With the biggest windows phone 8 update, comes the Nokia lumia 630 with a gorgeous design and an affordable price but with drawbacks like No flash, low RAM and no secondary camera, is it worth to buy the Nokia lumia 630?
Let's find out in my full review of the Nokia lumia 630!
DESIGN AND BUILD.
The lumia 630 again comes with the traditional Nokia design that is plastic but doesn't feel cheap at all and feels extremely premium at the price it is offering.
The back is smooth but the phone never flips from your hand thanks to the comfortable design.
This time however Nokia removed the camera shutter key which I think is a real bummer as a lot of people liked that!
The phone like all Nokia devices comes in a variety of colors like orange, black, green and much more.
The design and build of the phone is great and worth the price.
DISPLAY.
Display is the beginning of the mistakes Nokia made in this phone!
The display is quite large measuring at 4.5-inches but where it falls apart is the resolution area.
It's a 480x800 pixels ClearBlack display with corning gorilla glass 3 that doesn't look so bad but with competing with the Moto G 720p display, this display is going to fail.
If we look at only the lumia 630 display, it's not that bad! Color reproduction is great, outdoor visibility is no problem and viewing angles are decent too!
Looking at the competition, this display is not good.
HARDWARE.
When it comes to connectivity options, this phone comes with the basics including 3G, Bluetooth and Micro USB v2.0!
In the storage compartment, the lumia 630 comes with 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via Micro SD card which is a great benefit.
Lumia 630 is also a Dual SIM handset if you are looking for a Dual SIM windows phone. You can also get the Single SIM version which costs 1K INR less!
Nokia has cut corners at a number of places (more on that later) and has even excluded a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. As a result, the screen does not turn off during a call unless it touches your face or finger. I didn't miss this sensor much but the absence of an ambient light sensor means that the phone doesn't feature automatic brightness depending upon the ambient light. This means you'll need to manually set brightness levels depending on the light conditions, which is a bit cumbersome.
The phone offers excellent call quality and signal reception and we did not encounter issues while making calls even in areas where cell signal is relatively weaker. It was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.
The external speaker on the phone offers loud sound output though the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is an issue. We were able to play most popular video and audio file formats.
When we talk about the battery, lumia 630 runs on a non removable 1830mAh battery about which we will talk about later in this article.
SOFTWARE.
Software is the place where the lumia 630 catches eye with its latest windows phone 8.1 with lots of features including Cortana, Action center and much more.
The first and most demanded feature that it has got is Action Center, a unified notifications interface; it is the equivalent of iOS's Notification Center and Android's Notification Tray. The implementation is also similar, with a swipe from the top rolling down the Action Center displaying four customizable toggles, notifications, alert messages, network indicators, date and battery level. The 'Clear All' and 'All Settings' buttons clear all notifications and jump to the phone's settings menu, respectively. Action center is a pleasure to use and the quick settings come in handy when you want to quickly turn off a setting!
The other big Windows Phone 8.1 feature that everybody's talking about is Cortana, the virtual assistant that rivals iOS's Siri and Android's Google Now. The feature is still in Beta and not available in India unless you change the region settings to US, and language settings to English (US). While it doesn't support all features, you can ask it to perform a large number of tasks including opening apps, calling contacts from People list, setting reminders, check weather, time or location, check nearby places and search the web, among others.
The phone also benefits from the Windows Phone 8.1's new Swype-like 'Word Flow' keyboard that lets you quickly key in words by tracing a path over letters. In tandem with the predictive text feature, the keyboard offers one of the fastest typing experience available at the moment. It also integrates Emoji characters.
Windows phone 8.1 also comes with Data Sense, WiFi sense, better Internet explorer ( with reading mode ) and much more!
Cortana almost everytime understands an Indian accent and is much better than Apple's Siri!
Lumia 630 uses on screen buttons like android instead of the capacitive touch buttons but the onscreen buttons never disappear whether it is gaming or any other application!
The software runs silky smooth and is not laggy at all like all other windows phones out there.
The new Windows phone 8.1 fills almost every void or limitation that the previous windows phone had!
PERFORMANCE.
Performance is another aspect where I think Nokia made a mistake!
Lumia 630 comes with quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. Even though it comes with a measly 512MB, I still don't understand why the phone comes with less RAM given that a number of games and apps are not optimized for 512MB devices at the time of their original release. In fact, Nokia introduced Nokia 525, a variant of the popular Lumia 520 that comes with more RAM, to please consumers who want access to all apps and games.
Even though the phone comes with less RAM, it is really snappy and quick! Applications and games run without any lags! Apps however do take some time to close and open but it is just a second late.
Games like temple run or asphalt 8 run perfectly without any frame drops! However if you keep the graphics to the maximum, you will face some lags at times.
The phone overall performs really fast but if you want more games, I would advice to choose the lumia 525!
CAMERA.
Camera is another area where you will be disappointed!
Lumia 630 is not exactly a camera phone. It just offers a 5MP rear camera and there's no LED flash. While the phone comes with a new Camera app (in addition to Nokia Camera app), the hardware is not remarkable for the price. One good thing is that it does feature auto-focus. You can even set the focus manually.
The quality of images captured in day light was better than the quality of ones taken indoors in less light. It struggles to shoot in low light, though. Colour reproduction was good though.
I feel that by excluding a front-facing camera the device will lose favour among youngsters especially with selfies being the current rage.
Camera can record videos up to 720p which are average.
With no shutter key, taking photos from a lumia is not that fun anymore!
Lumia 630 like all the budget devices is not a camera phone.
BATTERY LIFE.
Battery life is the field where the lumia 630 shines perfectly.
The phone is backed by an 1,830mAh battery (removable) and will last you a complete day (15-16 hours) even if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use 3G data all the time. You'll be able to make about 2-3 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. The phone can play video continuously for 8-10 hours.
TO SUM UP.
Lumia 630 is a great device with no lags whatsoever but it comes with some drawbacks too like no flash, less RAM , missing sensors or the missing front facing camera!
If you are not a gamer and okay with these drawbacks, I would suggest you to go for this device else increase your budget and go for the moto g or the cheaper lumia 525!
I will be soon posting the comparisons of this phone with other competitors, so stay tuned for that!
Read Also: Moto E review!
ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR READING, IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE SUGGESTIONS OR QUESTIONS ON THIS ARTICLE , COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED OR YOU CONNECT ME ON TWITTER@phonesoldier or Facebook!
DO MAKE SURE TO HIT THAT SHARE BUTTON IF YOU LIKED READING IT!
Let's find out in my full review of the Nokia lumia 630!
DESIGN AND BUILD.
The lumia 630 again comes with the traditional Nokia design that is plastic but doesn't feel cheap at all and feels extremely premium at the price it is offering.
The back is smooth but the phone never flips from your hand thanks to the comfortable design.
This time however Nokia removed the camera shutter key which I think is a real bummer as a lot of people liked that!
The phone like all Nokia devices comes in a variety of colors like orange, black, green and much more.
The design and build of the phone is great and worth the price.
DISPLAY.
Display is the beginning of the mistakes Nokia made in this phone!
The display is quite large measuring at 4.5-inches but where it falls apart is the resolution area.
It's a 480x800 pixels ClearBlack display with corning gorilla glass 3 that doesn't look so bad but with competing with the Moto G 720p display, this display is going to fail.
If we look at only the lumia 630 display, it's not that bad! Color reproduction is great, outdoor visibility is no problem and viewing angles are decent too!
Looking at the competition, this display is not good.
HARDWARE.
When it comes to connectivity options, this phone comes with the basics including 3G, Bluetooth and Micro USB v2.0!
In the storage compartment, the lumia 630 comes with 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via Micro SD card which is a great benefit.
Lumia 630 is also a Dual SIM handset if you are looking for a Dual SIM windows phone. You can also get the Single SIM version which costs 1K INR less!
Nokia has cut corners at a number of places (more on that later) and has even excluded a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. As a result, the screen does not turn off during a call unless it touches your face or finger. I didn't miss this sensor much but the absence of an ambient light sensor means that the phone doesn't feature automatic brightness depending upon the ambient light. This means you'll need to manually set brightness levels depending on the light conditions, which is a bit cumbersome.
The phone offers excellent call quality and signal reception and we did not encounter issues while making calls even in areas where cell signal is relatively weaker. It was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.
The external speaker on the phone offers loud sound output though the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is an issue. We were able to play most popular video and audio file formats.
When we talk about the battery, lumia 630 runs on a non removable 1830mAh battery about which we will talk about later in this article.
SOFTWARE.
Software is the place where the lumia 630 catches eye with its latest windows phone 8.1 with lots of features including Cortana, Action center and much more.
The first and most demanded feature that it has got is Action Center, a unified notifications interface; it is the equivalent of iOS's Notification Center and Android's Notification Tray. The implementation is also similar, with a swipe from the top rolling down the Action Center displaying four customizable toggles, notifications, alert messages, network indicators, date and battery level. The 'Clear All' and 'All Settings' buttons clear all notifications and jump to the phone's settings menu, respectively. Action center is a pleasure to use and the quick settings come in handy when you want to quickly turn off a setting!
The other big Windows Phone 8.1 feature that everybody's talking about is Cortana, the virtual assistant that rivals iOS's Siri and Android's Google Now. The feature is still in Beta and not available in India unless you change the region settings to US, and language settings to English (US). While it doesn't support all features, you can ask it to perform a large number of tasks including opening apps, calling contacts from People list, setting reminders, check weather, time or location, check nearby places and search the web, among others.
The phone also benefits from the Windows Phone 8.1's new Swype-like 'Word Flow' keyboard that lets you quickly key in words by tracing a path over letters. In tandem with the predictive text feature, the keyboard offers one of the fastest typing experience available at the moment. It also integrates Emoji characters.
Windows phone 8.1 also comes with Data Sense, WiFi sense, better Internet explorer ( with reading mode ) and much more!
Cortana almost everytime understands an Indian accent and is much better than Apple's Siri!
Lumia 630 uses on screen buttons like android instead of the capacitive touch buttons but the onscreen buttons never disappear whether it is gaming or any other application!
The software runs silky smooth and is not laggy at all like all other windows phones out there.
The new Windows phone 8.1 fills almost every void or limitation that the previous windows phone had!
PERFORMANCE.
Performance is another aspect where I think Nokia made a mistake!
Lumia 630 comes with quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. Even though it comes with a measly 512MB, I still don't understand why the phone comes with less RAM given that a number of games and apps are not optimized for 512MB devices at the time of their original release. In fact, Nokia introduced Nokia 525, a variant of the popular Lumia 520 that comes with more RAM, to please consumers who want access to all apps and games.
Even though the phone comes with less RAM, it is really snappy and quick! Applications and games run without any lags! Apps however do take some time to close and open but it is just a second late.
Games like temple run or asphalt 8 run perfectly without any frame drops! However if you keep the graphics to the maximum, you will face some lags at times.
The phone overall performs really fast but if you want more games, I would advice to choose the lumia 525!
CAMERA.
Camera is another area where you will be disappointed!
Lumia 630 is not exactly a camera phone. It just offers a 5MP rear camera and there's no LED flash. While the phone comes with a new Camera app (in addition to Nokia Camera app), the hardware is not remarkable for the price. One good thing is that it does feature auto-focus. You can even set the focus manually.
The quality of images captured in day light was better than the quality of ones taken indoors in less light. It struggles to shoot in low light, though. Colour reproduction was good though.
I feel that by excluding a front-facing camera the device will lose favour among youngsters especially with selfies being the current rage.
Camera can record videos up to 720p which are average.
With no shutter key, taking photos from a lumia is not that fun anymore!
Lumia 630 like all the budget devices is not a camera phone.
BATTERY LIFE.
Battery life is the field where the lumia 630 shines perfectly.
The phone is backed by an 1,830mAh battery (removable) and will last you a complete day (15-16 hours) even if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use 3G data all the time. You'll be able to make about 2-3 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. The phone can play video continuously for 8-10 hours.
TO SUM UP.
Lumia 630 is a great device with no lags whatsoever but it comes with some drawbacks too like no flash, less RAM , missing sensors or the missing front facing camera!
If you are not a gamer and okay with these drawbacks, I would suggest you to go for this device else increase your budget and go for the moto g or the cheaper lumia 525!
I will be soon posting the comparisons of this phone with other competitors, so stay tuned for that!
Read Also: Moto E review!
ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR READING, IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE SUGGESTIONS OR QUESTIONS ON THIS ARTICLE , COMMENTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED OR YOU CONNECT ME ON TWITTER@phonesoldier or Facebook!
DO MAKE SURE TO HIT THAT SHARE BUTTON IF YOU LIKED READING IT!
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