If there’s any smartphone manufacturer apart from Samsung that has smartphones in every price range, it’s Nokia. In fact, it is the only manufacturer that sells Windows Phone 8 devices in all the price ranges.
It has the entry-level Lumia 520, and the range goes up to the new Lumia 925. And I must say the devices are more or less equally good, irrespective of which segment they fall under. In fact, they are too alike for my comfort.
Yes, the devices differ in terms of hardware specs, camera quality, screen size and resolution, and body construction quality. But they all feel the same because of the operating system and levels of customisation on the devices.
Now, with the Lumia 625 in the market, I am really confused because Nokia’s own Lumia 720 seems to be a competitor for the new handset. The Lumia 625’s screen is marginally bigger (0.4-inches) than the Lumia 720, but the latter has some better features. Also, the Lumia 625 is a bit more expensive than the Lumia 720. So to try and make sense of the whole affair, we just had to try the 625 out for ourselves.
Design and display
The 625’s body is crafted more like the Lumia 620, with curved edges and colourful polycarbonate shell casing. The curved back and matte finish of the shell feel very comfortable to hold, but then again, so is every other phone in the Lumia series. The casing can be taken off and swapped with any other colour, which has to be purchased separately. While I am completely happy with the placement of the physical and capacitive buttons, I don’t understand why the latter are not backlit.
One of the key USPs of this handset is the bigger screen. At 4.7-inches, the screen is as big as the Nexus 4’s display. That said, the big screen is not really an improvement over the 620 or the 720, as the screen resolution is still 800x480 pixels. The IPS LCD is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2, which is a step up from Lumia 620. But while stepping up, the maker seems to have forgotten to add the ClearBlack technology on the 625’s display. If the less expensive models can have the ClearBlack display which gives so much better contrast and viewing angles, why can’t the 625 have it? Agreed, that the new ‘Sunlight readability’ makes it easier to read in sunlight, the contrast and hence the video viewing experience is sub par.
Features and camera
Apart from the run-of-the mill Windows Phone 8 features, the Lumia 625 has the Amber update that brings additional camera features, such as the Nokia Smart Camera and FM radio. Nokia’s Glance Screen, a feature that shows battery status, notifications and the clock even when the phone is on sleep and the screen is locked, will not make it to the 625. But Lumia 625 has the proprietary HERE Maps and some app features such as a free subscription to Nokia Music (for a limited time) and Your Movies app, which offers a good collection of movies to both stream and downloads.
The camera is a major disappointment. I say major, because Nokia itself has raised the bar for its devices, and the 625 does not meet the standards. It comes with a stock 5MP rear camera with an LED flash, which is just average in terms of sharpness, colour reproduction and auto-focus speed. The older Lumia 720, which comes with a 8MP rear cam with Carl Zeiss optics produces stunning images, rich in contrast and detail.
Performance and battery
The Lumia 625 runs on a Qualcomm dual-core 1.2GHz, and is accompanied by 512MB of RAM. These specs are good enough for everyday smartphone tasks such as mailing or sending IMs, but video and game loading time takes a hit because of the low RAM. There’s 8GB of internal space, and external memory can be extended up to 64GB using a microSD card.
The one feature, however, that can be termed as a jawdropper is the battery life. On regular usage, which involved juggling between mobile data and WiFi, while using social network apps, videos, music and mail, we got a battery life of nearly 30 hours. That, for a mid-range smartphone is quite amazing.
We say
With a sub-20k price tag, the Lumia 625 is acceptable if you want a smartphone with a really long battery life and a big screen that you can read long pieces of text on. But, if you want a Windows Phone 8 smartphone with a good camera, rich multimedia experience with only a marginally smaller screen, you’re better off with the Lumia 720, which, by the way, costs less.
Rs 19,999
Love – Big screen, superb battery life
Hate – Average screen quality, sub par camera
sabyasachi.b@thehindu.co.in