's amazing here is that the 13MP photos by the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 don't seem to have any lower detail than the 19MP stills. This is probably due to the fact that the Lumia 1520 has a wider field of view - it has more information to capture with its 19MP sensor than the Note 3.
The Lumia 1520 has a softer but less processed images than the generously sharpened images of the Note 3. The Note 3 photos also have slightly higher noise levels but they also have more saturated colors and a punchier, more contrasty look.
Crops: Oversampled 5MP (Lumia 1520) vs. downscaled 5MP (Note 3)When we look at the lower resolution samples, the detail resolved by the manually downsized photos by the Galaxy Note 3 seems to be higher. However it still bears that oversharpened look whereas the Lumia 1520's image looks natural and more pleasing. Again, colors by the Lumia 1520 appear closer to real life. However some prefer their cameras to be punchier with the colors so we'd leave that choice of preference up to you.
Overall, we'd say the images on the Galaxy Note 3 have slightly more detail with punchier colors and a tad better contrast - the Lumia 1520's photos are also great when it comes down to detail, they sport a more realistic look in terms of colors and the camera is pleasantly laid back on additional processing such as sharpening.Crops: 2x zoomed-in 5 MP (Lumia 1520) vs. 13 MP (Galaxy Note 3)
When we factor in the Lumia 1520's 2x lossless zoom into the equation things get interesting. It's telling how much different is the field of view of both cameras since it's only at 2x zoom that the Lumia 1520 matches the Galaxy Note 3.
As for the image quality, things look much like they did when we downscaled the 13MP Galaxy Note 3 image to 5MP. The detail resolved by both cameras is pretty much equal even despite the oversharpening applied by the Galaxy Note 3. The Lumia 1520 offers a more natural and pleasing image.
Contrast is slightly higher on the Galaxy Note 3. Colors look more realistic on the Lumia 1520 whereas the Note 3 makes them punchier every time.Full resolution samples
You can check out the full resolution samples below. For the Nokia Lumia 1520 we've lined up the oversampled 5 MP images alongside the 19 MP full-res ones.
Nokia Lumia 1520 5 MP camera samples
Nokia Lumia 1520 19 MP camera samples
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 13MP camera samples
You can check out our photo comparison tool for even more comparisons between the two below.
Nokia Lumia 1520 vs Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Winner: Tie. The Lumia 1520 has a more laid-back processing and a more natural look to its images. In good light however, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 produces equally good photos - those are even punchier despite having slightly more noise. At times we noticed its camera resolve slightly more detail, but that's due to its narrower field of view, which makes objects slightly larger than on the Lumia 1520. When you compensate the difference by physically moving the Lumia closer to the scene, the resulting photos have just about the same resolved detail. That speaks well of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 13MP camera, which has a resolution handicap to begin with. The Lumia 1520 however held its own quite well.
Still quality: Low-light
Moving on to low-light photography. For starters, the Nokia Lumia 1520 has the upper hand, thanks to its dual-LED flash - the Galaxy Note 3 only has a single LED. It's important to note as well that the Nokia Lumia 1520, by default, flashes its LEDs prior to taking an image if the light isn't as favorable in order to get good focus. The Galaxy Note 3 doesn't make use of its LED flash for that purpose.Crops: 19MP (Lumia 1520) vs. 13MP (Note 3)
We started our low-light test with a studio shootout. We took three consecutive test samples with each smartphone: (1) Low-light, no flash; (2) Low-light, with flash; (3) A pitch black scene where each camera would have to focus and snap without seeing much.
In the flashless low-light test both devices focused equally fast but the end result favors the Nokia Lumia 1520. Its images were considerably sharper with much more detail and much less motion blur. The Galaxy Note 3 is quick to mask noise and it smeared a lot of detail along the way, resulting in a watercolor-like effect. Both devices chose ISO 320 for this scene with relatively close shutter speeds. The color reproduction on the Lumia 1520 was a little colder in this mode.
Next up was shooting the scene with a flash. The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a better flash than its competitor - in this image the Nokia Lumia has captured the true color tone of the subject and the detail level has gone up considerably. Even detail beyond the subject of the image is better than on the Galaxy Note, which managed to squeeze a little more detail but still wound up a distant second. That's even with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 choosing a lower ISO sensitivity (100 vs 200). Shutter speeds were again similar.
And finally, the pitch black test, where both devices would need to illuminate and focus on the scene without so much as a glimmer of light beforehand. We guess the Lumia 1520's focus light helped it a lot in this scene as the Note 3 images consistently missed focusing on the subject. In this scene the Galaxy Note 3 kept things at ISO 200, while the Nokia Lumia 1520 upped it all the way to 640 ISO. Shutter speeds were similar again.
Crops: Oversampled 5MP (Lumia 1520) vs. downscaled 5MP (Note 3)
Crops: Normal 19 MP (Lumia 1520) vs. Normal and Smart Stabilization 13 MP (Note 3)It came time to step out of the studio and check how the phones perform in real life low-light scenario. This time around we also put to use Samsung's revamped Night mode - the so-called Smart Stabilization.
The Smart Stabilization mode is called Smart because once you toggle it to on, it activates on its own only when needed. It's also called Stabilization because it snaps several photos and stacks those to create sharp, well-exposed night-time shots with a surprisingly low level of noise.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 was initially behind the Lumia 1520, but once we turned Smart Stabilization on, it managed not only to come up with more detail, but also with lower noise. The Lumia found it hard to keep up, but held its own with a more balanced night-time exposure that left the highlights much better exposed at the expense of only slightly darker shadows.
Full resolution samplesHere go the full resolution 5 MP + 19 MP samples from the Nokia Lumia 1520 if you want to go pixel peeping yourself.
Nokia Lumia 1520 5MP low-light studio samples
Nokia Lumia 1520 19 MP low-light studio samples
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 low-light studio samples
Nokia Lumia 1520 19 MP low-light outdoor samples
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 outdoor Normal samples
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 outdoor Smart Stabilization samples
Winner: Nokia Lumia 1520. In low light the Note 3 performed worse than he Lumia 1520 in the studio part of our test. The Lumia 1520 had a better flash performance (with pre-focusing in the dark) and sharper images with lower noise across the board so it's the better choice for indoor shots. Outdoor the Note 3 put up a much better fight, especially when we used its Smart Stabilization mode, which delivered surprisingly high detail and low noise. Still, the Lumia 1520 held its own and thanks to its optical image stabilization you should be able to come home with usable handheld shots more frequently. It also managed to preserve better the detail in the
brightly lit signs by choosing a more balanced nigh-time exposure.
Camcorders
Let's run the numbers and specs first. The Nokia Lumia 1520 can do 1080p video capture at either 30, 25 or 24 frames per second. The Snapdragon 800-powered Samsung Galaxy Note 3 supports a myriad of shooting modes - starting from top to bottom there's the premiering 3840 x 2160 px video capture (a.k.a. 4K, UHD or 2160p) at 30 fps, 1080p video capture at 30 fps and super-smooth and fast 60 fps. Finally, there are slow motion 720p videos at 120 fps.In contrast, the Nokia Lumia 1520 has the advantage of OIS which should keep things much steadier and smoother while shooting video, compared to the Galaxy Note 3.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a total of four mics (two at the front, two on the back) with the company's proprietary Rich Audio Recording for distortion-free sound recording in loud environments. These can be used for another intriguing feature as well - it's dubbed Directional stereo. When you enable it, the sound in front of the camera is recorded clearer than the rest, potentially dealing with unwanted noises in your video and enhancing a subject's voice.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has dual microphones for stereo audio capture during videos.
As for the field of view, again, an image is worth a thousand words - check it out below. As you can see, like the Lumia 1020, the 1520 has a very wide field of view, and on the other side the Galaxy Note 3 not so much.
Both devices offer lossless zooming during video recording to some extent. The Lumia 1520 can go a full 3x, while the Galaxy Note 3 only reaches 2x without losing detail (though digital zoom will go a far as 4x magnification).Before we start you off here's a comparison of just how important it is to have optical image stabilization for video recording. We've lined up footage from both devices side by side so you can see how well the Lumia 1520 handles shakes with OIS and the Galaxy Note 3 without.
While neither device looks all that great while shaking uncontrollably, the Lumia 1520 footage is obviously much smoother.
The 1080p videos by the Nokia Lumia 1520 have a bitrate of around 19 Mbps with a steady 29 fps rate. Audio comes in at two channels (read stereo) with an impressively high 263Kbps framerate and 48 kHz sampling rate.The 1080p videos of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 have a steady 16-17 Mbps bitrate, 30fps framerate and stereo audio capture at 121 Kbps with a sampling rate of 48 kHz - lower than those of the Nokia Lumia 1520. As for 2160p videos - they carry a high bitrate of around 47 Mbps with stereo audio capture, 48 kHz sampling rate and 122 Kbps audio bitrate. Again - the audio on the Lumia 1520 is far superior in quality.
Let's look at the quality of the videos at 1:1 magnification. First off, the Galaxy Note 3 delivers much more detail in the 1080p mode than the Nokia Lumia 1520 - the image is sharper, colors look more pleasing and natural and there seems to be much less noise. Considering that the 2160p crop has twice the pixels of the 1080p one there's really no need to get that far. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 absolutely crushes the Nokia phablet in this test.
Here's a 1:1 crop, showing the quality of videos when using the lossless zoom. Even when its field of view is equal or less than the Galaxy Note 3, the Lumia 1520 just cannot resolve as much detail.
And finally you can check out our dedicated video comparison tool, where you can pit both devices against a full array of foes.
Nokia Lumia 1520 vs the Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Great audio aside, the Nokia Lumia 1520 fails to impress as much as a camcorder, while the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 dominates the entire smartphone world with great video quality. It is still the only smartphone to offer smooth 4K videos without breaking a sweat. But it doesn't end there, as it also offers stellar fast and slow motion video capture
Web browsing
Once again we're at a place, which mainly benefits from screen size and resolution. Browsing on the go has never been sweeter than with the 6" Lumia 1520 and 5.7" Galaxy Note 3. Both have high, 1080p resolution screens, ensuring that text and content will remain sharp even at low zoom levels. However there are subtle differences in execution on both.
The Nokia Lumia 1520 relies on the Internet Explorer for mobile to browse the web on. When you open IE, the status bar automatically hides but the URL bar stays permanently on top. It doubles as a search field that will prompt Bing with each enquiry.
Browsing through Internet Explorer mobile
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a built-in browsing app courtesy of Samsung and Chrome by Google. The default app also has a persistent URL bar and also hides the status bar. However Chrome does nice to remove any trace of itself as soon as you begin zooming and swiping on the page, leaving more screen estate for the content.
Browsing GSMArena.com on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Now let's take a peek at performance with the JapaScript-based SunSpider and HTML 5-based BrowserMark 2 benchmarks. The Internet Explorer on the Nokia Lumia 1520 took the JavaScript test with a better score than the Note 3 but failed to ace the HTML 5 test. Suffice to say the difference is mainly in benchmarks and browsing the web normally will likely be the same on both
What could be viewed as a deciding factor is the screen size. The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a bigger display but that's offset by the always visible Internet Explorer URL bar, which isn't a problem for the Galaxy Note 3 with Chrome.
Winner: Tie.
When it comes to gaming, the provided hardware is the most important thing. But in this case, the ecosystem plays an almost equal role because many games you could enjoy on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 are not yet available on the Windows Phone-clad Nokia Lumia 1520.
All the major players are there - Asphalt 8 is available on both, Angry Birds, The Amazing Spider-Man, etc. But many like Plants vs Zombie 2 and Fieldrunners 1 and 2, etc. cannot be found on Windows Phone just yet.
So we'd have to give a big edge in this particular fight to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. Now as far as hardware goes both devices are almost on par. They share the same chipset (non-relevant: with different clock speeds) that has the same graphics unit - the Adreno 330.
What makes a difference is the screen size and overall body size. Although the Lumia 1520 is bigger than the Galaxy Note 3 we wouldn't say it's less comfortable to play on in landscape. However moving onto portrait-styled games and the Galaxy Note 3 is a better fit, mainly because of its grippy body and lower weight.
Still, we come back to the ecosystem - here it's the deciding factor. The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a very decent game support as of now and we're sure it will only get much better with time. But Android gives the definite edge to the Galaxy Note 3 - only iOS could boast with better games support against Android on handheld devices.Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
Navigating the world on the fly
The Lumia 1520 comes with HERE Drive+ offers free, life-time voice-guided navigation anywhere in the world. All you have to do is download a voice in your language of choice and you're good to go. Of course, to make use of the key selling point of Drive - offline navigation - you have to download a map for a country of your choice, too.
HERE Drive+ does voice-guided navigation
With Drive+ you can easily plan routes offline and you can tweak various settings for each route - fastest/shortest/economical route can be selected and you can choose whether the app will use or avoid motorways, toll roads, ferries, tunnels, unpaved roads and motor trains. There are icons to remind you of the selected settings.
Drive+ uses big, clear instructions on its screen in addition to the voice prompts, which is ideal for in-car use. You can switch between 2D and 3D mode and switch the color scheme (day, night, auto). There are speed alerts and real-time traffic information.
Tweaking the route-planning algorithm • day and night color schemes
We do miss a few options - like setting a starting location other than your current location and downloading maps for an entire continent.
Nokia Maps takes on other duties - instead of navigation, it's more of a replacement for paper maps that you take with you as you explore a city. It will help you discover new places, read a quick description, see photos, read reviews and check what renowned guides like Lonely Planet, Insight Guides and Qype have to say about it.
Nokia Maps has a ton of info
The Maps app also offers walking, driving and public transport navigation but it only shows a list of instructions. It shares data with Drive so you don't have to download the same maps twice.
Maps can be used for basic navigation too
With the latest release, the former Local Scout and City Lens features have been integrated into the Places section of HERE Maps, and gives you a quick view of restaurants, shops, galleries and other POIs around you, including an augmented reality view via the camera called LiveSight. Tapping the virtual signs in the camera interface pops up more info about the place, as well as directions.
The places interface lets you view POIs on the map as well as through the camera
The Galaxy Note 3 comes with Google Maps and Navigation. Voice-guided navigation has become a viable solution since the v5.0 update. Vector maps are smaller and easier on the data traffic and rerouting is an option if you go off course without the need to connect to the Internet. In fact, the only time you need a data connection is when you initially plan the course - Navigation will cache the needed maps. However compared to Here's much more advanced system for caching and pre-loading maps, Google Maps is a letdown.
On the positive side, Google Maps supports the Street View mode. If it's available in the area you're interested in, you can enjoy a 360-degree view of the surroundings. When the digital compass is turned on it feels like making a virtual tour of the location. There's also very good POI support and search on Google Maps but it doesn't make up for the lack of true offline support.
Google Maps includes Street View as wellIf Google Maps Navigation doesn't do it for you, you can grab an alternative app from the Android Market - there are both free and paid ones - but there's no going around the fact that Nokia has the better location services out of the box.
Final words
We've done our fair share of head-to-head articles this year, but there's no better way of completing it than by seeing the two most powerful phablet beasts stand against each other. It's the Sherlock Holmes against Professor Moriarty of the mobile world and we feel lucky to be able to witness the battle from the front row.The Nokia Lumia 1520 to the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 really gave their all here as we compared the phones, the productivity tools, the cameras, the movie screens, the lot. After all it wasn't just about comparing two devices here - it was just as much about the clash between the Windows Phone and Android platforms.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 entered the contest with two distinct advantages. First thing is Android is far more mature at this point and simply came better prepared for the fight - it had all the apps, it had the better browser, better messaging, better video and music playing software, and it was willing to do anything to win, including letting you chose which app will be your default one. The Google platform is all about versatility and in a way that makes it the perfect fit for the kind of versatile devices that are phablets.
The other thing that helped the Galaxy Note 3 is that Android allows for the UI and functionality to be modified as any manufacturer sees fit. That gave Samsung the opportunity to bring lots of extra value with stuff like Multi-Window multitasking and S-Pen.
With WP not permitting custom skins the Lumia 1520 can be only as strong, as Windows Phone's biggest weakness. Still, Nokia did all in its power to add character, securing a stellar camera aboard the Lumia 1520 to go with a premium suit of apps, including Here and Drive.
All that said, we were thoroughly impressed by how much the Windows Phone ecosystem has matured in recent times, and even if it still has plenty of work to do to catch up with Android, it's got very few major gaps remaining.
Adding the more balanced software package of the Galaxy Note 3 to the very closely matched hardware on the two devices, makes the Samsung phablet the better all-rounder. In many markets the stylus-touting phablet is also notably cheaper with the difference in Europe standing at no less than €150. So by all accounts the Koreans will be retaining the title in the category they created for yet another year.But that doesn't really tell the whole story. For one, there are regions like the US, where Nokia managed to secure a much better position for its Lumia 1520 by trading availability for better pricing. So while the Finnish phablet is only available on AT&T there, it's a good deal cheaper on contract and a pretty smart purchase.
Then there's the fact that the TouchWiz interface has been around for quite a while and, for all its functionality, there are bound to be people getting tired of it and looking for a fresh alternative. Those can go for the Nokia Lumia 1520 safe in the knowledge that it's a proper phablet that will not only offer a stellar user experience, but also provide bragging rights now and then.
In a way, this is Nokia's great victory here - after years of waiting, we finally have a no-compromise top-end Lumia to cheer about. Those who wanted nothing but a Nokia smartphone that stood its ground against the mightiest smartphones in the world finally got it.
Anyway, back to the question at hand - which of these two should you buy. Counting the number of rounds taken by each device is the easy way to go about it, but it's not the one that yields the best results. Instead focus on those that really matter for your individual usage pattern and only count those. Better yet - read the whole chapters and see what made us pick one device over the other - perhaps not all of it applies to you, and you would call the score differently. Only then you'll be certain that you've truly picked the phablet that is right for you
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