Nokia Lumia 1320 Hands-On

You can't accuse Nokia of merely dipping its toe into the phablet waters: now that Windows Phone 8.1 supports larger screen sizes, it has a pair of big-panel smartphones to offer. The Lumia 1520 takes the flagship tier, but the Lumia 1320 aims at the mid-range, slimming its specs in order to hit a price tag almost half its more powerful sibling. Read on for some first impressions.

Although the 1320 may have the same size display as the 1520, it's actually a different panel altogether. The cheaper phone makes do with 720p HD resolution rather than 1080p, though it still gets the extra column of homescreen Live Tiles that comes with Windows Phone 8.1 on bigger-screen devices.

Side-by-side, the difference in resolution is clear, with a little extra crunchiness to text and graphics on the Lumia 1320. Still, it's still a fair display, with bright colors and good contrast, and Microsoft's clean smartphone UI looks great on it.

That's not the only cost-cutting measure Nokia had to make to meet the $399 pre-subsidy price. Gone is the PureView camera, with a more humdrum 5-megapixel shooter in its stead, and the processor is a Snapdragon 400 dualcore instead of the quadcore Snapdragon 800 in the new flagship. Things were running smoothly on the pre-production units Nokia had to play with, but we'll have to see what impact that has when the final hardware comes out – and gets loaded down with apps and media – later this year.

Unfortunately for those in the US wanting a big-screen, affordable Windows Phone, Nokia has no plans to launch the Lumia 1320 there. Instead, it'll be targeted at Asia and certain parts of Europe, with the focus for the rest of the world being the more capable Lumia 1520.