Expert Reviews | Chris Finnamore

Nothing particularly ground-breaking, but the Nokia Lumia 1520 is very good Windows Phone phablet

Phone Scoop | Eric M. Zeman

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is an excellent device, despite its mammoth proportions.... The display, signal performance, and battery life are all excellent, as is the design and build quality of the 1520. It was surprisingly weak in the call quality department, though. It's nice to have extras such as NFC and wireless charging, but access to the battery would have been nice.

International Business Times | Alastair Stevenson

When ordering parts for this phone, Nokia ticked the 'best' and 'biggest' boxes for everything, and while that works on paper, it doesn't translate into the real world. The Lumia 1520 is beautiful but ultimately flawed; an item to lust after, not to live with.

The Inquirer | Carly Page

Still, this is undoubtedly, is Nokia's best Lumia phone to date, and that's in part thanks to Microsoft, with the Windows Phone 8 GDR 3 update and its support for HD 1080p screens and quad-core processors finally making Windows Phone devices competitive compared to iOS and Android.

Pocket-lint | Luke Edwards

... the Lumia 1520 is a fantastic smartphone that sits proudly in among its phablet peers.

The Mobile Indian | Samir Makwana

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is fantastic large screen device to thoroughly enjoy the Windows Phone 8 platform and get busy with imaging.

TechnoBuffalo | Todd Haselton

The hardware is excellent. It's my favorite Windows Phone to date, hands down. When I envision Microsoft's future for Windows, which hopefully involves an entire ecosystem of tablets, PCs and phones that run a more similar version of Windows, the Lumia 1520 seems like the best start yet.

pocketnow | Michael Fisher

Nokia's top-of-the-line Windows Phone is a beast on the spec sheet. The Lumia 1520 is a monster – but it's a friendly, lovable one. It doesn't do all it can to leverage its massive screen, and many folks are bound to find it just too big for their pockets.

Australian PC World | Ross Catanzariti

There's currently a growing demand for smartphones with very large screens and Nokia has responded with one of the biggest on the market ... described as its "first ever large screen Lumia smartphone" the Lumia 1520

TechSpot | Tim Schiesser

The Lumia 1520 is definitely the best Windows Phone I've used so far. It can be a hard sell up against a seasoned contender like the Note 3, but there's no doubting that Nokia keeps improving delivering yet another high-end quality handset.

SlashGear | Chris Davies

For the moment, there's no other Windows Phone that offers the same power and display resolution as the Lumia 1520.

Digital Versus | Florence Legrand

With its well-designed body, superb 6" display, exemplary responsiveness and long battery life, Nokia's first phablet is no less than one of the best Windows Phones to date, a good buy if ever there was one. But when it comes to the symbiosis between a big screen and the features developed for it, the Galaxy Note 3 pushes the concept further.

ITProPortal | Sandra Vogel

Bigger isn't necessarily better, and the Nokia Lumia 1520 proves this to some extent, although there are certainly many positive aspects here. This phablet has an excellent display, slick performance, and offers Microsoft Office integration on a potentially more portable option than a small tablet.

What Hi-Fi?

While there's no denying the Lumia 1520 has its flaws, if you've ever been curious about Windows Phone this could well be the handset that finally pushes you to make the jump. There really is a lot to love about it. It's just a shame that app availability still remains a disappointment.

Digital Spy | Hunter Skipworth

The 1520 gives us so much to love, but leaves us wanting something more.

PC Advisor | Chris Martin

The Nokia Lumia 1520 has got so many things right including build quality, a great camera and a good looking screen. It's the best Windows Phone yet but software is still lacking and we just wish the darn thing was smaller because it's severely off putting.

Wired UK | Katie Collins

The Lumia really is a highly competent and thoughtfully designed phablet device. If photography skills are more important to you than sheer size and raw power, the Lumia 1020 is still the phone for you, but if you want the best all-round Windows Phone device with its quad-core processor and Full HD screen, the 1520 is the phone to go for.

MSN Tech | Dan Sung

The screen's superb, the camera excellent and the Windows Phone experience really very slick and good to use. But there are other, more convenient devices with wonderful screens and plenty of power, and, while the camera is very good, it's not so good that you'll forsake a compact altogether.

Coolsmartphone | Garry Clark

I can honestly say that this is the best Windows phone I have used to date. Nokia seems to have hit the nail on the head here with the Lumia 1520. I have used a few devices from their range over the last few years and there's been a clear evolution over that time. This is the pinnacle of the achievements so far.

Know Your Mobile | Paul Briden

Another flawed gem of a phablet. Like competitors, the Lumia 1520 sports an excellent set of hardware. The screen, battery, camera, processor and build are all fantastic and score it top marks, but the phone is simply oversized and isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea.

The Gadget Show

On the shop shelf, it's a far more attractive option than the banal plastic Galaxy Note 3, but as ever, it's let down by Microsoft's software, which offers no real reason to exist on a screen so larger.

V3 | Carly Page

Nokia has consistently shown that it knows how to design hardware, and the Lumia 1520 is no exception. What's so good about the Lumia 1520, however, is that it seems like Microsoft is starting to catch up with Nokia, delivering a good software experience to match the Finnish firm's great hardware.

Ubergizmo | Daniel Perez

The Lumia 1520 is a good first start for Nokia in the popular world of phablets. The device is extremely powerful, can last all day and has some great unique applications such as Microsoft Office

Trusted Reviews | Andy Vandervell

If you're a hardcore Windows Phone fan, this is the phone to buy. It's the fastest, the most feature rich and most complete Windows Phone out there. But that doesn't make it the best large phone (see: Samsung Galaxy Note 3), while photography enthusiasts are still better served by the Lumia 1020.

What Mobile | Ian White

There's no doubt the Lumia 1520 is a technical tour de force. This is a powerful computer that can run 1,000 tasks as well as any desktop computer. It has lightning-fast 4G connectivity to the internet, a camera and 1080 HD video to die for, and a satnav capability that can guide you around the world without breaking a sweat. As a mobile phone, though, it's likely to be too big and obtrusive to use as your only device.

Mobile Choice

The Nokia Lumia 1520 doesn't take full advantage of its enormous screen with creative apps or accessories, but the display is bright and sharp and the 20-megapixel PureView camera is as great as ever.

Stuff | Esat Dedezade

An outstanding piece of phablet hardware with a phenomenal screen, sorely hampered by Windows Phone's lack of apps.

CNET UK | Andrew Hoyle

The Nokia Lumia 1520 is colourful, well made, has a brilliant screen, good battery life and a good camera, all of which make a solid phone all round. It is enormous and cumbersome though, which means it won't suit everyone's taste, and its Windows Phone operating system still suffers from a poorly stocked app store.

The Verge | Dan Seifert

The cumbersome size isn't comfortable to use on the go or to keep in your pocket, and though the 1520 is nearly as big as a small tablet, it doesn't offer any of the advantages that tablet software can bring to the table. Windows Phone needs more work to get the most out of such a big screen, and it desperately needs a proper media store to provide content for it.