First Impressions: Nokia Lumia 620

Nokia may have launched its latest additions to the Lumia brand, viz the Lumia 920 with PureView and the 820, but it also teased the upcoming Lumia 620, which is going to be yet another budget Windows Mobile handset and naturally, a feather in Nokia’s proverbial cap. There’s a lot of potential here and while at the launch for the 920 and 820, we also got the opportunity to check out the Lumia 620 as well. Here’s what we thought at first glance.

Design
In terms of form, the Lumia 620 is one of those “cute” little smartphones that fits neatly in to your hands and is designed to be compact yet attractive enough to catch your eye. Like its bigger brother the Lumia 820, the 620 also employs the use of interchangeable panels. Most of the panels showcased at the event seemed to be constructed of a rugged rubber-like material. This naturally facilitated the grip to quite an extent while still maintaining some level of style with colourful options like lime green, orange, magenta, yellow, cyan, white and black.

A neat little smartphone

The smaller display (3.8-inches) features a 480 x 800 pixel resolution complete with ClearBlack tech to make it legible in all lighting conditions. That’s the same resolution as the 820, only with a higher pixel density. However, the 620’s display is not of the AMOLED variety.

Weighing in at just 127g, the Lumia 620 is also easy on the pocket. It’s not the slimmest phone there, but at 11mm in depth, it’s comfortable to carry along and use without issue. Thumb reach for onscreen access was not a difficult task even for those with smaller hands.

Hot swap for more storage

It was a pleasant surprise to find a hot-swap memory card slot under the rear panel. The 620 can support up to 64GB of external memory and comes with 8GB of internal memory. The 1300mAh battery powering this handset should be just about right to ensure at least a full day’s use—we’re hoping. A 5 megapixel AF camera with an LED flash adorns the rear and a secondary VGA camera is placed at the top in front.

A decently powerful battery

Features
Again, the universally cloistered OS works just as well on the 620 as it does on the 920. From what we experienced at the event, even with 512MB of RAM, the Windows Phone 8 OS ran just as smoothly as expected. Its simplicity and easy to use setup with refreshed tiling system makes the platform one to look out for. If only there were more apps.

Handling of the OS on this smaller form factor handset was so much easier than the larger models. Typing was also faster as it was easier to reach the keys not being spread out too widely as on the larger displays. The form factor of this phone is dedicated to ease of use it seems, as most would find it very comfortable.

The 5MP shooter

With added features like GLONASS for GPS along with Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps, the 620 is a loaded handset. It also comes equipped with 3G support, Wi-Fi and NFC, which isn’t easily available in most handsets that would fall in this handset’s expected price bracket. All of this is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor of the Dual Core 1GHz variety. With USB and the non-requirement of the infamous Zune software anymore, copying media is a much easier task—just drag and drop.

No wireless charging just USB

Like the others, Nokia’s Lumia 620 will also come preloaded with a few image capture and edit apps for the 5MP camera. Nokia camera Lenses and the City Lens app also add a little more value to the handset's worth. What’s missing is wireless charging. That particular system seems to have been left out of the handset's specifications make up. Perhaps a panel with the wireless charging kit could be provided at a later date.

In dire need of apps

The bottom line
Nokia’s got plans to launch the Lumia 620 some time in mid Feb. Its pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but we’re estimating it to be between the Rs 17,000 and Rs 22,000 mark. With the kind of specs this handset is equipped with, it stands a really healthy chance of beating out the competition, i.e. the HTC 8S. As smartphones in general go, the Lumia 620 has quite a bit to offer in a cool, stylish design. All we have to wait for now is app development to take off and you’ll have yourself a fully loaded smartphone in a decent budget. Like we’ve said before, Nokia’s got the right hardware, but Microsoft needs to seriously bring the apps.