First encounter with the brand new Nokia teams

Some days ago Nokia presented its first tablet with Windows 8.1 RT, Lumia 2520, and Lumia 1520, the first smartphone with Full HD screen of 6 inches of the Windows platform Phone 8. Both teams use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 4 cores and 2 GB of RAM, I tested briefly both devices, in versions that were prototypes.

The screen of the tablet of the Nokia I thought was excellent and very bright (the most luminous of the market, according to the company). The team, which follows the aesthetic of the other Lumia, with its plastic body (recycling, in this case) and soft edges, is very comfortable to hold, beyond the screen size (10.1 inches) and format (16:9) do not facilitate use upright (in portrait mode, as it is usually said). Simultaneously, the cell is typically a device that is used while the tablet vertically tends to have a horizontal use (landscape), so this should not be a problem.

It is light, slim, nice and light, with applications in Windows 8.1 RT load fast, and even the way to the desk do not mind waiting, in this influences undoubtedly quad-core chip at 2.2 GHz , the same who plays the LG G2 and Sony Xperia Z1, among other equipment. With a touch screen Windows 8 is another thing, and it works well, the use of Office (which runs within the Desktop) will require the use of a mouse or touchpad to make the most; Microsoft should rush to release an update to do work on the new interface (something that no doubt is working).

Storyteller, the application that combines as an interactive timeline the pictures we took and displays them on a map is friendly, even though of limited utility (the same as similar tools for its competitors). The camera is 6.7 megapixels of resolution and the tools of photography of the Lumia line, so that should give good results (an exhibition hall is not a good place for test it).

The complete team HDMI output, 32 GB of internal storage (expandable) and the connector cover, sold separately, and that adds more battery (take 11 to 16 hours of battery life), two USB ports in the back and a keyboard with touchpad. In the brief time I tried it I found the keyboard comfortable, but does not compete with a notebook, or with some rigid caps that exist for other tablets. But to get by and a little more does not seem bad.

The Nokia Lumia 1520

When it comes to Lumia 1520, first that hits is its size with 6 inch screen is simply huge, but not much more than other teams of equal size. It’s thin, but a little heavy (about 200 grams), responsibility, perhaps, 20 megapixel camera with optical stabilization, which includes the same features as the Lumia 1020 that let you take high resolution images, refocus and cut more later (though more limited by having half resolution). Help in this, that Nokia has unified applications to achieve in one (an update that is now available for Lumia 1020). It has four microphones to record audio surround, which works great demos. And adds support for RAW photos, which also hit the 1020 (which will please many photographers).

The Windows Phone 8 never had problems running with a dual-core chip, so the transition to the new quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 is not too noticeable, something similar happens with the majority of Android, as I said in my review of the Motorola Moto X, for example. If you notice where the change is in the processing of the images, which takes advantage of the computing power that brings the new team to do everything faster, and it should also have a greater impact on games of advanced graphics.

The larger screen, higher resolution and updating of Windows Phone 8 GDR3 allow adding additional column to the existing tiles, so that the density of shortcuts to applications you can have on the screen increases considerably. Nokia combined their own applications to call Black to that update, and offer it to all your computers with Windows Phone 8 early next year.

The rest remains the same, although Windows Phone 8 – in the version i tried did not appear to be completely adapted to the new resolution: the keyboard, for example, was bigger, something nice, but the letters on the keys were blurred; it is likely that it will settle on the final version of this update.

In addition I played around a bit with the 1320, the cousin of the modest 1520 (same screen size but lower resolution, dual-core chip, 5 megapixel cameras). The difference is in the screen, not so much in the resolution as the viewing angle, but still performs very well, and the orange version I found very attractive.