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Nokia Lumia 1320 comes to the US through Cricket, sales begin June 13th
It's been so long since Nokia announced the Lumia 1320 that we just sort of assumed it wasn't headed to the US. Heck, even when the 1320 showed up in an FCC filing we weren't convinced -- after all, it was impossible to tell then what carrier would even support the phone. Well, now we know: Cricket Wireless has just announced that it will start selling the 1320 on June 13th, making it the only US operator to offer the 6-inch Windows Phone. If you're not already a Cricket customer, this might not be reason enough to switch; the device's cumbersome size and patchy call quality are already knocks against. But for Cricket customers, at least, this could be interesting: The 1320 is the closest thing the carrier has to a phablet, and it's only the second Windows Phone device on offer (the other is the much-smaller Lumia 520). In any case, if you happen to be a Cricket user who loves WP8 and wants a bigger-screened handset, this will go on sale Friday for $300 $230 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Note: the rebate is only good through July 10th, so if you really want this thing, better get cracking.
Engadget's smartphone buyer's guide: winter 2014 edition
You don't need to cast bones or read entrails to know that smartphones arrive in predictable cycles. February, home of Mobile World Congress, is likely to see the launch of new handsets from heavy hitters like HTC, Samsung and LG. Those new flagships will rule the mobile hill until the fall, when Apple and Google are likely to wheel out next-gen devices of their own. Sony, meanwhile, recently launched its latest handset, the Z1 Compact, which reverses the "bigger is better" trend to great effect. There may have only been one top-tier phone launching in January, but the phone industry has hardly been hibernating this winter. Two years after Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion, it sold the rejuvenated handset maker to Lenovo. AT&T, meanwhile, has rejigged its mobile share plans to shrink your monthly data bill; T-Mobile will now pay you to leave your carrier; and we're inching ever closer to a Sprint/T-Mobile merger, the FCC permitting. If you're already on the hunt for a new smartphone, or your deal's only for a few more months left and you like to be prepared, this is your guide to the best handsets on the market.
Daily Roundup: Lumia 1320 review, NFC iPhone case, Beats Music hands-on and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Nokia Lumia 1320 review: an oversized phone that struggles to stand out
It's not too often we can legitimately say a device is in a league of its own, yet that's the only way we can describe Nokia's new low-end smartphone, the Lumia 1320. With a 6-inch screen, it arrives at the same time as more expensive Lumia 1520, which shares the same screen size and battery, but is exponentially better in every other category. There's nothing else quite like the 1320 on the market at the moment; we've seen plenty of large-screened Android phones already, but few of them have price tags as low as the $340 that the 1320 commands. Not only that, this is also the very first low-end Windows Phone with copious amounts of screen space. The fact that this is the first of its kind doesn't make the 1320 an instant hit, though. While the cost is lower than most phones its size, it's still a high asking price for many people in emerging markets. A 6-inch size worked for the Lumia 1520, but does it make sense to come out with a stripped-down version for half the price?
