Nokia recently launched the Lumia 625 in India, bringing its biggest smartphone to the country. This handset also holds a lot of sentimental value, as it is the last smartphone launched by the Finnish manufacturer before its sale to Microsoft.
The phone matches the specs of key rivals in this segment and does not seem to fall short in most departments, at least on paper, and comes with a host of freebies. Let's see if the sub-Rs 20,000 segment has found a new king, or the Lumia 625 can at best achieve a moderate success in the market. Here's our review to check out the strengths and weaknesses of Lumia 625 and if
the phone is worth buying...
Design and hardware: Design-wise, the Lumia 625 is quite similar to Lumia 620, though a little bigger and thinner. You get the same curved edges and removable shells that you got with the Lumia 620, but the thinner design adds to the overall appeal. At 4.7-inch, the screen of Lumia 625 is obviously bigger, the largest for any Nokia smartphone in fact. The design is easy on the eyes and the build quality seems solid. However, it is a tad heavy at 159gram.
The screen of Lumia 625 dominates the front panel and happens to be the chief selling point of the device. In fact, Nokia at the India launch event emphasized how this handset is meant for those who love to watch movies and videos on the big-screen phones. Much to Nokia's disappointment, there are already several phones with bigger screens and same resolution in the Indian market (Canvas 4 and Galaxy Grand for instance).
While the display is supposed to be the key feature of the Lumia 625, we were not exactly impressed by it. With 800x480p resolution and IPS panel, it is not any different from the crop of Android smartphones we have in the market today. Nokia has even left out its ClearBlack display technology from the Lumia 625, which would otherwise have rendered it with the advantage of deeper blacks. The contrast levels are low due to the absence of this display technology, but this is a sacrifice that the manufacturer probably had to make in order to keep manufacturing costs to a minimum.
Incidentally, Lumia 720, priced lower than this handset, has this technology and boasts of one of the best screens we have tried out in this price range.
Other display aspects like viewing angles and sunlight legibility are decent, giving us no problems during daily usage. The screen comes with the super sensitive touch technology that allows users to access the display even while they are wearing gloves; this feature is available even in the low-priced Lumia 520 smartphone.
Software:The software in Lumia 625 is largely same as the one we have experienced with pervious Nokia Lumia phones, with the exception of coming preloaded with the Amber update. This update brings features like FM radio, Glance Screen and a few camera improvements.
Powered by the Windows Phone 8 operating system, Lumia 625 suffers from the problems that plague it (there is no way out of this for now, sadly). So, you don't get true multitasking, a notification centre, toggles or plenty of apps, which are all necessary for a complete smartphone experience in our opinion. However, future updates are expected to take care of these problems, expected to release the GDR3 update, which resolves some of these problems, soon). The dearth of apps will take some time to resolve.
Camera:Cameras have always been central to Nokia's smartphone experience. However, the company has left us disappointed with the imaging capabilities of the Lumia 625. This phone has a 5MP camera with LED flash on the back. The photos taken by the smartphone are quite noisy and colours are not exactly
vibrant, though they are largely accurate. Some photos show a little softness at the edges and do not capture enough detail.
We have seen better cameras in phones priced under Rs 20,000 and the Lumia 625 leaves us feel a little lacking in this department at least.
Performance:Under the hood,
Nokia Lumia 625 packs a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 512MB RAM. The phone delivers an average score of around 9000 in the Antutu benchmark test, which is not really
impressive but shows that the phone can deliver workable performance. While many potential buyers may cry themselves hoarse that 512MB RAM is much too less, especially compared to the 1GB RAM that most Android phones in this segment offer, it must be remembered that Windows Phone platform is better than Android in resource management and very few WP8 apps at present demand 1GB RAM for smooth functioning.
The 2,000mAh battery of the Lumia 625 is okay, giving us approximately 14 hours of life during daily usage. This includes 4-5 hours of music playback, an hour of video playback and web browsing each and around half an hour of gaming. 2G mobile data was turned on for at least eight hours each day. While this seems good, moderate usage should be able to give over a day of battery life.
For connectivity, Lumia 625 has features like 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0. GPS lock was fast and the Nokia Here maps suite is present, though it does not have as much local information as Google Maps. Lumia 625 loses out on NFC, likely a means of keeping costs down. This feature, though not very widely used as far as we have heard, is present in lower-priced Lumia 720 and Lumia 620.
The complete package:While launching the Lumia 625, Nokia announced a range of freebies that give the handset an edge in terms of being a far better bundle than what the rival manufacturers offer. First up are free movies worth Rs 4,275 from the YourMovies app for a period of three months, which can be streamed online and even downloaded on the device itself. The collection we checked out in the app was pretty decent, with several new Bollywood and Hollywood films in the list.
Nokia plans to lure avid readers with the free e-books that it is offering with the Lumia 625. The company has partnered with Flipkart to provide 11 e-books for free on the phone, presumably to get users hooked to such digital content for the long term.
The Finnish manufacturer is even offering free internet access on the Lumia 625. It has tied up with Tata Docomo to offer free 3G data for a period of three months, which can also be extended to six months at a nominal charge. The company has also tied up with fast-food chains like Subway, McDonalds and Cafe Coffee Day to provide free access to 10GB of Wi-Fi internet at their outlets.
Of course, just like previous Nokia smartphones, the Lumia 625 comes with free access to song downloads via Nokia Music app for a period of six months.
To us, this set of freebies offered by Nokia make the Lumia 625 stand out in a market filled with phones having similar specifications and features. The phone is at par with competitors and these free goodies make it quite a lucrative choice, especially considering how e-books, movies, songs and internet are quite popular among young smartphone users nowadays.
Rivals:Nokia Lumia 625 competes against the likes of Samsung Galaxy Grand and Micromax Canvas 4 in the Indian market. The two phones are extremely popular in the country and priced similar to this Nokia smartphone. Moreover, both run on Android, which gives them the advantage of having a more complete software suite under the hood.
Samsung Galaxy Grand has a 5-inch screen, which is slightly bigger than that of the Lumia 625, though both share the same screen resolution. The display panel of the Nokia handset renders better colours and sunlight legibility than that of its Samsung rivals. The design of the Galaxy Grand is also dated, having been in use since the Galaxy S III was launched. However, the phone works quite well and gives better benchmark and camera performance than Nokia's new smartphone.
Micromax Canvas 4 is certainly better than the Lumia 625 when it comes to screen quality, with higher resolution and
vibrant colours. In fact, it also boasts of good build quality, including an aluminium frame around the edges that certainly adds to its looks. And just like Samsung Galaxy Grand, its screen size is more, which is all the rage among young buyers in India nowadays. But in the Touch department, Lumia 625 may well be ahead.
Also, the vast range of freebies offered with the Lumia 625 tilt the scales in its favour. The Nokia phone is able to match its two major rivals on most fronts anyway, and with good build quality and acceptable display on its side, we are likely to recommend it to those who are looking for a good smartphone experience.
Another rival phone we would like to talk about here is the Nokia Lumia 720. With a 4.3-inch display, it is obviously not looking to take the fight to phablets in the Indian smartphone market. However, it is the most well-rounded smartphone we have seen under Rs 20,000 in a long time. The Lumia 720 has better screen contrast, good build quality and design and great camera performance, which help it deliver a better experience to the users. You may want to check it out too if screen size is not your priority. However, you will end up losing out on all the freebies expect Nokia Music versus Lumia 625. Only time will tell if Lumia 625 cannibalizes on the sales of Lumia 720!
Verdict:Lumia 625 is not an
exceptional device by any measure (Lumia 720 certainly has an edge in most departments), even though it is not lacking in any department. However, Lumia 625's list of freebies makes it a smarter choice if you want a good smartphone experience without spending over Rs 20,000. The phone has a lot of things going for it, and is expected to improve on its shortcomings with future updates. Though camera performance is less than stellar, it is still worth buying considering that you get everything, namely hardware, software and the experience, besides freebies.
