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Nokia Lumia 720 Thoughts
Box & Contents
Out of the Box
Nokia Lumia 720, one sexy little beast
So once again I have been extremely lucky and privileged to receive a trial handset from Nokia via Nokia Connects, the Nokia Lumia 720 running Windows Phone 8, and what a sexy little beast it is, if it was a girl, it would be one hell of a babe !! The handset loaned to me is Cyan , but as with most of the Lumia range, it is available in several colours and it is the first Cyan phone I have used and I must admit I really like it.
At the moment , the 720 falls plumb centre of the Nokia Lumia Range and is , if you like, their top of the range,mid range phone , if you get what I mean ? I reviewed the other 'Mid-Range' handsets , the 620 & the 520 in the last few weeks, they have the same OS as the rest of the available Windows Phones, but not quite as much RAM and so you can notice a slight loss in performance and some applications won't work on them is they are very intensive on Random Access Memory usage, although everything I use personally has worked fine on all the Mid Range phones I've tried, I had a couple of app crashes on the 520, but to be fair the 720 has been more than stellar ! Quite simply, it has proved to be exactly what I expected, the sweet spot in the Nokia Lumia range for what I would imagine will be the vast majority of customers.
I spent a short time 'playing' with the 720 at MWC in Barcelona in Feb this year and thought it was really nice, having had some proper time with the handset I have been 100% convinced it is the sweet spot. I have found absolutely loads to love about the 720, and NOTHING to dislike or criticise, which is rare. Similar to the top of the range (currently) Lumia 920/925 it is a monoblock unibody design with a lovely 4.3" LCD screen with Nokias Clear Black technology. The screen looks great, has fantastic clarity at all viewing angles and is super sensitive and a joy to use (especially due to it having a larger screen than the 520 & 620 which are harder for old eyes to use) and the size and thickness of the phone actually make it feel extremely comfortable in the hand and also make it quite easy to use one handed, something that can be a bit of a struggle with the larger 920 I own, amazing the difference a couple of tenths of an inch can make ?
Handset comparisons
More Phone shots
Lovin' it
So what else do I like ? Well as I said, everything. I really don't think it's the best phone ever (it is a mid range , mid price handset) but it does do everything very very well. I love the fact it has expandable memory via the SD card slot, I love the 6.7 megapixel camera with its large f/1.9 apeture, which allows plenty of light in and gives it exceptional low light capabilities ( think quality night out shots on facebook instead of crap !) and I am no expert, but more light generally improves all photos, and although I intend doing a proper photo comparison piece with my other phones, the few shots I have taken in the last few days have been impressive. Now the mind blowing thing I have found with this little beauty is that it has kept me going for over a full day, the battery refuses to die !! What kind of VooDoo Nokia have performed is beyond me, but the 720 has the same sealed 2000mAh battery as my Lumia 920, which I manage to kill most days by tea time and yet the 720 is still going strong at bedtime with 20-30% battery left and this surely cannot be because of 2/10th of an inch reduction in screen size ? I haven't had a phone last over a day on a charge since my Nokia N95 8gig, I am so impressed.
Full Phone Specs here
Cheapest SIM Free I could find here
More Handset Comparisons
Selfie Comparison
Media
I am quite a consumer of media on my phones and Video looks great on the phone as do Photographs and the web. My own music along with Nokia Music and TunIn Radio all sound great, they are OK with the built in speaker, which isn't quite as good as the 920, although adequate, but using either my 360 speakers or any of my NFC enabled headsets (yes the 720 has Near Field Communication, so you can tap it on compatible accessories to pair them automatically) it sounds fantastic.
Also, despite not being the most prolific 'selfie' photographer, the wide angle on the FFC on the 720 works great and certainly produces better results than my 920 and I am sure it will give a better experience on Skype too.
As for day to day usage with the 720, well, it's Windows Phone, so it's slick and quick, the web works great, the mail application and keyboard are fantastic and my main use during the day is to tweet and check up on Facebook, my favourite Twitter application Twabbit works great, along with the latest version of Facebook Beta for Windows Phone and calling and texting work great, calls are clear and loud, I haven't had a dropped call and both Mobile data and WiFi have been faultless (as it has been with all the WP handsets I've used before). Now I've already mentioned that the 720 is a mid-range phone, and it doesn't quite reach the heights of performance of a handset that costs hundreds of pounds/dollars more, but I truly can't imagine anyone, whatever standard or make of handset they use being disappointed with the 720, and it certainly represents a great 'bang for buck' value, hell, it's not a bang, it's A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION FOR BUCK !!
Photo Samples From The Lumia 720
Most of the above samples taken on a dull dusk evening, but I plan a full comparison of the camera with my other phones including low light :)
Thanks for Reading
Stephen Quin
30/06/2013
Link To Full Resolution Photos From Review On Flickr