Nokia Lumia 620 Windows Phone

The Lumia 620's combination of price, features and performance make it a winner

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Nokia is desperately trying to break into the low cost, entry level smartphone market. The Lumia 620 is a Windows Phone 8 device that sells for little over $300 in Australia. Despite its low price it has an appealing design, good performance and a long list of features, making it one of the best entry-level smartphones on the market.

Pros

  • Very competitive price
  • Full range of Nokia apps
  • Excellent performance & features

Cons

  • Limited third-party app selection
  • No 4G connectivity

Bottom Line

Despite its low price the Nokia Lumia 620 has an appealing design, good performance and a long list of features. It's one of the best entry-level smartphones on the market.

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  • Where to buy

    Priced from: $ 192.97
    Selling at 61 stores
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Vibrant, colourful design

This is one of the best constructed smartphones we've seen at this price point.

The Lumia 620 is described by Nokia as having a "youthful appeal" but while its bright colours give it a playful look, it feels nothing like a toy. This is one of the best constructed smartphones we've seen at this price point, combining an attractive look with excellent ergonomics. The front of the phone is completely flat but the back curves smoothly towards the edges making it sit comfortably in your hand.

If you're concerned with the large footprint of many flagship smartphones, the Lumia 620 is likely to be the perfect size. When held with one hand we easily managed to stretch our thumb to the very top of the screen. At 11mm thick the Lumia 620 certainly isn't as thin as many other handsets on the market, but its light weight of 127g is evenly balanced. It's comfortable to hold and use.

When held with one hand we easily managed to stretch our thumb to the very top of the Lumia 620's screen.When held with one hand we easily managed to stretch our thumb to the very top of the Lumia 620's screen.

There are no creaks, rattles or signs of poor build quality.

The Lumia 620 has standard Windows Phone keys below its display (back, home and search buttons) along with side-mounted volume controls and a power/lock screen key. There's also a physical camera shutter key which can be held for three seconds to jump straight into the camera. All keys are well positioned and provide good tactility.

Nokia has made use of snap-on covers on the Lumia 620. The cover can be removed by pushing the camera lens and pulling back the top of the plastic cover. The process is a little fiddly but it's something you probably won't be doing too often. Despite the removable covers there are no creaks, rattles or signs of poor build quality. Everything feels very well put together.

Nokia has made use of snap-on covers on the Lumia 620 in a range of colours and finishes.Nokia has made use of snap-on covers on the Lumia 620 in a range of colours and finishes.

There are a range of different coloured snap-on covers available for the device in both matte and gloss finishes. Most use a "dual-shot colour technique" which involves a second layer of coloured, transparent or translucent polycarbonate applied over the base layer.

This effect creates secondary colours like lime green, which combines yellow and cyan. The colours are bright, bold and distinctive and further add to the Lumia 620's appeal.

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The screen performs well in direct sunlight.

The Nokia Lumia 620 has a 3.8in, TFT touchscreen with a respectable resolution of 800x480. That resolution provides a pixel density of 246ppi, which is more than most budget smartphones. The screen performs well in direct sunlight, has good viewing angles and displays relatively clear text, provided you're zoomed in enough. Things can become a little cramped during Web browsing, but Windows Phone 8's Internet Explorer browser does a pretty good job of rendering most websites.

The Nokia Lumia 620 has a 3.8in, TFT touchscreen with a respectable resolution of 800x480.The Nokia Lumia 620 has a 3.8in, TFT touchscreen with a respectable resolution of 800x480.

Excellent performance, minimal cutbacks

The user experience is virtually identical to Nokia's flagship Lumia 920.

Once you start using the Lumia 620, it becomes quickly apparent that Nokia hasn't cut many corners. The user experience is virtually identical to the flagship Lumia 920, aside from the much smaller screen. You get all the same software features that Microsoft includes in Windows Phone 8, along with the various apps that Nokia pre-loads.

Performance is excellent. The Lumia 620's 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB of RAM might not sound like much on paper but that's irrelevant as they make for a smooth and fast user experience. Scrolling is smoother than almost any Android phone, there is no lag when switching between apps and performance is consistent and snappy. The combination of the Windows Phone 8 OS and the Lumia 620's hardware, even if not at the cutting edge, makes for a speedy and efficient device.

Using the Windows Phone 8 interface on the Lumia 620.Using the Windows Phone 8 interface on the Lumia 620.

Nokia's range of apps and features are significantly impressive.

For a phone at this price point, Nokia's range of apps and features are significantly impressive. The Here Maps application is more comprehensive than Apple Maps and even betters Google Maps on Android phones in some ways. It allows you to download a range of maps from entire countries to use when you don't have any mobile network coverage. In addition, Here Drive+ Beta provides free turn-by-turn navigation in a clean and easy to navigate layout. The ability to download maps means the navigation service doesn't use any mobile data, just the Lumia 620's built-in GPS chip.

Nokia also includes the here City Lens app on the Lumia 620, which uses augmented-reality to display nearby points of interest. However, we found it largely a gimmick and the same results show up in a standard search through the Here Maps app.

The Lumia 620 has standard Windows Phone keys below its display.The Lumia 620 has standard Windows Phone keys below its display.

The biggest downside to the Nokia Lumia 620 is the lack of popular third-party apps.

The Windows Phone 8 OS itself also has some excellent core features and they're all available on the Lumia 620. All users receive 7GB of SkyDrive Storage for free. The built-in, free Microsoft Office app handles Word and Excel documents with ease and is without a doubt the best office client on any mobile platform. The Xbox Music service is also decent value at $11.99 per month or $119.90 per year for unlimited music streaming.

The biggest downside to the Nokia Lumia 620 is the lack of popular third-party apps. A visit to the Microsoft App Store will quickly tell you all you need to know but many apps we use on a daily basis on iOS and Android simply aren't available on Windows Phone. The store continues to expand and improve over time, however, with popular music streaming service Spotify recently becoming available. Disappointingly, the price of paid apps on the Windows Phone platform seem higher than competing platforms, a particular concern for low cost handsets like the Lumia 620.

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Decent camera, solid battery life

The Lumia 620 has a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with single LED flash and a front-facing VGA camera for video calls. While it can't compete with cameras on flagship models, it doesn't need to. Pictures captured are of a reasonable quality and good for a budget smartphone. Images can be a little noisy depending on conditions and low-light performance is poor but colour reproduction is accurate and most photos turned out pretty sharp.

A photo we captured with the Nokia Lumia 620 (click to enlarge).A photo we captured with the Nokia Lumia 620 (click to enlarge).

Adding value to the Lumia 620's camera are Nokia's camera modes, which it calls lenses.

Adding value to the Lumia 620's camera are Nokia's camera modes, which it calls lenses. There's a panorama lens to capture panorama shots, a cinemagraph mode that captures movement and turns still shots into a GIF file and a Smart Shoot lens that captures multiple photos and then allows you to remove elements from an image, like someone walking in the background of your photo. These are all valuable additions, particularly on an entry level smartphone.

Photos and 720p video files are saved to the Lumia 620's 8GB of internal memory but the phone has a microSD slot for memory expansion. The slot requires you to remove the snap-on cover, but not the battery. NFC is another notable inclusion at such a low price point but the Lumia 620 isn't 4G capable, so you'll have to make do with regular 3G data speeds.

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The Lumia 620 has pretty good battery life. Most users should easily be able squeeze a full day of use out of the device before needing to recharge it. Lighter users may be able to push that figure to a day and a half, but it ultimately depends on your usage pattern and how long the screen is on for.

The Nokia Lumia 620 is available now through JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Dick Smith, Harvey Norman and Allphones stores across Australia for $329 outright.

Related content

• Nokia's low-priced Lumia 620 landing Down Under
• Nokia Lumia 920 review
• Microsoft banking on Windows 8 to boost Windows Phone
• Nokia Lumia 820 preview
• Top rated Windows Phones

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