Nokia Lumia 1520 review

Battery life

The Nokia Lumia 1520 has a massive 3,400mAh battery. Of course, with a screen this big and this sharp, it needs it. The similarly sized Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has a similarly sized 3,220mAh battery.

Don't expect the Nokia Lumia 1520 to last you much more than any other high-end smartphone, though. We could comfortably get through a day of moderate usage, but we couldn't stretch to two without charging up.

And boy does it take a while to charge up. We checked in after an hour of topping it up, and it had only gained about 15% in that time.

Also alarming was the fact that the phone chewed 17% of its battery capacity when left on flight mode overnight.

Still, when it comes to practical usage, it's pretty capable. In our standard battery test, which involved running a 90 minute 720p video with all notifications on and the screen at its brightest, we were left with a little under 84% from a full charge. That's pretty strong.

Overall, Nokia has ensured that its power-munching giant has an ample reservoir of power to draw from, so you probably won't have to alter your usage or charging pattern from whatever smartphone you're switching from.

Connectivity

You won't find yourself lacking for connectivity options with the Nokia Lumia 1520. It's got Wi-Fi, of course, as well as 4G network support for those on an appropriate contract.

We found our connections to both mobile network and Wi-Fi hub to be universally reliable and strong.

Elsewhere you have a standard microUSB slot for the dual purpose of charging and hooking up to your computer - which is a simple drag and drop process whether on Windows or OS X.

Bluetooth 4.0 is supported, and you also get NFC. Nokia is one of the few manufacturers to do more than pay lip service to the standard with a whole host of peripherals and accessories (speaker docks, wireless headphones etc.) that hook up to the Lumia 1520 with a simple tap.