I am very much excited to write this, since its so much related to my area of work/profession (Biochemistry). Whatever I am writing here are just my thoughts and kindly do not take it for granted. Since I am very well in Biochemistry and other related subjects, I am just trying to explain what actually causes weight loss or gain. This blog post is in drafts since last 3 months, I am very much busy with career related problems and couldn't finish it, had some leisure time since 2 weeks and today I published it.
Weight loss and gain are on top most priority when you are in adolescence. Some want to gain weight, some want to reduce weight by doing rigorous exercises, some want to constantly maintain their weight all the time. Merely eating food or doing regular exercises will not help you in achieving your task , unless you know the "scientific background" of what you are doing. I will start with some basic terms and theories one should know in day to day life if they are really concerned about their weight management. People who don't want any scientific explanations can directly skip to last 2-3 paragraphs.
FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS: ENERGY IS CONSERVED
The whole universe runs on this simple definition "Energy can neither be created nor destroyed" but transforms from one form to other.
In a universe the object of interest is called system, and the rest is called surroundings.
In our case, we (humans or any other organism) are called "System" and the rest around us is called "surrounding".
There is regular exchange of energy happens between system and surroundings in this universe. For example you take a vehicle or a fan, in the former the heat energy is converted to mechanical energy and in the latter the electrical energy is converted to again mechanical energy. The electricity required for a fan comes from heat energy (thermal plant) or a free falling water from a mountain or dam reservoir (Kinetic Energy, Hydroelectricity) or even a nuclear reaction heat energy that occurs in a nuclear power plant.
In all the above cases ,simply the energy is flowing from one system to another in the universe.
calorie : one calorie (cal) is the amount of heat energy required to increase the temperature of water of 1gm weight by 1 degree celsius.
One large Calorie (Cal)= 1000 cal (small cal denoted by lower case "c" whereas large Cal denoted by upper case "C")
Note: For Nutritional value of food products, some manufacturers denote "Cal" as Kcal (1 kilo calories) to avoid confusion by normal people,both are same/equivalent.
Surface Area : This is the most important term in this article. Simply surface area is the area occupied by an object. This matters a lot in the universe, for example take the following paper Its an A4 size paper of surface area X
When you fold it one time, the surface area is reduced to X/2
Again if you fold it one more time, the surface area is reduced to X/4
and if you fold it one more last time, the surface area is reduced to X/8
If you carefully observe the weight of the paper remained same in all the cases but the surface area reduced to half upon each fold. Surface area greatly influence your weight, we will comeback to this in later part of the article,
Now we will move on to actual theory. Mass Specific Basal Metabolic Rate : It is the amount of energy expended per gram of body mass. Look carefully at the below chart
The hypothesis is that smaller animals like rat or house mouse requires more energy than bigger animals like elephants. This is because the surface area occupied by rats to their weight is more than the surface area occupied by elephants to their weight.
The conclusion from the above example is assuming your body weight is constant over a period of time, the surface area (simply your exposed skin to the environment) plays a critical role in weight management. The more you expose your body to the environment, the more you (System) are exchanging the energy (i.e with surrounding)
Seasons greatly affect your weight !
1. In winter, the outside temperature will be mostly cooler than our body normal temperature 37 degrees, which means that your body generates more heat than required to keep your body temperature constant. This means, there is more metabolism of macromolecules (Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats) for required heat generation. Assuming you are eating same amount of food daily, in winter you decrease weight depending on your body exposure to environment. The more you expose yourself to cold environment, the more you lose weight and vice versa. If your goal is to decrease your weight, winter is the right time for you. Consume average amount of diet daily, do some exercises in the morning, For example swimming is the best exercise to reduce weight, it has scientific basis. If your are swimming in a water pool having temperature less than your body temperature, say 20 degrees centigrade. Your (System) body metabolic reactions will be high and all the energy reserves like fat will be metabolized to produce heat as the water (surrounding) is cool.
2. In summer, the outside temperature is much higher than the body temperatures, which means that your body generates less heat than required as outside temperatures are high and your body exchanges heat from surroundings. This means, there is less metabolism of macromolecules (Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats) for required heat generation. In summer, if you eat even less amount of food, there is more chance for gaining weight. If your goal is to achieve some weight, you should eat more during summer season.
Note: The hypothesis does not explain anything about the cold blooded animals temperature regulation. The hypothesis is also not applicable to obese people who have genetic influence on their weight.
Diets :Lets move on to diet components Diet plays significant role in weight management. Basically our human body is made of four macro molecules called " Carbohydrates, Proteins, Lipids (Fats) and Nucleic Acids". Out of the four excepting Nucleic Acids, the remaining three have important nutritional value.
Carbohydrates : They meet the major part of our energy demands. They available from the following food sources like Rice, Potatoes, Leafy Vegetables, Root vegetables like carrot, beet root, etc.
Proteins: They constitute the major portion of muscle weight, they are found in Pulses, Grains, etc. They have high density
Fats: They constitute the reserve energy sources of our body and are stored. They have low density compared to Proteins.
Most of the people think wrongly that consuming more fats lead to more increase in weight. Its actually carbohydrates that cause weight gain. Carbohydrates are stored the body along with water molecules. One gram of fat can give six time more energy than hydrated glycogen (Glycogen is storage form of Carbohydrate in Animals).
People who want to gain weight should eat more carbohydrates like rice, potatoes or any other root vegetables, meat etc and for weight loss one should avoid above all but not completely.
For maintaining constant weight over the time, it is advisable to have same amount of food everyday at same time along with a glass of Milk and Egg. Milk contains most of the minerals except iron and Egg contains all vitamins except Vit-C and they are cheaper nutritional foods. If you can afford and available near you, Spirulina is another choice of food. It has the highest nutritional value among all the foods.
I will stop it here. I know I confused most of the people in this post, but if you carefully understand the basics of energy exchange, the rest of the explanation is very much simple. You can also use various health and fitness applications available on your smartphone, go to store and search the. Windows Phone users can download this very useful application Health and Fitnessfor free. Feedback appreciated in the below comments section.
Since last 4-5 years everyone is familiar with the term "Mega Pixel". The general presumption among almost all the people is (>95%) that increased mega pixels means better camera, better photo quality. This is absolutely wrong. What defines the particular camera as "best" is out of context in this article. I am writing this to explain everything about the sensors and mega pixel racing in mobile industry. Let start with "Mega Pixel" definition
1 Mega Pixel= 1 million picture elements (Pixels) also called as photo sites.
Which means that there will be so called 1 million pixels in a device of 1MP camera.
The immediate questions that should come in mind is, in "how much amount of area these pixels are spatially arranged ?"
For example assume the following condition
You have a rectangle with 6 boxes of similar size
Now assume 1 box is equal to 1 mega pixel and the rectangle as sensor
Now you have 6 mp in a rectangular sensor
If you take the same size rectangle and put 12 boxes i.e 12 mega pixels, the box size will be half the size of original boxes.
If you compare the two rectangles side by side in below picture you can see
Image A
Image B
The size of the rectangle remains same, what differs between both of them is the "no of boxes" (i.e no of mega pixels).
If you calculate the size of individual box in the rectangle
1 box individual size = X in image A and 2X in image B
The final conclusion from the above example is if the total area remains same, the size of individual boxes (i.e pixels) depends on their total number or vice-versa.
Now we will move on to camera sensors
Usually the camera sensors are measured in inch squares (Applicable to both Mobile Cameras and High End DSLR's) and individual pixel size varies between 1 to 3 micro meter (µm) usually depending on the sensor size.
Eg : 1/3.2", 1/2.3", 1/1.5", 1" etc
In the below chart you can check various sensor sizes available in industry
This image is not subject to scale
Smartphones usually employ a 1/3.2 inch sensors (>70% Mobiles). If one convert it to decimals, it roughly about 0.3125 inch square (That's pretty small !). What smartphone vendors actually doing is, they are just increasing the no.of pixels keeping the sensor size constant. Take the below examples of some smartphone camera sensors and individual pixel sizes.
iPhone 4- 1/3.2" with individual pixel size 1.75 µm (5MP)
iPhone 4S- 1/3.2" with individual pixel size 1.4 µm (8MP)
iPhone 5- 1/3.2" with individual pixel size 1.4 µm (8MP)
iPhone 5S- 1/3" with individual pixel size of 1.5 µm (8MP)
If you carefully see the above list, iPhone camera sensors over the years the sensor size almost remained same. If you compare iPhone 4 which has 5MP sensor and iPhone 4S which has 8MP sensor yet maintaining the same size. Hence in iPhone 4S due to more pixels in same sensor size the individual pixel size decreased to 1.4µm from 1.75µm and if you compare iPhone 5 and 5S which has yet again 8MP sensor, but there is minute difference in sensor size (1/3.2 vs 1/3 inch), hence iPhone 5S has slightly increased individual pixel size.
Samsung
Galaxy S2- 1/3.2" with individual pixel size of 1.4 µm (8MP)
Galaxy S3- ~1/3" with individual pixel size of 1.4 µm (8MP)
Galaxy S4- ~1/3.06" with individual pixel size of 1.12 µm (13MP)
If you take Samsung Galaxy S series flagships, they also followed the same principle.
Galaxy S2 and S3 has same sensor size and 8MP but when it comes to S4 the mega pixels are bumped up to 13MP which resulted in decreased "Individual Pixel Size" of 1.12µm from 1.4µm.
You may ask me now "Whats wrong with that ?". According to the laws of physics, more the number of pixels, more the noise and less quality (when both sensors are of same size). No one can deny this basic fact. It a pure marketing technique employed by such above mentioned companies for better reach to masses. The seller can easily convince customer that it has 13Mp compared to previous 8MP so on and also they get the advantage of slim phones. I am not complaining that there was no increase in photo quality of the above said smart phones. There is definitely substantial increase in their image quality over the years due to various other reasons like for example if you take all the camera sensors in S4 and iPhone 5s are Back Side Illuminated sensors (BSI) as opposed to previous generation front side illuminated sensors (FSI).
[In FSI's the pixels on sensor are connected to tiny wire on front side, so when the ray of light strikes the sensor (specifically say Photons) there is chance that these tiny wires may obstruct the "efficiency". This problems is solved by placing the tiny wires back side (BSI).]
Image quality also depends on other improtant factors like aperture value, more polished software algorithms which keep on changing from time to time, lens optics quality and their make, no of lens elements etc. For example Samsung extensively process the captured image to JPG format by better algorithms, its more like an artificial reconstruction process in image editing. Apple over saturate the colors for better feel (Pseudo). All these methods merely software based enhancements that pleases the customer "temporarily".
Lets move on to Nokia and HTC who are trying to improve imaging standards genuinely !
Nokia
I think everyone is aware of Nokia's 41MP phones ? After reading the above article you may sense that 41 MP is also a gimmick or marketing technique, its absolutely wrong ! First of all the 41MP sensor in 808 and Lumia 1020 are very much bigger than most point and shoot camera's.
In 808, Nokia used 1/1.2" FSI sensor with individual pixel size of 1.4µm,
In Lumia 1020, they used 1/1.5" BSI sensor with Individual pixel size of 1.12µm.
So both the sensors are almost double the normal sensors used in smartphones, check the previous above image for comparison. (The loss of image quality with decreased individual pixel size (Slightly smaller sensor) in 1020 is compensated by BSI sensor).
The sensor size just matters small portion of these two phones imaging technology. The whole concept behind using such large sensor is out of scope in this article. I will simply put the concept in two lines. These two camera phones over samples images of 41Mp size in to 5MP size photos which means that roughly data from 7 individual pixels in re framed to one big pixel using sophisticated algorithms. Such over sampling process is called as "Pixel Binning" and is commonly used in satellite imaging the earth.
During this re framing, most of the visual noise is reduced. There is one more added advantage with this oversampling process. In real time while taking pictures, this process enables us to have 2x-3x lossless digital zoom in still images and 4x-6x in video shooting mode depending on the video resolution taken.(Lossless digital zoom means there is no loss in image quality when zoomed as opposed to loss with original digital zoom)
Compare the two images crops from Lumia 1020 one is unaltered(Top) and other isover sampled (Middle) and bottom one is same image crop from 808.
Top is unaltered crop from normal image and middle is over sampled image from the same (Both from 1020) and the last bottom one is over sampled image from 808
You can clearly see the difference of having such tech, the last two have less visual noise compared to top image crop (Forget color saturation between both phones). Nokia trading such tech using "Pureview" brand.
Inspired from Nokia, in 2012 HTC announced new smartphone "HTC One" with a tag "Ultrapixel" (Clever naming). I had seen many people thinking that Ultrapixel and Megapixel are different things, but they are not ! Ultrapixel is just a trade name or brand name for HTC phones with some improved imaging technology. What actually HTC did in their "One" phone is, they bumped up the individual pixel size to 2µm than usual 1.4µm found in other smartphones, thus following the laws of physics straightly.
The sensor specs are 1/3" BSI sensor with individual pixel size 2µm
Check out the beautiful illustration by HTC
More the individual pixel size more the light to pass through, better the image quality
HTC thought to capitalize the Android ecosystem since Nokia is completely absent here.
Obviously HTC failed to capitalize such tech, as I mentioned in first paragraph that everyone thinks that higher the MP, better the clarity, its very hard to convince normal users that actual 4Mp photos of HTC One are superior to other competitive smartphones with 8-12MP. To lesser extent, the hurried release of "Ultrapixel" tech with poor imaging algorithms also attributed to its failure.
In conclusion, the quality image is defined by several factors which I did not mention them here. The message to be taken from this article is, never think that higher the MP better the image quality. The image quality actually declines when both the sensors are of same size. The most important factor one should consider before buying a camera smartphone or even a camera is the size of sensor, next the optics system and their make and so on desired features. Don't bother about mega pixels anytime when you are buying a camera or smartphone (If mainly for camera purpose) you may get trapped in OEM's marketing gimmicks.
Note: The reason for selecting these four OEM's is, since they together make more than 80% of the mobile market, nothing more than that.
Comments and views are welcome :)
Note: Next article would be on "Scientific Approaches to weight loss or gain".
Nokia
is History by the time I completed this review. They mentioned “Sales and
Devices” unit in their Q4, 2013 results as discontinued services which means,
probably Lumia 1520 is the last official flagship device from “Nokia”. By the
end of Q1, 2014, Microsoft completely acquires Nokia’s “Sales and Devices”
unit. So this review started all with a bad note. Though I am loyal Nokia fan
since childhood, I tried to write this review as fair as possible. Since this
is my first review of any gadget in my blog, I sincerely apologize for any
unintentional mistakes or bad layouts. Let’s get into it
Briefly
I am writing about these in the review in detail, you can skip to the following
Tightly finished curved screen edges makes it more dust proof
Like all Lumia’s, 1520 is made of same material i.e
Polycarbonate (high end plastic) with unibody design. The advantage in using
Polycarbonate in spite of its weight (compared to Aluminium body as in iPhone,
Lumia 925 etc that adds less weight) is, its highly durable, gives better
signal strength and colour proof, which means though there are scratches on the
body, the colour remains same unlike other colour coated plastics or Aluminium
body. There are four colours (Red, Yellow, White and Black) available in the
market to match the tastes of different people. In my case its black matte
finish and out of the four colours only Red is glossy finish. Personally I
prefer matte finish due to less slippery nature compared to gloss finish since
its very big device to hold. Build quality is pretty solid and very tightly
done at screen ends making it more dust resistant.
On the left side there are two trays for Nano sim and SD card
The screen is made of 2.5D Gorilla
Glass 2 which is gently curved at the edges for easy swiping. The Proximity
Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor and front facing camera-all are placed at the top
of the screen along with ear piece. There are total four microphone’s (more on
it in hardware section) placed as one at top and bottom on front side and one
at top and bottom on back side. On the left side there are two trays, one for
sim card and another for SD card and on right side there are four hardware
buttons two for volume up and down, screen lock (also for power off/on) and
camera shutter button. All the hardware buttons are placed nearer for easy
operations and handling this monster device. There are three capacitive
hardware buttons at bottom which are mandatory for any windows phone. At the
back, a small hump due to larger camera sensor with OIS. Overall the design is
almost the same as earlier found in other Lumia’s especially Lumia 720 with
Nokia’s trademark build quality and finishing except for the two loosely placed
trays for Nano sim and SD card.
Operating
with one hand is difficult for even people with bigger hands, but it’s not
that’s much big. It easily fits in to the pockets (Thanks to the less bezel
size) and absolutely no problem in carrying this device with you around. As
years are passed people got familiarised to increased sizes of the phones (Forgot iPhone users LOL). Earlier in 2008-09 a 3.2 or 3.5 inch screen devices looked
like pretty big ones, but if you look back now, they looks tiny and dwarfed by
the current flagship devices out in market, six inch screen sized phones are
definitely big, but they are going to rock this year surely.
Note: For people who think this phone is
too big to handle and carry, I suggest you to try playing with scientific
calculator which are available with almost all the engineering graduates, put
it in your pockets and check. The dimensions of Lumia 1520 almost match them in
terms of width and length, but its slim (only 8.7mm). Check out the following
picture for comparison.
Lumia 1520 compared to Scientific Calculator
B) Network and Connectivity
Lumia
1520 supports quad band GSM and Quad band UMTS (3G) right out of the box, which
makes it truly universal device, you can carry it to any place in the world. It
also supports Bluetooth 4.0 for low energy management, thanks to new Black
firmware update.
Lumia
1520 is equipped with NFC chip for easy connectivity to accessories and tags.
NFC has not gained the momentum what it should have been even after 3 years but
I expect soon it will be top priority feature for any smartphone. At the
bottom it has micro USB port (USB 2.0) for connecting to PC/laptop and also
acts as charging port. On top there’s universal 3.5mm jack for headsets or
headphones. Dual
Channel Wi-fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac) with tethering also available which is pretty
common in current smartphones.
Nokia
released three different RM models of 1520 (RM-937, RM-938 and RM-939). Out of
three RM-938 is US carrier AT&T specific LTE band (Only works with few carriers).
RM-937 is the international version of the same LTE model which works with most
of the carriers and RM-939 version is without LTE support model.
In
India Nokia is offering RM-937 which means it’s an LTE enabled device. Though
the LTE network coverage is awful in India (Only one Airtel offers it in 4-5
cities excluding Hyd, Chennai and Delhi metro’s). The advantage will be
realistic after some years, let’s say 3-4 years when our Indian carriers starts
offering LTE.
C) The Big Hardware
When
it comes to hardware, Lumia 1520 is nowhere less than any Android flagship phone
out in the market, in fact it has better hardware in some aspects.
Let us
go into detailed review of all the components
Screen: The 1080p IPS-LCD screen (1920*1080)
in Lumia 1520 is one of the best and brightest screen (600nits) on any phone,
equal to iPhone 5s brightness but with superior pixel density than the
later (367 Pixels Per Inch, PPI vs 326 PPI in Iphone5s).
As far
as human eye is concerned, we can resolve individual pixels only below 300
pixels per inch, anything beyond 300 we can’t distinguish them as two separate entities.
PPI has become a good marketing gimmick for companies like HTC, Samsung
claiming PPI above 400 for their flagships as the best in market. Okay, let’s
come back to the review, Nokia uses different fancy names for marketing purpose
just like the other companies. 1520 screen has the following special features
compared to competitors.
Clear Black Display (CBD) - consists of a set of polarizing
filter to minimize the reflections caused by air gap in between the screen and
digitizer (touch pad) so that outdoor viewing will become easy esp. in bright
sunlight
Assertive Display Tech: Nokia was first to introduce this
technology developed by Apical Advanced Imaging systems. Here in this, Pixels
adjust themselves according to environment “Individually” thus consuming less
power, yet offering best readability in outdoors along with CBD. Due to
implementing this technology, there is 20% increase in brightness in sunlight
for best viewing.
Extreme wide angle view on Lumia 1520
Super Sensitive Touch: As common with any Lumia (even the
low end model 520!), 1520 also have this feature, simply it offers us to
operate phone using gloves (or any other thing like car keys etc.) on the
capacitive screen. This was originally developed by Synaptics and first
implemented in Lumia 920 last year.
Overall,
with lots of features, extreme wide angle views, high brightness, high pixel
density etc the Lumia 1520 screen is one of the best screen ever developed in
Industry. Thumbs up for the screen, it’s stunning and crispy!
Processor and SoC-The Power House
Processor speed and no of cores have
raced like jet rocket over the past few years and now reached the saturation
level. It all started with Android open source project for better marketing
where OEM’s have to differentiate themselves from the other by hardware
specifications only (of course later they adapted their own Android Custom UI).
If you take Android for example, OEM’s followed
increased clock speed, RAM and no of cores as pivotal features instead of
better optimizing the software. Apple does in other way where there is
extensive software optimization with the chipset, for example if you take
latest apple iPhone 5s flagship, it still runs on 1Gb DDR3 RAM, and 1.4Ghz processor
(64 bit) but comfortably ahead of all competitors from Android flagships (Note
3, Nexus 5 ) and windows phone flagship (current 1520) in benchmark testing’s.
Microsoft
cleverly balanced both strategies in windows Phone OS for best performance i.e
extensive software optimization and better hardware. That’s the reason why even
low end device like 520 runs butter smooth on 1GHz dual core and with 512mb
RAM.
When
it comes to Lumia 1520, it’s Snapdragon 800 SoC (MSM8974 variant), the latest
and best currently available chipset in the market. It’s a Quad core chipset
with 2Gb RAM clocked at 2.2 GHz. Yes, it’s the same chipset (but different
variants) present in counter android flagships like Nexus 5, Note 3 (some
country variants), Sony Xperia Z1 etc. So on paper Lumia 1520 is of no shy when
compared to them, but stands out in terms of performance when compared in real
life largely due to similar hardware with better software optimization. The
minimal available benchmark tests prove the same.
Lumia 1520
seals the hardware gap between Android and Windows Phone as criticized by the
reviewers since 2 years thus establishing the momentum for windows phone
although lately. Snapdragon 800 offers many features that we have not seen till
now like for example they support Full HD displays, up to 55Mp camera sensor,
4K recording, faster charging etc. As I already wrote that, hardware part of
the mobile development has reached the saturation levels early than
anticipated. Betting money on chipset models like this is always safe since its
very new one and the OEM’s can fine tune the performance later in future, thus
making it future proof.
RAM and Inbuilt Memory: Lumia
1520 boasts 2 GB DDR3 RAM, which means there should be no lag in performing
anything including the camera. Nokia 1020 camera was critically accused for
late processing of JPEG’s when captured (~2-3 sec for an image). Since both
devices have 2 GB RAM, Dual core S4 SoC was largely blamed for this issue.
Originally designed S4 SoC supported up to 20MP sensors only, but Nokia
carefully worked with Qualcomm to support the same for monstrous 41MP sensor by
rewriting the stacks from scratch as explained by Anandtech
Thanks to the Quad Core Snapdragon
800 chipset, Lumia 1520 shows almost no lag when captured both 5MP and 16MP
photos at a time. It also helped Lumia
1520 to score better results in benchmark testing’s. Check GSMArena Web browser benchmarks for example here Browser benchmarks and Phonearena Benchmarks
Lumia 1520 comes with 32Gb inbuilt memory that gives you free space of around 26Gb on first use. AT&T US variant initially released with 16Gb memory but they also offering 32Gb
Graphics Processor
As far as I know, Qualcomm does not
allow to customize the chipset with different graphics processors etc., hence
as part of Snapdragon 800, 1520 comes with Adreno 330 graphics processor like
all other devices using same SoC. It’s an absolute delight to play games on the
6inch full HD screen, there is no lag in very high end graphic games like
Asphalt 8 Airborne (55 rs when I bought L, Free now !) or Dungeon Hunter 4 (Free !) which occupies
approximately 1.8 Gb each when installed (~920mb as installer package XAP
file). As of now the games are not rewritten in Full HD graphics, Microsoft has
recently released the emulator required for this and within no time I am
expecting them to appear in store. Yet the HD graphics itself offers the best
gaming experience on a portable device. 1520 is perfect device for gamers. The
only problem I can complaint about it is, it tends to get heated around the
camera module on back side in less time (~20mins) when such high end games are
played which is common for any mobile, since they do not have any cooling pads
nor a fan to draw the hot air out. For the rest of the games like subway
surfers or Temple Run 2, this is not applicable.
A high end graphic game like Asphlat 8 Airborne runs smoothly on 1520 (Watch in 1080p)
Sensors: 1520
comes with ample amount of sensors to give the best possible outcome. It has
the following sensors
3D Accelerometer –For gaming and
navigation
Ambient Light Sensor- For automatic
brightness adjustment
Compass (Magnetometer Sensor)-For
navigation
Gyroscope-For Gaming and motion
detection
Proximity Sensor-For locking screen
during calls.
Positioning:
Nokia phones offer top notch navigation and mapping services even in low end
devices like Lumia 520 and Asha series too. Hence it’s of no curiosity to say
Lumia 1520 has best navigation. It supports the following positioning methods
A-GPS
Cell ID
GLONASS
GPS
SA-GPS
Wi-Fi positioning
With the above specs having both
A-GPS and GPS functions as well as Russian navigation system GLONASS, it’s clear that 1520 is winner in offering
best navigation for people looking for it. As part of the phone, Nokia offers
universal HERE Drive+ licence which means it’s not restricted to only one
country as opposed to HERE Drive (More on this in software).
Battery: Bigger
the phone, better the battery capacity to put in it due to form factor. From a
common man point of view as I observed over the years, when someone buys a new
phone, the first question is pretty obvious asking “what’s the battery backup ?
“. Since Windows Phone OS is very well optimized with the hardware, all the
phones offer better battery backup compared to the same capacity battery phone
in Android. Nokia team cleverly utilized 1520 size in putting heavier 3,400 mAh
capacity battery (BV-4BW 3.8V). The charging time taken for 1 cycle is
approximately 3hrs via regular charger. The increased time in charging is due
to the increased battery capacity its offering. 1520 also offers wireless
charging (RM-937 and RM-939) it has the magnetic induction coil required for it
and follows Qi wireless standards (I have not tested yet but it takes more time
than regular charging to complete 1 cycle). Recently Lumia 1520 took the crown
in famous battery tests performed by GSMArena. It offers endurance rating of
whopping 109 hrs in the tests which means, you need to charge your mobile for
every 109 hrs if you use 1hr 3G calls, 1hr web browsing, 1hr video playback
daily.
Click here for the complete battery
tests results conducted by GSMarena
Note: Though there
are more number of models in front of Lumia 1520 in Video play back, do not
conclude or strike off, the reason is simple, 1520 has 1080p screen as other in
the above chart have only 720p screen.
Okay let me
give my experience in battery backup offered by1520. I am a heavy
user, I am getting almost 24hrs of battery backup with the following. I
completely turned on Location services all the time (GPS is on always) for
obvious reasons. 16-18hrs of Wi-Fi turned
on with Twitter, Whatsapp! and Weather application etc running in background
along with third part battery application for better statistics like the below
picture. Automatic brightness is turned on, Glance screen always turned on with
Night mode in green colour (more on glance screen in software part). Occasional
web browsing for 30mins, Gaming with light graphics for 30mins, music play back
for 30 min and video calling over Wi-Fi for 1hr on skype.
1520 out
performs all other devices when it comes to battery backup, no second thoughts
on it.
Camera: I am
just giving out the camera details and early impressions only as in the next
article I want to describe in detail regarding camera performance and
comparison to other cameras.
Sensor Size :
1/2.5 inch Back Side illuminated (BSI) sensor with 20.3 mega pixels
Optics: Zeiss
with Ball Bearing Optical Image Stabilization technology Flash: 2nd generation Dual LED Light Flash
Image Capture
Size : 5Mp oversampled and 16Mp high res in 4:3 and 16:9 ratios
Video Capture:
1080p Full HD 24/25/30 fps, MP4 format with H.264 codec
Lossless
Digital Zoom Offered: 2x in still image, 4x in Video
Formats: JPEG
and DNG (Raw)
A small hump on the back side due to larger sensor size
Nokia phones
are renowned for their camera performance since a decade. No other OEM can come
close to image quality offered by Nokia, even 5yr old N8 performs well against
top end flagships from other OEM’s. The technology they use, sensors, features
everything is at least generation ahead of current manufacturers.
Lumia 1520
comes with Pure View tag, 6 lens optics by Zeiss. The sensor is monstrous if
you exclude Nokia’s previous flagship pureview phones (808 and Lumia 1020). I
am directly skipping to early impressions since in the next article I will
include detailed review about camera performance. Lumia 1520 reproduces very
accurate colors and contrast. Check out the samples Note: All the photos are taken with auto setting in very casual manner as that best suits average users, download the high res 5mp oversampled images from hyperlinks
Well Balanced colors and brightness taken on a moderate dark cloudy day High Res here
Lumia 1520 very well captured the luminous tiny lights in night time(Without Flash) High Res here
A Night shot under Orange sodium lamp lighting, see here the color accuracy is lost slightly (Without Flash) High Res Here
A macro shot of tiny Bat at ~30Cm distance with Flash High Res here
A Dachshund, observe very well balanced brown and black colors High Res here
Optical Image Stablization in Lumia 1520
(Watch in 1080p)
HAAC’s: With 808, Nokia introduced top notch
audio recording feature by placing newly designed microphones called High
Amplitude Audio Capture (HAAC) microphones. These HAAC’s are able to record
sound levels of 140db which is beyond the threshold level of human ear.
Practically you can record even a Jet Plane take off sound! In all previous phones,
Nokia used only 2 HAACs per device for stereo recording during video shoot. In
Lumia 1520 they increased number the number to 4, not to attract customers or for
better marketing. There’s a new feature called uni directional recording
because of these 4 HAAC’s. This is really a high end feature generally used in
flagship camcorders or separate audio recording microphones. I already mentioned
the placement of 4 HAACs in design column. What these 4 HAAC’s really does is,
for example if you are video shooting some musical concerts, the magnetometer
uses to check the orientation/direction of the phone. Then out of the four
HAAC’s two are used for recording the original sound (HAAC’s on back side of
the phone) and the other two on the front are used for active noise cancelling
the sound coming from the backside towards the screen side. The final result is
whatever you shoot with camera, only that particular sound is highlighted and
all the unwanted noise is cancelled out (Not completely though). Check the
samples in video shoot.
Use headphones to know uni directional capabilities of Lumia 1520
D) Software:
Software Version Reviewed- Lumia Black Windows Phone
UI may not appeal to everyone or masses, but Microsoft was very dedicated to
it. It’s trying to habituate people to the “flat UI” by adopting the same in
every device whether its desktop/laptop or a tablet or phone. The UI is simple
with square or rectangular shaped flat icons called “Live Tiles”, they update
the status of that particular app directly on the home screen continuously
without opening it. This is totally different from old Symbian --iOS--new
Android UI.
The Lockscreen with various notifications at one place
Due to this
flat approach, there is no room for wallpaper on the back ground home page, but
you can put your favourite pictures as lock screen wall paper. All the Apps
installed are alphabetically “listed” instead of grid view. So it’s somewhat
difficult process to open the last ones, though you can directly jump to
particular alphabet. An update is coming to access most used applications
easily.
Flat UI with Live Tiles
The OS Core: Strictly speaking Windows
Phone 8 is designed for people who use Microsoft services well, just like
android is dependent on Google services.Where Windows
Phone OS score over android is the security features it have by default like
128 bit encryption, very few virus or malware targets etc. These are
particularly more important from a corporate company point of view. Added to
this, the OS has very good email sync, Full-fledged office, Sky Drive, Calendar
sync (with even Google calendar services). Thanks to the new IE 11 that almost does the desktop version. Listing out all the small and common features here is
boring, hence I will write exclusive features that are not present in any other
platforms by “default” or as an Nokia exclusive features.
Nokia Glance Screen: My favorite feature ported from Symbian to Windows, Nokia did great job in bringing this to
WP 8 OS with notifications support. The feature enable individual pixels in the
screen to glow so that only few of them are using the power but display very
handful information or pleasant time display during nights etc. This particular
feature was originally developed for AMOLED screens as LED pixels can be
individually controlled as opposed to LCD screens. Later last year, Microsoft
and Nokia able to bring out the same in LCD screens by tweaking the software.
In the other sense, the LCD screen is not completely turned off, its glowing at
very low intensity (all pixels) and some of the pixels are glowing at high
intensity, thus giving the same effect as in AMOLED screens. Actual mechanism
is not disclosed yet.
Nokia Glance Screen is offered in 3 colours (Red, Green and Blue).
HERE Drive+ and Maps: Perhaps these two
are the most profitable features if you buy a “Nokia windows phone”. HERE Maps
has the best coverage (forget satellite image data) and only true service that
supports offline navigation. This means you can download the required map data
of a state/country directly and store it in the phone. It helps in saving data
charges as well as time. For example I downloaded Andhra Pradesh state maps as
well as Karnataka and saved them in my phone (~250mb), whole India (~750mb).
You can search for hotels, restaurants, ATM’s, Petrol Bunks, Cinema Theaters,
and Hospitals etc without any network connection. This app also supports the
augmented live sight view (previously Here City Lens), so that you can directly
point out the phone to particular direction and know what are all there on that
side or things in and around you. A very useful application if you are out of
your home town or unknown place
HERE Drive+ is
voice guided navigation that comes with top end Lumia’s (Low end Lumia’s get
HERE Drive only).The basic difference is Drive+ navigates anywhere in the
world where as Drive works only in the country the phone is activated. It has
both 2D and 3D display features. The approximate time taken for GPS
co-ordinates lock is also very less (~5secs) if network assists (A-GPS) it’s
even less time. Update: Microsoft after acquiring Nokia, started providing HERE Drive+ to all Lumia devices.
Famous Budha Statue @ Hussain Sagar Lake, Hyderabad
Update: Nokia maps is now offering indoor info of shopping outlets in major malls in metro cities in India. Nokia also updated the map database with 3D rendering of major buildings in all metros and other major cities in India.
Nokia Camera and related apps: It’s an
exclusive camera application originally developed for top end Lumia’s by
merging some of the previous 2-3 camera applications in to one. It gives you
all the manual controls required to be a pro. Added to this, it also supports
raw imaging file format DNG (Digital Negative) for professionals. I am stopping
it here since the camera and its features will be separately discussed in next
article.
Apps and Store: It’s time to stop
complaining that windows phone 8 OS does not have enough apps etc. Now the
windows store has more than 2 lakh applications, but it’s not about the number,
it’s all about the quality Microsoft is offering. If you take top 50
iOS/Android apps, almost 48 of them are available straight away and others are
offered as 3rd party apps. It has official Instagram, Whatsapp,
Twitter, ESPN Cricinfo, Facebook, Vine, Viber, Skype, what more you will
experience the best apps, there’s no doubt about that.
For user in
India, there are lots of official applications for banking services, travel
etc. For example IRCTC has developed app for WP8 OS, it’s an exclusive and not
available on Android or iOS. We have redbus, SBI, HDFC, NDTV, IBN, TOI, ICICI,
Flipkart, etc.
Games: Games are less in number
compared to Android or iOS, no denying fact there. Late entry of Microsoft in
to mobile race to be blamed. They also changed the basic kernels twice which
made developers difficult to port them. Microsoft realized this and took the
initiative to bring the best possible games on WP8 OS albeit lately. The result
is now it have top games like Subway Surfers, Temple Run2, Asphalt Airborne 8,
Halo Spartan etc. Now the gaming companies like Gamesloft, EA games etc. are
releasing new games simultaneously in all three platforms at a time. 2014 will
be the year of gaming in windows phone. Xbox support is an added advantage, you
can just sign in to your account and interact or challenge online gamer's.
Office Suite: Since it’s a Windows
Phone, there is no doubt about the functionality of Office suite. Whatever the
best available, Microsoft provide them, unlike iOS and Android which depends
mostly on 3rd party applications for using Word, Excel and Power
Point, PDF etc. Personally I
do not like working with Word/Excel or Power Point on a portable device. But
they are definitely handy sometimes especially viewing documents in mails etc.
For corporate company users, they offer more than what they require.
Music Player: Music Playback is one of
the most important feature for any smartphone user especially in India. As an
exclusive feature Lumia devices get Dolby Digital Plus (Except 520) which
creates virtual surround sound that totally differs from normal play back. Lumia
devices also get 18 pre-set equalizers exclusive features (Sorry 520). The
music interface is similar to windows media player somewhat. Microsoft recently
added X-Box music support functionality directly in Music+Videos hub so that
you can purchase your favorite tracks and download them. For Nokia users this
is not at all required since Nokia offers unlimited music downloads for some
period of time to life time depending on device. They have almost --- million
tracks to choose. And Nokia recently released an offline capable play list mix
application called “Nokia Mix radio” that creates personalized mix playlists of
your choice randomly. Music+Videos hub also supports pod-casts, FM Radio
services.
Music+Video hub with preset equalizers and Dolby surround sound
Multitasking: Strictly speaking, WP8 OS
does not truly supports multitasking feature like Symbian or Android. When you
leave an application, it does not close nor runs in the back ground, instead
it gets freeze in the background temporarily like in iOS devices. People looking for true multitasking
may disappoint but it definitely helps in better battery backup. Some
applications will run by default such as HERE Drive, Music Player etc without
freezing.
Overall I can
rate 9/10 for WP8 OS with Nokia Exclusive features, without them the score will
be definitely not more than 7/10 which means if you want to enjoy WP8 OS and
features you should buy Nokia devices only, you have no other choice, 90%
market share of Nokia in WP OS tell you the same.
E) Missing features and Applications:
Separate
control of ringer volume and music play back.
Well tabbed
browsing in IE (Missing Google Chrome). Google Chrome is one of the most missed
application for me as I use Chrome in Laptop, it will be easy to sync bookmarks
etc to the phone.
Inbuilt Voice
recorder surprisingly! HDMI out is missing, Snapdragon 800 supports HDMI as far as I know, dont know whether other supporting components are present or not.
Suggested Accessories : Officially
Nokia offers protective cover that also works as stand for viewing movies etc
but it priced too heavily (2,999rs) hence its up to the buyer.
SD cards: If you are a heavy user, I
suggest 32 or 64 GB Class 10 HC SD cards. Class number is one important feature
to consider buying SD cards. Since it’s a very good camera smartphone that can
take or playback 1080p videos, the “reading” capacity of the card should be
higher as much as possible for smooth operation. For example if you are
shooting a 1080p, a class 4 SD card may not do it properly and ultimately you
end up with error file or corrupted ones.
Bugs or Defects Noticed: When screen is
unlocked, the phone displays maximum brightness for 4-5 sec and then gets to
normal settings, this is probably a software bug related to Ambient Sensor, may
be the sensor is trying to calibrate the light levels?
When the
pictures are saved to SD card, sometimes the images are saved in duplicates,
triplicates and so on, this particular software bug was already under
evaluation and there is no information on when it will be resolved, only
possible solution is hard reset, it’s just annoying.
Overall Score
Design and
Build Quality: 9/10
Network and
Connectivity Features: 9/10
Screen: 10/10
Other
Hardware: 9/10
Software
Overall: 8/10
Camera 8/10
(Due to average low light video quality) "Bigger is better" what Nokia advertised for Lumia 1520. I have presumption that bigger devices are difficult to carry, awkward to talk with them etc, after using it for more than 20 days, I can say only one thing, you will not revert back to anything less than these, in my case 1520. A member in windows phone central pointed that only we spent only 3% of phone usage on calls average, even if someone feels awkward does he mind 3% usage on calls or rest 97% entertainment he is getting ? I completely agree with that particular statement. People who are looking for a well balanced smartphone as an all rounder device, no second thoughts go for it. Any comments on the review are welcome :) If you found any mistakes, report to me in comments section.
