Nokia Lumia 620 Smartphone Review

The Lumia 620 could easily be regarded as one of the cutest smartphones on the shelf. It’s small, colourful, lightweight and looks a little bit like a little toy. It’s got a lot going for it, including a very reasonable price, Rs 14,199. But considering Android also has this price bracket cornered with some pretty impressive, high-spec'd devices, the questions is, will the 620 stand a chance? Read on to find out.

Design
If you’re familiar with Nokia’s recent design choices on its Lumia handset range, then you won’t be surprised to find many of those same design choices present in the 620. You get the same high-end plastic feel from its case, the same standard Windows Phone operating system buttons, and of course, the same vibrant colour options — the 620 can have white, green, blue, yellow and red case options, and the back case is removable, so you can pick the colour which suits you.

On the right-hand side of the unit sits the normal three Windows Phone buttons — a volume rocker, an on/off button, and a dedicated camera button, while a micro-USB port on its bottom does charging/synching duties, and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top provides audio. There’s also a small speaker set into the phone’s back, and its camera is, of course, in the normal place. The 620 measures 115.4mm by 61.1mm, and it’s 11mm thick. It weighs 127g.

All of this is fairly standard. So what’s new here?

Probably the most comparable model to the 620 is the 610, which went on sale in Australia in mid-2012. In Delimiter’s review of that model, we were pretty positive, seeing the 610 as a well-put-together little unit that was, nevertheless, a little hard to recommend on a pricing basis (given the fact that more powerful Nokia models were available for just a little more).

The 620 feels like quite an improvement on the 610 in general. We like its colours better, it sits in the hand a little better, and the case feels like it has better build quality in general. The 610 always felt a little cheap, while the 620 actually feels like it has the full Nokia build quality. We think you’ll really like the way the 620 sits in the hand; it’s a comfortable and vibrant phone with great design.

Performance
For starters, the dual-core 1GHz processor paired with 512MB of RAM should provide enough grunt for good performance. The HTC WP8S has similar specs, and we find the real world usage performance between the two as fairly similar. Apps take a similar time to open, and that is fairly acceptable. While this processor package will not set the world alight, it will definitely feel adequate if you are upgrading from a phone less powerful, or shifting sideways from Android to Windows Phone.

To put things in perspective, and for a better like for like comparison, we have pitted this against the HTC WP8S in a series of benchmark tests. While the numbers may not mean much in a real world usage scenario where comfort of use and your personal preference does take precedence, the pedantic readers would appreciate a comparative test.

Connectivity
Nokia has included most connectivity options we’d expect from any standard mobile handset these days, minus a couple of features. The Lumia 620 comes with 3G capabilities, Wi-Fi (dual band), EDGE and GPS with GLONASS for Nokia Drive, Maps and apps like Nokia City Lens, all of which work very well. NFC, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and, of course, USB 2.0 for PC interfacing and charging are also provided for. What the handset lacks is Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA or a physical port for AV out (MHL) and Wireless charging. With regard to DLNA specifically, Nokia is working on an app called Play To that will support wireless streaming via WLAN. As of now, the app is still in beta testing and will not ship with the device out of the box.

Syncing email via ActiveSync, POP or IMAP is a cinch and syncing issues with WP8 also seemed to have been ironed out. So just like you would with an Android handset, as soon as you sync an email account or your Nokia account with the device, settings, contacts etc. will flow in. Sharing media to SkyDrive also ensures no loss of data. Although chat apps like WhatsApp are available, Instagram and a few others are yet to make an appearance on the WP8 platform. Of course, you can also set up your MS Xbox account for games and related details. Video calling via Skype is also a feature that could be handy for those who frequent that network.

Battery
Packing in a 1300 mAh battery, the Lumia 620 almost completed a full loop in our tech2 Loop Test (2 hours talk time, 2 hours video, 2 hours audio, 1 hour audio streaming, 1 hour video streaming) totalling up for 7 hours and about 45 minutes of rigorous use. That's quite impressive considering the price and battery capacity

The Bottom Line
For Rs 14,600, the Lumia 620 is a superb handset. Sure, it’s a lot smaller than the competition and even the specs don’t quite compare, but what it does offer in terms of UI functionality, superb audio and changeable panels (with an IP54, water and dust resistant option on its way) makes it quite worth that price. If a Windows Phone experience is what you want, and you’re not quite willing to spend too much, it won’t get better than this.
See Full Specifications of Nokia Lumia 620