Hands On With Nokia's New Phones - Lumia 520, Lumia 720, Nokia 105 and Nokia 301
by Brian Klug on February 25, 2013 5:40 AM EST
Right after the Nokia press conference I spent time playing around with all of the newly announced Nokia phones, and there are four. Nokia's announcement primarily focused on the entry level devices which target mass market, instead of another flagship model.
Starting with the Lumias, I got a chance to dig around in about and confirm that both the 520 and 720 are MSM8227 based, which is dual core Krait and Adreno 203 with the Kraits running at 1.0 GHz. Build quality on both the 520 and 720 was impressive, and they're unmistakably Nokia Lumia phones. I'm pretty impressed with the 720 which seems like a well put together device and also contains an interesting camera.
Nokia's rear facing module on the 720 is the first sub F/2.0 optics in a smartphone I'm aware of, at F/1.9, and includes a 6.7 MP CMOS. I took some sample photos with the device but couldn't get them off, what I saw did look impressive however.
I got a chance to play with the Nokia 105, their 15 euro device which is aimed at the entry level. The phone is somewhat thick but obviously very well constructed. Next the Nokia 301 has their interesting voice-assisted self shot mode, which gives you prompts to center your face in the field of view.
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ungeeked - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
MSM 8227 has Adreno 305 I guess not 203?Also mentioned here http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_spec...
evonitzer - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
Yeah, that looks right. Although I don't know anything about the 305! I need a handy table comparing all the GPU's from Brian but this part is a bit too new.It's interesting how Nokia is using Krait across all their phones. This 'preferred platform' was a weakness with WP7 since single core scorpion was already on its way out. But having Krait in entry level phones is pretty fantastic.
DarkUltra - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
It looks like some of these phone have OLED with Clearblack displays. It makes the display blend in with the touch buttons and the edges, very nice. I am dissapointed the 920 uses an LCD screen instead pf OLED it really ruined this look, the only reason I didn't buy the 920 :-(kyuu - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
Really? Yes, OLED has an advantage in black levels, no question. But it's not perfect screen tech and there are reasons to choose IPS LCD (or SLCD). I actually very much like my 920's screen, and haven't been terribly impressed by the screens on the Galaxy S3s I've seen.maximumGPU - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
We'd like one of your in depth reviews of a win 8 device Brian, they've been out for quite a while now!cfaalm - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
520 : around 170 Euro720 : around 250 Euro
Not bad at all IMHO. Looks like the 720 is a sweetspot for features/Euro or Dollar. You still get the frontfacing camera and you get to upgrade the storage to 64GB. I know most here like that a lot.
Ninhalem - Tuesday, February 26, 2013 - link
Are those unsubsidized prices?evonitzer - Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - link
Yes. They would be outrageous for subsidized prices, indeed. But Nokia seems to be marketing their budget phones straight at the consumer and contract free. Hopefully people are able to take advantage of it and get cheapie SIM-only plans.djpavcy - Thursday, February 28, 2013 - link
May I ask what the difference between the 620 and the 720 is? Because they are both at around 250 euros. Which one is better?name99 - Monday, February 25, 2013 - link
"Next the Nokia 301 has their interesting voice-assisted self shot mode, which gives you prompts to center your face in the field of view."Apple provided a feature like this a long time ago in OSX. Their feature was actually targeted at blind people trying to use image recognition for various purposes, so it could also do things like recognize different dollar bill denominations, and it would tell you how to move the bill to be visible to the camera.
I believe the same sort of tech is available in iOS devices.
My point is not "rah rah Apple" --- that's fun and all, but every so often we're dealing with stuff that is actually really important, stuff that isn't just amusing but which really affects people's lives. I only hope that the Nokia version of this idea is ultimately hooked up in the same way as the Apple version, so that it's not just a cute gimmick but actually works well for the people who need it most.