The Nokia Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 were announced at the MWC event in Barcelona yesterday and, while the Lumia 620 isn’t really ‘news’, we haven’t given it too much love either so we thought that now was a good time to rectify that.
The Lumia series has been doing fairly well overall and, since the launch of Windows Phone 8 (WP8), we’ve noticed a marked increase in our personal observations of people walking around with a brightly coloured Lumia in public and even in the general public’s awareness of Nokia’s growing presence as a brand.
The Nokia Lumia 720
The Lumia 720 boasts, surprisingly, a unibody polycarbonate design.
This is surprising for two reasons:
- Polycarbonate designs are usually reserved for Nokia’s flagship handsets like the Lumia 800, 900 and 920.
- The design, while mirroring the higher-end handsets in material, is aesthetically closer to the plastic snap-on and off style of the Lumia 820.
This should make for a great combination. While made of sturdier, more grippy stuff, the Lumia 920 was bulky compared to its screen, whereas the Lumia 820 was much more comfortable to hold and (in our humble opinion) much prettier in person, but less sturdy and had an unfortunate glossy finish. The Lumia 720 seems to be the best of both worlds. Combine this with the, 9mm profile (the thinnest of any Nokia Lumia WP8 device) and one has the makings of a solid-feeling handset.
The 4.3 inch 480×800 display won’t be turning too many heads, although it does seem to have the vibrant colours and inky blacks of a ClearBlack display.
Glam Me is an interesting-sounding piece of photo-editing software aimed purely at ‘selfies’. The system automatically detects different areas of the face such as eyes, nose, cheeks, teeth etc and allows the user to edit them. For instance, a user can widen the eyes, whiten teeth, smooth out skin tone etc.
We’re not entirely sure how we feel about the concept of Glam Me, but we can definitely see it being a hit with a certain demographic of users.
Other features of the Lumia 720 include:
- 8GB on-board memory
- MicroSD slot – the first polycarbonate Lumia to boast one
- Dual-core 1GHz processor
- 7GB SkyDrive cloud storage
- 2000mAh battery
- Wireless Charging
- HSPA+ only – no 4G LTE
The Bad News
The bad news is that the Lumia 720 right now only has plans to see major Asian launches, with some apparent tentative plans for a later US release. As of yet Nokia is uncertain if the device will hit Europe, as Europe is currently undergoing a 4G LTE transition and is, in Nokia’s opinion, unlikely to be interested in devices that are restricted to 3G HSPA+.
The Nokia Lumia 520
The Lumia 520 is set to be the cheapest of the up-coming Lumia lineup. With an expected price-tag of around US$185, the 520 would certainly be one of the cheaper smartphone options on the market.
Available in the familiar Lumia colours of Red, Cyan, Yellow, Black and White, the Lumia 520 fits right in with its cousins in terms of colourful design.
As an added bonus users can switch between different colourful cases, in case they get bored of whatever colour they choose.
The 4 inch display still boasts just a 480×800 resolution, but with the much more washed-out colours and blacks of a mere IPS LCD. Yet, 480×800 on a 4 inch screen should provide a crisper image than stretching it out over 4.3 inches would, so at least there is a small bonus there.
The 5MP camera doesn’t appear to have any special abilities added and, as such, we don’t expect it to be particularly impressive.
Other features include:
- Dual-core 1GHz CPU
- 512MB RAM
- 8GB on-board storage
- MicroSD slot
- 9.9mm profile
- 1430mAh battery
- HSPA+ (up to 21Mbps), no 4G LTE connectivity
Availability
Like the Lumia 720, the Lumia 520 will be first available in China. Unlike the 720, however, this budget device will be heading on over to Europe, the rest of Asia and even T-Mobile in the US later this year.
The Nokia Lumia 620
The Lumia 620 is already out in some regions and will soon be seeing its launch in others.
The 620 is also a budget device, in some ways more so than the 520. The 3.8 inch 480×800 display is even smaller than the 4 inch of the 520, but with the same resolution, leading to the crisper images that we mentioned before.
Aside from that there’s a dual-core 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage.
Available in Orange, Magenta, Green, Yellow, Cyan, Black or White (depending on your region), the 620 is definitely the most diverse in colour of the current Lumia range.
The 5MP camera should, once again, be nothing too special but there is at least a MicroSD slot for expandable memory. Once again this phone is limited to HSPA+ connectivity and does not support 4G LTE.
The 620 is generally priced higher than the 520 is rumoured to be.
