Nokia Lumia 1520 vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 3: Specification Comparison

Finnish handset major Nokia launched the company's biggest and most powerful smartphone to date; the Lumia 1520 at Nokia World 2013, Abu Dhabi on 22 October.

With the announcement of 6.0-inch Lumia 1520 with Snapdragon 800 quad-core CPU, Nokia - despite being a late entrant in the big-screen smartphone business - is certain to make heads turn at South Korean firm Samsung, the undisputed reigning leader in the phablet market.

Samsung recently released the company's flagship 5.7-inch Android device Galaxy Note 3; it garnered lot of appreciation for its features, but with the entry of Nokia's new super phone, phablet enthusiasts will have a new refreshing Windows Phone OS powered Lumia 1520 to look forward later this year. 

Here is a brief comparison of key specifications of Nokia Lumia 1520 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3:

Display:

Nokia Lumia 1520 sports a mammoth 6.0-inch full HD (1920x1080p) AMOLED display with pixel density of 368 ppi (pixels per inch). On the other hand, Samsung's 2013 flagship phablet flaunts a smaller 5.7-inch AMOLED screen, boasting equally superior full HD display resolution having pixel density of 386 ppi.

Processor, RAM and Storage:

Lumia 5120 touted as the first-ever Nokia smartphone to pack a quad-core processor, ships with 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series CPU, aptly backed by Adreno 330 graphics engine, 2GBRAM and 32GB memory, which can expand up to 64GB.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 LTE variants in the international markets also house the Snapdragon 800 series chipset. However, in India and less developed regions, the company has released separate 3G models, with Exynos 5 Octa-core processor (packs two quad-cores-1.6GHz and 1.9GHz) supported by Mali T628 MP GPU. To further enrich the user-experience, Samsung has endowed Galaxy Note 3 with 32GB inbuilt storage (expandable up to 64) and 3GB RAM; currently no other smartphone in the industry has such physical memory to show-off.

Camera:

Like all high-end Lumia phones, Lumia 1520 too boasts a feature-rich camera. It sports 20.0-megapixel PureView camera with 6-element lens (Carl Zeiss Optics), f/2.4 aperture, OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation), dual-LED flash support, and comes loaded with photography tools and applications such as Nokia Camera, Creative Studio, Cinemagraph, Panorama and Nokia Storyteller. It sports a 1.2-megapixel wide-angle HD camera on the front. 

Whereas Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is no less of a competitor; it packs a13.0-megapixel camera with BSI sensor, which can record UHD -4K resolutions 3840x2160p (only Snapdragon model) at 30 fps and full HD at 60fps speed. It features a High CRI-LED flash support to get good pictures under low-light environments. Like all high-end Galaxy smartphones, it too comes with an array of smart camera features. The Samsung phablet houses a 2.0-megapixel camera with full HD video recording capability.

Mobile Operating System:

Android v4.3 Jelly Bean powered Galaxy Note 3 users will certainly have an advantage over the Nokia's Lumia devices which run on the Windows Phone OS as the Android ecosystem reportedly boasts close to a million applications and games, whereas Windows app store has a meager collection, a little over 170,000 apps.

However, the recent addition of popular photo sharing app Instagram and social video sharing app Vine will surely encourage Nokia fans.

Price:

In India, Galaxy Note 3 currently costs around ₹47,900, whereas the Nokia Lumia 1520 is not coming any time soon in the subcontinent. The Finnish company has set the price as $749 (excluding taxes and subsidiaries), approximately ₹46,170 in Indian denominations. However, the above estimate is certain to go north (probably around ₹50,000 plus), once it makes its debut in India (with inclusion of custom duty and the Rupee depreciation woes).

As of now, with no hands-on review, we cannot judge the best between the two smartphones. But considering the specifications, Nokia's new hero phone Lumia 1520 looks promising to take on the Galaxy Note 3 and other top smartphones in the market.

Here is a break-down of specifications between Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Nokia Lumia 1520: