Nokia’s next Lumia Windows Phone 8 device, the Nokia Lumia 620, has been unveiled. The Lumia 620 will be a more affordable option than either the Lumia 920 or 820, aiming itself at the lower ends of the smartphone market.
We’ve seen previously that Windows Phone is a fantastic platform for budget devices, as the simplistic yet beautiful UI can still impress, even on a smaller screen and with lower resolution. Another benefit is that Windows Phone is a much more closed UI than something like Android.
While Android offers many smartphones in the budget arena, its open source nature means that it cannot be as easily optimized for the hardware of a specific device. Windows Phone, on the other hand, is much more strict about what kind of hardware that a manufacturer can use. This means that, because WP7 and WP8 smartphones can be optimised for a smaller, more specific set of hardware options, it can work more efficiently on lower-powered and cheaper parts.
As such a budget WP8 device has a better chance of offering a smooth experience than one with the same specs running on Android.
That being said, the Nokia Lumia 620’s specs aren’t really anything at which one might turn up their nose. Sure, they’re not spectacular, but for a device with a price tag of $249 outright we think it’s fairly impressive.
- Dual-core 1GHz Snapdragon S4 processor
- 512MB of RAM
- 3.8 inch 480x800 ClearBlack display
- 8GB internal Storage
- MicroSD slot for expandable memory, up to 64GB
- 5MP camera with LED flash and 720p video capture
- Front-facing VGA camera
- NFC
- 3G connectivity (no 4G LTE, but you can’t have everything)
We were pretty impressed back when we did our Nokia Lumia 610 review, the phone that was essentially the WP7 predecessor of this new offering. So we have high hopes for the Lumia 620. As far as availability goes, we’ll have to keep you posted. Currently the 620’s listed specs show it to be WCDMA 3G only, meaning it could be a USA-only device or that it will be hitting US shores first.
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