The Nokia Lumia 625 is a phone that is designed to really hit two key things users are looking for: cheap 4G and a larger screen.
It ticks both of those boxes, coming as it does with a price tag of around £200 ($320, around AUS$340) and offering a 4.7-inch display into the bargain. However, given it’s now competing with up to 12 other Lumia choices, it doesn’t really stand out as well as it should.
The Lumia 625 isn’t a bad phone though; it’s one that comes with a playful ethos thanks to the return of interchangeable covers and the same glut of Nokia fun on board.
This means Mix Radio to get free music on the go, Nokia’s Here mapping service to get you from A to B without munching on reams of data (important with 4G) and the new Smart Camera for more interesting pictures to plop on Facebook.
However there are some compromises here: the City Lens, which is meant to unlock any new territory with augmented reality, has disappeared, as has NFC. The Smart Camera is only capable of taking seven pictures, rather than the 10 offered by the Lumia 925, and each of these on the newer phone will only be 1MP resolution.
In our tests these didn’t look too bad – the speed of shooting wasn’t amazing, but within tolerance for a phone of this price. However, blow these up and we suspect you’re going to be quite disappointed with the quality levels.
The lack of NFC won’t worry too many people, but it does take away one of the cooler elements of the phone, as it means you can no longer tap to pair with Nokia’s range of wireless headphones and speaker docks. It also makes the addition of a Wallet app Wireless charging isn’t included either, but given the added cost this brings, we can see why it’s out.
What is more confusing, in both a good and bad way, is the spec list. Firstly, the phone is a little heavier than you might expect from something covered in plastic (admittedly rubberised polycarbonate), as it tips the scales at 159g. It’s also only got 512MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage – with less available thanks to the OS.
But don’t worry about that, as you can now put a 64GB microSD card in there too in order to add in movies and music and photos without having to constantly connect up to your computer (or save it on the 7GB of SkyDrive storage on offer).
In the hand, the Nokia Lumia 625 doesn’t feel really impressive, nor does it feel cheap. It just feels, well, uninspiring. It’s rounded in a nice way, it’s a little thick but squarely hits the marks you’d expect for a phone that is half the cost (and then some) of the Samsung Galaxy S4. Windows Phone 8 is nicely packaged with the larger screen, and even the WVGA resolution (800 x 640) doesn’t irk as much as it should.
It’s also got a dedicated camera button and the removable shell for changing the colour of your phone to suit an outfit – and no matter what happens we can’t help but love that, whether you see it as some beautiful nostalgia or just something that means you’re not carrying around an identikit black oblong in your pocket.
But there’s nothing really impressive to say about the Lumia 625. It has got a larger screen, but while it doesn’t look horrendous, colours aren’t as vivid, web browsing is pixelated when zoomed out and although we couldn’t test any, video is unlikely to look stellar.
We honestly don’t think users are wanting cheaper 4G phones just yet – in the UK 4G is still a luxury, and many users want something that will actually work and delight rather than just offer a faster connection.
We still don’t have any idea on a global release for this phone beyond ‘Q3’ although we do know it will be landing in the UK during September.
Early verdict
We walked away from playing with the Nokia Lumia 625 feeling distinctly underwhelmed. In a vacuum, this would be an interesting device, with a larger screen and low price point for Windows Phone.
But the 625 is a handset with around 11 Windows Phone brethren, and that makes it hard to work out where this fits. The Lumia 620 is not long into this world and already it’s being upgraded, and it’s with a phone that doesn’t feel anything like an evolution. Depending on the shop, a user could be left thoroughly confused about which phone is right for them.
Is a larger screen the most important thing to some people? Is 4G so entrenched that users are desperate to get it cheaper? Is a low end phone in a sea of others going to make any waves? The answer to all of these questions feels like a resounding no, which means we can only wonder if the Lumia 625 will survive without any other USPs.
However, fingers crossed this heralds a move from Nokia to start to bring larger-screened phones to the world – something like that 4.7-inch screen at a higher resolution would be a much more attractive choice.
Lower carrier subsidy could push the 625 into a decent proposition for some and it may benefit from a major marketing push when the big UK 4G rollout comes later this year, but without that we can see the phone sinking without a trace.
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