I hate the term Phablet. It sounds like something that Paris Hilton would name her dog, and most of the time I’m not sold on the concept either.  It’s NOT a tablet and NOT and phone, but a weird lovechild of the two. For the most part, the Nokia Lumia 1520 proves that the concept can work, and at times pretty damn well.

The first thing you’ll notice about the 1520 is it’s size. It’s a big phone (I don’t want to say phablet again). During my hands on time with it literally every person who saw it commented on its size. But in this case, size definitely matters, as the 1520 boasts some pretty impressive hardware. The 1080p screen is simply gorgeous, the colours are vibrant and the images are so sharp that I sometimes felt like I was actually pressing buttons and not a touch screen. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor inside makes the 1520 the smoothest phone I’ve used to date. I’ve never had to wait for the phone to load or even that split second you get when loading an app on other phones. You tap it, and the 1520 has it open.

The battery life on the 1520 is also quite remarkable. You’ll only have to charge it about every 4 days during normal use and it even can last about a day and a half during heavy usage. That’s seriously impressive for a device that can “technically” still be classified as a phone.

The 1520 isn’t perfect though. It has two main faults that stop it from being a must-own device. The phone’s design is clearly not as premium as the rest of the package; the volume, lock and camera button are wobbly and are placed in a way that makes them hard to reach. This isn’t a deal breaker, but at first it will take some digging just to lock the phone.

The phone also runs Windows Phone 8, for better and for worse. This means a really cool tile-based interface, but it also means that there’s an egregious lack of apps for the device. The appstore pales in comparison to Google Play and wouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence as Apple’s store. This is a case of it being a new platform however, and just as Google Play has caught up somewhat to Apple; it’s simply a waiting game.

The 1520 is a great *sigh* phablet. It certainly justifies its size and it’s the fastest mobile device I’ve ever used. If some form factor issues and a lack of apps don’t bother you, then the 1520 should definitely be on your short-list.