Nokia Lumia 620 Review

Nokia has got all the presence and attention from its Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 that it needs to stay higher in Windows Phone 8 circles. Nokia Lumia 620 is designed to cater the lower midrange audience as it offers a downclocked dual-core Krait CPU with 512 MB of RAM and of course a style that is meant to target the young audience. With this approach, Windows Phone 8 (WP8) can create awareness among young users and reasonable spenders so that it can seriously challenge the dominating smartphone platforms. Nokia has made a smart decision with the Nokia Lumia 620 which certainly is a mid-range windows phone 8 smartphone.

The Nokia Lumia 620 has all gotten all those which is required to grab the target audience attention. It comes with five saturated hues i.e. white, black, cyan, magenta and yellow and this parade of shades does not end here rather Nokia has boosted the handset’s customization with some appealing transparent covers so that you can change the color combination by layering them the way you want. For instance, if you take a yellow Lumia 620 and coupled it with a blue case then you will end up with a very nice lime phone that looks quite catchy. Several finishes appear slick and glossy, but some may have a matte finish, like the blue color.

Feature-wise, the phone is pretty much similar with its more feature-rich cousins, though, all that resemblance is not a good thing. Even though, the shiny plastic does not feel nice to the touch but looks durable and should last a while. The phone may only stand 4.5 inches tall and 2.4 inches wide, but it weighs 127g.

There is ample space below the capacitive keys at the front that can also be put to better use. However, taken as a whole, the Nokia Lumia 620 design and build feel more than satisfactory for its price range, however if we had to go by looks only then we would go for the HTC Windows Phone 8S.

Nokia’s Lumia come with some really terrific screens and this is something that the Lumia 620 inherits. With a 3.8 inches display, the Lumia 620 makes up a petite display as compared to its other family members. Smaller size of the screen can turn many people off especially those who like bigger screen, even that you will have no problem tapping the larger live tiles, but typing can be tricky especially for those who have larger fingertips.

The Nokia Lumia 620 packs a 3.8" ClearBlack LCD (that's first gen) of WVGA resolution (800 x 480 pixels). 246ppi deliver outstanding sharpness and the image quality turned out amazingly good. Furthermore, the brightness levels are fine and viewing angles are quite decent too.

Being a Windows Phone 8 device, the Lumia 620 offers almost all those features which are basic for a WP8. For example, the phone comes with Internet Explorer 10, 7GB free Skydrive storage, and of course access to the Xbox media store. What is more? The Exclusive Nokia’s Apps for Music, Navigation and Photography are also there.

Additionally, the phone is compatible with NFC including NFC-pairing devices such as external speakers but it does not have wireless charging capabilities. With this, we summarize that in terms of operating system uniformity, the Lumia 620 will not be too far behind the higher end Nokia phones.

Talking about the user interface which is quite improved as Nokia's partnership with Microsoft has been around for a while now, and the Lumia Windows Phone 8 headsets are the latest iteration of that partnership. Multitasking similar to iOS is also available where suspended apps can be taken over by the OS. And alternatively can run in the background as needed by the application.

The Nokia Lumia 620 comes with a 5 megapixel camera with too many features. The interface is similar to what we are used to from the new WP8 UI, with the inclusion of a few extras from Nokia. Though, the 5 megapixel camera does not really break any records but it does produces decent and usable photos. Furthermore, with its front facing VGA camera, budget users will have a basic way to add a visual element to their mobile voice chats.

The camera app offers quite extensive settings that range from scenes and effects to sharpness and contrast, and not to forget saturation and ISO. Dedicated Macro focus mode can also be set. The flash can be set to auto, forced or off.

Nokia is trying to push ahead its default music and video app called Mix Radio by offering free music streaming that can work out of the box, along with an extensive library of music tracks. On the other hand, Mix Radio outdoes services like Pandora as well - you can give it a list of artists you like and it will automatically build a playlist to your taste. The mixes including celebrity-made mixes are created by real people and this is something that Nokia takes pride in. Furthermore, it also comes with an equalizer with Dolby enhancements.

Dual-core processors for mobile phones are made possible by Windows Phone 8, and it is really nice to see that even an entry level smartphone from Nokia is embraced with a 1 GHz dual-core chipset. Panning on the screen is not as smooth as in snappier premium handset but we hope that with an updated chipset, the company keeps basic tasks operating smoothly.

The Lumia 620 comes with an internal memory of 512MB RAM and 8GB of internal storage that can be extended up to 64 GB through the microSD card slot.

The Nokia Lumia 620 is a smartphone that is decently quick and comes with nice youthful styling, and if the company has given it a somewhat more serious styling then it would have killed the HTC 8S. To be precise, the Lumia 620 clearly is a smaller and an entry level smartphone but Nokia did not skimp with features that a Windows Phone 8 is supposed to have. Moreover, with an emphasis on color customization and personality the Lumia 620 will surely grab the attention of youth market and that is exactly the target audience Nokia and Microsoft would want to get on board.

To sum up, price is pretty much affordable as compared to the features that Lumia 620 offers. The Lumia 620 is shaping up to be a very attractive handset. The device is quite a good option for those who want a Windows Phone 8 experience without paying much money.