Nokia Lumia 1320 review

The enormous, 6in Nokia Lumia 1320 is the Nokia Lumia 1520’s budget counterpart, using a lower resolution panel, lower-end core hardware and a less impressive camera to cut the price down to £230.

The big, beautiful Nokia Lumia 1520 bowled us over last year, thanks to a fantastic 6in screen, zippy performance and superb camera, so when the Nokia Lumia 1320 arrived for review, we were intrigued. It’s just as large and visually arresting as its pricier cousin, but hacks the price down to just £230 SIM-free. Read on for our in-depth Nokia Lumia 1320 review.

Nokia Lumia 1320 review: design

It’s a little shorter than its stablemate, at 164mm tall, but still a forebodingly large device, measuring 86mm thick and weighing 226g (17g more than the already weighty 1520). As you can imagine, walking around with the 1320 in your pocket can be uncomfortable, especially if you’re partial to tight jeans. Thankfully, the 1320 balances out that bulk with an attractive design: it comes in a variety of colours and its matte-plastic finish and smoothly rounded profile are both easy on the eye and the fingers.

The scratch-proof Gorilla Glass 3 topping its 6in screen adds to the 1320’s understated, luxurious aesthetics, and, apart from a little flex in the removable back panel, it’s durably designed: the volume, camera and power buttons on the right-hand side of the chassis are gratifyingly clicky and responsive. Once removed, the back panel reveals a non-removable 3,400mAh battery, a micro-SIM slot and a microSD card reader at the top-left of the phone. We were pleased with the inclusion of the microSD slot, although it proved hard to find at first, hidden directly beneath the SIM card slot.

Nokia Lumia 1320 review: screen

Flip the 1320 over and you’ll be struck by how dazzlingly bright the 6in IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen is. When tested with our X-Rite colorimeter, the backlight topped out at an impressive 459cd/m². We promptly took the 1320 for a spin on a bright day and had no problem making out text and images, provided the backlight was set to High.

Not only is the screen bright, but images also have plenty of get up and go thanks to a fantastic contrast ratio of 1,043:1. There’s a clear distinction between lower-end greys and high-end whites, and the panel is able to produce vibrant, saturated colour: images and games look gorgeous on this phone.