With the Nokia Lumia 720,
the Finnish smartphone manufacturer has revealed the latest element of
its strategy to recapture the mobile phone market. Sitting right in the
middle of the Lumia Windows Phone family, the Lumia 720
marries sophisticated design and subtle design elements with
specifications that are powerful enough to get the job done but is this
sufficient to take on the multitudes of midrange Android based
competitors ? Read on to find out.
Design
The Lumia 720 doesn’t break any new grounds in terms of design but it
does continue the legacy pioneered with the 820 in particular. The
design is also quite similar to that of the 520 though perhaps not to
the same degree. The unibody polycarbonate shell feels absolutely
fantastic when held and offers seamless curves which fit well in the
hand.
This design familiarity continues across the Lumia 520, 620 and 720 but Nokia has done a good job at retaining a hint of individuality in the handsets. You can see that they belong to the same family but wouldn’t really confuse the three.
The back of the phone has a gorgeous matte
finish. The device is available in a range of colors including white,
red, black, cyan and the yellow that you see here. You can spot the
6.1MP camera towards the top with an LED flash at the side. A Nokia logo
is embossed around the middle.
The back sports charging pin connectors for
an optional wireless charging backplate. A speaker grille is also
openly visible which allows for loud and clear output. Overall with a
9mm thin profile and weighing just 128grams, we feel that Nokia has a
done a good job on the industrial design front.
Display
We loved the display on the Lumia 720. Its
not the highest resolution display out there and yes WVGA is on the
lower end of the spectrum but the sheer quality of the screen really
impresses. It is of the ClearBlack Display variety which provides ultra
deep blacks.
The resolution was never really an issue
because of the way Windows Phone 8 works. Sure, you can spot pixellation
if you’re looking for it but we never really felt the screen lacking.
The only area that would benefit a lot from a higher resolution display
is video playback. Sunlight visibility is good and as an added bonus,
the screen is of the Super Sensitive Touch variety which means that you
can use it even while wearing gloves.
Software
The Nokia Lumia 720 runs Windows Phone 8.
If you’ve seen it in action, you know what to expect here. The chief
benefit of going in for a Lumia handset is the wide variety of
exclusive software that comes bundled in with the phone.
Nokia Music, Here Maps alone make it an
impressive deal. The additional range of exclusive apps serve as icing
on the cake. Nokia has also built in a few camera lenses which will
allow you to shoot panoramas, cinemagraph and smart shoot in addition to
others. Windows Phone 8 itself remains a very user friendly operating
system with developing app ecosystems. Essential apps are now available
in one form or the other but app junkies might want to check if their
favorite apps are currently available or not before committing to
Microsoft’s mobile operating system.
Camera
Nokia has hyped up the camera on the 720
quite a bit and for good reason too. The 6.7 megapixel BSI sensor comes
equipped with a Carl Zeiss lens and an unheard of f/1.9 aperture.
Shots look particularly good in appropriate
lighting conditions with the camera managing to correctly select the
white balance settings. Contrast and saturation levels too were spot on.
In lower light conditions, it is possible to spot a hint of grain but the image quality is still very acceptable.
Like many other Lumia phones, getting a
focus lock turns out to be the achilles heel of the handset. At least
50% of the times, we had to retake a shot because of failure in getting a
focus lock.
Low light images impress for the most part
and turn out better than most other smartphone cameras in the price
range. The BSI sensor and f/1.9 aperture lens absorb the maximum amount
of light for perfectly usable images in low light. While not as good as
the Lumia 920, the Lumia 720 can definitely hold its own under adverse
conditions. Video recording that tops off at 720p, 30FPS is acceptable
but not very impressive. Recording is smooth but camera shake is
inevitable and is very noticeable in the resulting footage.
Performance & Battery Life
The Lumia 720 is powered by a 1 Ghz
dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus processor with a Adreno 305 GPU which
provides it just enough amount of power to chomp through most common
tasks. The 512MB of RAM on the other hand proves to be a limiting factor
for power users. Several games on the Windows Phone app store have a
minimum requirement of 1GB RAM which means you just won’t be able to
download them. We really feel that Nokia has missed out on an
opportunity here by not bundling in at least 1GB of RAM. In terms of
storage, you get 8GB built in and this can be further expanded via the
microSD card slot. Performance wise, Microsoft has done a top notch job
in terms of optimization and you’d be hard pressed to find any lags or
freezes in the operating system UI. General performance will give you
nothing to complain about. You can read our Windows Phone 8 review to find out whats new in the operating system.
The 2000 mAh battery pack on the Lumia 720
helps it deliver exemplary battery life and we could regularly get over a
day of usage. In our tests, we got a day and a half of real life usage
without pushing the phone too hard. This should be acceptable for most
users.
Conclusion
A better camera, higher battery capacity
and great build quality is what you get when you buy a Nokia Lumia 720.
Is it perfect ? No, but it comes very close. For the average user the
Nokia Lumia 720 will tick most checkboxes as it nails the essentials.
All is however not perfect considering the
RAM limit on the handset. We also feel that the handset should have
included a 720p screen. We can definitely recommend the Nokia Lumia 720
as a solid mid range offering particularly suited to beginner smartphone
users.
Pros
- Great build quality
- Decent screen
- Good camera
Cons
- 512MB RAM
- App Selection is still limited
- WVGA resolution
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