The Nokia Lumia 720 was part of the new effort from Nokia to launch an attack on the fledgling mid range smartphone market. With the Lumia 620 already attacking a lower mid level pricing, there was still a massive gap between the 620 and the 820, and that is now filled by the Lumia 720. The Lumia 720 in short is very sleek, sexy and youthful. That description might apply to most of the Lumia devices but it is perfectly apt for the Lumia 720 and you’ll know why soon, when you read our hands on impressions after the break. But, before that, don’t forget to watch our quick hands on look at the Lumia 720 right here –
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ah3MDPgk-I&list=UUsN174eDjrNll0zJc7kHjUA&index=9
Made of matte unibody plastic, the Lumia 720 feels as premium as it can, at a maximum. It has a curved 4.3 inch display, which is a LCD screen with a CBD coating. From what we saw, the LCD screen is amazing, and definitely better than what’s on the Lumia 820. It might not possess the additional magic the Lumia 920 has, like the PureMotion HD+ screen, but it does come with super sensitive touch and a luminance of 600 NITS. So, take our word, the display on the 720 is stunning irrespective of the device’s stature in the mid range smartphone segment.
Regarding the design, the curved screen is slightly reminiscent of the HTC Windows Phone 8X, and with the matte finish colours it bears far more resemblance. But the comparison stops there because the back looks quite different, even from the other lumias, with a distinct lack of a metal strip, that has been now a standard Lumia signature style. Interesting addition to the hardware though, is the dock for wireless charging with accessories like the new wireless car charger. The phone has NFC but wireless charging is not inductive, but through those exact contacts.
The unibody design of the Lumia 720 has some new tricks up its sleeve. Nokia claims that this is their first unibody device, with slots of micro SIM and micro SD built into the body, and even better part is, they are replaceable, just like the other Lumias. Regarding the internal hardware, the device is powered by a 1 GHz Dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8227, with 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. We can attest that the performance of the Lumia 720 was adequate and we didn’t find any discrepancies, just like the other Lumia phones with the same chip as the 720, for example the 620 and 520. With a huge battery, as large as the Lumia 920, rated at 2000 mAH, the device is expected to easily last for a day or more without a charge.
Surprisingly though, the USP of the Lumia 720 is its weird yet nice camera. The 6.7 MP sensor is enabled to take really nice pictures thanks to a f1.9 aperture lens, which allows in more light than usual. Powered by the Adreno 305 graphics, the video recording is limited to 720p instead of 1080p on other devices. We tested out the camera for a while, and we are quite impressed with what we saw, but more in depth impressions will be coming soon when we get our hands on it again, soon. Suffice to say, the camera lives up to the hype, especially for a phone at a mid-end price range. And the front facing camera too, has a wide angle perspective added to it, with self shot group photos becoming easier now.
With regards to the software, Nokia introduced some new advances in the camera department with its place tag application which adds formatted text to an image with the name of the place, and the “Glam Me” app which adds filters and effects, for the style conscious youth. Running on Windows Phone 8, you expect it to be very much similar to all the other phones as it is not tinkered with, usually. So, in the end, at a mid range price segment, the Lumia 720 is a really compelling device that is squarely aimed at smartphone users who are new to the scene. And if you ask us, sleek sexy and youthful are the words that pop up when we think about the Lumia 720. But it now raises a question for the existence of the Lumia 820, with its far higher price offering a similar or almost the same experience as the Lumia 720, except costlier. Lets see where it goes in some months time, till then stay tuned for more, and follow our MWC coverage.