Nokia – a great mobile phone manufacturer enjoyed an almost monopoly for most parts of a decade in this new millennium. They had a smooth transition into the smartphone line with their Symbian OS. It let them scale their software requirements over a large spectrum of user base. They did a great job of putting a phone in everybody’s hands that performed at an equivalent to Blackberry and, I dare say, Windows Mobile. I, myself, found it hard to choose between Nokia’s hardware and the mobile version of my favourite system software. I must admit it hurt me every time I owned one and watched the other flourish. That, of course, ended when we got to seem them both get together – Nokia Lumia.
Nokia started a partnership with Microsoft in the second quarter of 2011. In November of the same year, they released their smartphone codenamed Sea-Ray which is based off of the beloved by many – Nokia N9. Sea-Ray is what we now call Nokia Lumia 800. Subsequently, the world saw Nokia diversifying with its newest brand in the year 2012 – Lumia 710 in January, Lumia 900 and Lumia 610 in April, and Lumia 510 in early November. Lumia 900 had a difficult time getting into India, though, and we saw it four months later than the world did. They all used Windows Phone 7 and are great phones to use. In fact, they will be supported up until April of 2014. Nokia, as always, made sure their premium brand of phones was made accessible at a wide price range. The beauty of the Windows Phone OS was that it didn’t matter which phone you got – it is always going to work the same.
With the release of Windows Phone 8, it at first seemed quite doubtful if Nokia was going to have new devices that were affordable by the public. Their Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 were definitely higher than the common man’s budget. Eventually they released Lumia 620 which in no way compromised on a feature-richness. With the addition of Lumia 520 and 720 – there remains nothing stopping you from considering these phones; Lumia 720 just got into the pre-order stage. We’re going to briefly overview the important features and you do the rest.
Let’s go in the ascending order of price and, incidentally, numbers.
Nokia Lumia 520
The Nokia Lumia 520 is a phone aimed at emerging markets with India as its main target. The device is an impressive and worthy upgrade to its obvious predecessor Lumia 510. It has an inbuilt memory of 8GB and is expandable with up to 64 GB micro-SD card. The most basic device has a 512 MB RAM and a dual core 1GHz processor. You can’t play taxing games, which is hardly a worry as they’re just a few in number. Every single app and most games will work flawlessly on this device. The greatest thing about this device is that it already has the same amount of RAM as any Windows Phone 7 device. Every app and game that already worked on high end Windows Phone 7s would easily run on this device – I cannot stress it enough, the most basic one. It has a 5MP camera with 4 times digital zoom and 720p video capture, but no flash – but works beautifully in daylight and low light. It has a 4 inch screen at a standard WVGA(800 x 480 pixels) with a pixel density of 235 pixels per inch. It has Nokia’s special addition called Super Sensitive Touch – a feature you can turn on. It makes the phone usable even with a stylus and possibly with gloves, nails and objects you can find around your house. The Lumia 520 has removable back cover. You can buy covers separately to customise the look of the phone. Changing battery packs is possible. Bluetooth 3.0 is a welcome feature for wireless junkies at a budget. It is a 3G/HSDPA and Wi-Fi enabled phone – it is capable of creating personal hotspots. The device comes with all the additional Nokia benefits – Music, Apps, Maps, and Navigator. It has GPS and Glonass tracking. For a full list of specifications visit Nokia’s page on Lumia 520.
The Lumia 520 can be bought at Rs.10499 on Flipkart.
Nokia Lumia 620
The Nokia Lumia 620 concentrates the fun you can have on on Lumia 520. The display on this is a 3.8 incher, with a pixel density of 245PPI. The device has built in NFC and is quite future proof for secure payment systems. Nokia’s own NFC sharing programs make best use of NFC for sharing of pictures if the already incredible PhotoBeamer wasn’t sufficient. It comes with 8GB internal storage and 512 MB RAM, with expandable storage via micro-SD. Basically it has all the available features of Lumia 520 with added punch. In addition to the 5MP camera with an LED flash, it has a front camera in VGA(640 x 480) which works beautifully in video chats – software available in the Windows Phone Store. In addition to GPS and Glonass, this device has A-GPS, along with magnetometer for orientation tracking. Check out its detailed specs at the global Lumia 620 page.
This incredible device sets you back Rs.14230 on Flipkart.
Nokia Lumia 720
The Nokia Lumia 720 ups the ante in quite a lot of places. It has a 4.3 inch screen at 217PPI – if you think that is unimpressive, know that it is nearly the same as that of MacBook Pro with Retina displays. It is the thinnest phone of the Lumia series at 9mm. This device is a peculiar one with a non-removable battery despite the ability to change the cover. It is the most basic in line of Nokia Lumias that are capable of accessory covers – it makes the phone capable of additional features that are not a part of the phone at the time of purchase. One of the most common ones is the one that adds wireless charging to work nicely with Nokia’s wireless charging line of accessories. The main camera is 6.7MP with a nice wide angle SXGA-(1280 x 960) front camera for HD video chats and recording – peculiar as it is actually better than the 820’s front camera. The device has the same storage capabilities of the 620. Unlike the previous phones, it has an IPS ClearBlack display. Do check out all of its specifications.
The device can be bought/pre-ordered from Flipkart at Rs.18999.
Nokia Lumia 820
Nokia Lumia 820 was launched as a flagship device for people who didn’t need all the fancy features of Lumia 920. Like the Lumia 720, it has a 4.3 inch screen at WVGA. The back cover of this device is removable and changeable – in a different way than the rest. There are two sets of feature addition covers – one for wireless charging and the other as a secure shell(hardened). To make it better, the schematic for the feature shell is open-source and the 820 is a favourite device for the 3D printing community. It is possible to add an unlimited variety in the shell structure, feel and capability. This phone has an 8MP main camera with dual LED flash and 1080p(Full-HD) video recording, and VGA camera on the front. The screen is an AMOLED display and displays truly rich colours. It has 1GB RAM and a dual core 1.5GHz processor which means nothing on the Windows Phone Store is unplayable. It has a storage of 8GB with upgradability by 64GB using micro-SD. This phone is LTE capable – that’s right, it has the next generation cellular data technology in-built. Read up on all the specifications to make an informed decision.
Lumia 820 sells on Flipkart at Rs.23499.
Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia Lumia 920 – Ah! This phone is so awesome and out of the league that I’ll break the pattern and put tell you its cons first. It costs over Rs.10000 more than Lumia 820, and that gap, I forecast, will be forever. It is available at Flipkart currently for Rs.35999. The phone is a one-piece, so it is incapable of part/cover change and has a non-removable battery. It has a 32GB fixed storage with no expandability. Well, that’s it for the cons.
As for its pros, lets begin with in-built wireless charging – oh! it doesn’t even need an accessory cover for that. The phone has a 4.5 inch screen at 332PPI – more than that of any iPhone yet. The screen is WXGA(1280 x 768) which is a better than HD display right at your palm. It has an IPS display with PureMotion HD+, which is basically Nokia’s way of saying it has the refresh rate of 60Hz which no other phone has as of now. The display is flicker free and the movements are sharp and non-blurry. The camera is 8.7MP with dual LED flash and a variation of Nokia’s PureView technology. It uses optical image stabilisation to keep videos free from shakes using multiple springs in the lens assembly. In addition, it has an incredible low light(and almost invisible to the human eye in the night light) response and can take amazing pictures any time of the day. The device has 1GB RAM and 1.5GHz dual core processor and it is a delight to play games and watch videos on. The phone is Bluetooth 4 capable but runs in compatibility with Bluetooth v3. In addition it has in-built NFC and Wi-Fi with the ability of channel bonding for higher throughput. You can check out its specs on the global page of Lumia 920.
More things you might need to know:
It doesn’t matter which one you get. Nokia provides a constant stream of exclusive apps that nicely complement the Nokia Lumia experience. They’ve provided regular security updates along with updates on its Maps and Navigation technology and faster updates to newer versions of Windows Phone. In fact, you should probably visit this article about Windows Blue and it’s implications.
