Are you on T-Mobile US and want a Nokia Lumia 1520? You have options

The Lumia 1520 now holds my record for longest used Windows Phone, previously held by my Lumia 920. There’s just something about the raw horsepower of a quad-core 2.2 GHz CPU and that 1080P six inch display that makes it hard to resist.  Sure, it’s big, but it’s also awesome.

Unfortunately, for those on T-Mobile in the US, the Lumia 1520 is but a pipe dream. That is until the Lumia 1520.3 (RM-938) hit third party retailers. In a very lengthy thread in our forums, this version of the Lumia 1520 has been confirmed to have the necessary AWS bands for T-Mobile, as well as reportedly getting AT&T LTE, as well. That is in addition to having 32 GB, of internal storage and Qi wireless charging. It’s the Holy Grail for those yearning for a Lumia 1520, but who reside in the States.

That’s the good news. The bad news is twofold.

  1. AvailabilityNegri Electronics and New Egg both stock this version, but it’s only available in Black right now, with White and Yellow back ordered
  2. Price – You want the best of the best and carrier unlocked? It’ll cost you between $624 and $657 to attain this ultimate Lumia 1520

Users in our forum have had good results with the device, which is carrier unlocked and rocking Windows Phone 8.0 Update 3. Some users are experiencing some issues with Windows Phone 8.1 Preview, though nothing we haven’t heard of before on various devices.

Being able to run the Lumia 1520 at LTE speeds on T-Mobile (or even AT&T) with 32 GB of storage, the ability to use a 128 GB micro SD card and Qi wireless charging (which AT&T removed) is hard to pass up. The good news is, if you want yellow or white, you have some time to save your pennies, as you’ll need ‘em.

Read more in our forums, but grab a cup of coffee as it’s 18 pages long.

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.