Nokia’s Lumia 625 is a peculiar handset. Technically a successor to the colourful Lumia 620 that was launched back in December 2012, specifications and size wise, it is more closer to the Lumia 720 than it is to its so called predecessor. Anyway, until recently, the Lumia 625 was the largest screened Windows Phone powered device made by Nokia. They recently launched their new phablets – the 1520 and the 1320 with much larger displays and thereby relegating the Lumia 625 to the third spot amongst Nokia phones when it comes to screen size. Anyway, back to the Lumia 625, let’s start of by talking about the..
Display
Like I mentioned, the Lumia 625 was until recently the largest screened Windows Phone made by Nokia. The display measured in at 4.7 inches and had a resolution of 480*800 pixels. This LCD panel is capable of displaying 16 million colors and as expected, is capacitive in nature. For added durability, there is the now standard Gorilla Glass 2 coating being implemented as well. Now, thanks to the rather low resolution and the large screen size, there is a widespread assumption that the overall viewing experience on this device will be below par – which is basically a bunch of tripe because the Lumia 625 screen is actually quite good. The colors are crisp and not once did the lower resolution bother me. All this while, I was using the LG Optimus G Pro and the LG G2 both of which have crisp full HD panels and I didn’t particularly feel “bad” whenever I switched to the Lumia 625.
While the text and stuff is less sharper, it is certainly not unreadable. On the flip side, the viewing angles are a bit iffy and if you are really used to crisper, high res panels, you might be put off. Sun light readability is not that great and you might have to change to a different color scheme to be able to see stuff. It would have been great if the phone had a 720p display. You can also change the color temperature settings in 11 steps giving you an option to choose from a cool, neutral and to a warm setting – whatever suits your eye. Then of course there is the super touch sensitivity that will let you use the phone with your gloves on.
Design and Build
The Lumia 625 has a very unassuming design. It doesn’t strike you with its beauty like say how the Lumia 925 does. The unit that I received came in red. Now when I say red, I should add that it is only the plastic cover that is red. It is just a attachment to the phone which houses a non removable battery and a sealed design. You will need to remove the cover to access the SIM card and the memory card slot.
The cover is easily removable and I am being told that you can buy extra covers for the phone if you are bored of using the same color for days. It was interesting to note that the Lumia 625 becomes a whole lot thinner if you remove the cover. Once you remove the cover, you will notice the usual robust Nokia build quality. This phone is built to last for sure. Like I said, this handset is no beauty contest winner – but will do the job.
Thanks to the uniformity that Microsoft seeks for all Windows Phone handsets, there is little to talk about the control buttons on the Lumia 625. Right below the display are the back, Windows and search keys that is common to all Windows Phone as well. There is a lone micro USB port at the bottom. While the left side is bare, the right side is home to the sleep/wakeup and power button, the volume rocker keys and the dedicated camera button. The customary 3.5mm jack is at the top.
Music and Multimedia
Nokia is pretty serious about its music offerings and like others from its Lumia line up, this one too comes with a subscription to FREE song downloads from the Nokia Music app. You can download as many songs as you want for free and get to keep and share them as well. This is of course a lower quality file – but still gets the job done. Users always have the option to purchase better, higher quality versions. From the Music and Videos menu, users can also acces Nokia’s Mix radio which is basically Nokia’s own music streaming app with a comprehensive library of songs. The best thing about Mix Radio is the fact that you can download music from the app – again for free. I tried a usually hard to find Malayalam language song and could download it to my phone. There is a strange limitation in the app, though. You are allowed to skip just 6 songs in an hour. Here’s a screenshot of the message that pops up when you try to skip the sixth track I was playing. Interestingly, you can go into another album or music folder and playback stuff from there – but cannot skip tracks within the album!
Then there is FM Radio thrown in as well for which you would need to attach the supplied earphones. Now, I was not particularly happy with the kind of earphones provided with the 625. They are plasticky and are not the in-ear kind which I always find to be uncomfortable to wear. Sound quality wise though, they do a decent job. I would strongly suggest getting your own better quality standalone earphones to use with the phone, though.
Music playback quality is right up there with the best in town- only let down by the uncomfortable earphones. The default music player also gets decent amount of enhancements with a built in equalizer with a custom mode. There is support for Dolby Earphones and sound levelling.
The music hub also integrates the video player and lists all the videos you have on the phone. Video playback, while having greatly improved with added codec support, still throw up some issues. One particular issue was random error messages throwing up whilst streaming videos. The Lumia 625 also bundles in the Your Movies application that lets users download full length movies for free for a limited period. You can sign up and purchase movies once the trial period is over.
Camera
The Lumia 625 gets a decent sounding 5 megapixel camera with LED flash thrown in for low light imaging. This seems to be only a slight upgrade over the much lesser priced Lumia 520 which also bundles a 5 MP shooter albeit minus the flash. The 625 can also capture videos in full HD. In terms of the camera interface, this is the same old one seen on almost all Lumias. While the much better Nokia Pro Camera application is not officially available for the 625, there are workarounds by which users can get the same on to the Lumia 625.
Image quality isn’t exceptional but is great for a 5 megapixel shooter. Colors seem washed out at times and tend to be oversharp as well. I was overall impressed with the camera. Like all other Lumia’s this one too supports Nokia’a various lenses like Cinemagraph and Nokia Smart Cam. Video quality – especially in low and difficult lighting conditions too looked great for a phone of its class. You would be hard pressed to find a handset with better video capabilities at this price – so full marks to Nokia for that.
Here are some sample images from the camera
Connectivity
On the connectivity front, the Lumia 625 comes loaded with almost everything except for the notable exception of NFC – which is not much of a botheration anyway. There is support for quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support, tri-band 3G with HSPA and tri-band 4G LTE connectivity – which covers pretty much a wide spectrum of networks. WLAN support is there with support for single band Wi-Fi b/g/n networks. There i Bluetooth 4.0 as well with support for file transfer as well.
Your window to the world on the Lumia 625 is the Internet Explorer browser that Microsoft bundles with Windows Phone. While I am used to using other browsers, I should add that browsing on the Lumia 625 was a good experience thanks to the snappiness of the browser and the slightly larger display. You might feel at times that a higher display resolution would have been great – but hey, this one does the job pretty well.
Overall
The Lumia 625 is no doubt a decent handset. Currently retailing for around the Rs.15,100 to 16,000 mark, the 625 faces competition from its older cousin, the Lumia 720 which is also priced at around the same price range. While the 720 is the higher end variant of the two, it should be noted that the 625 has a slightly faster processor, larger display and full HD video recording capability. The 720 has a slightly better camera (6.7 megapixels) – which seems to be the only advantage you get featureswise. For a person on the lookout for a fast, no frills smartphone, the Lumia 620 fits the bill perfectly. With the GDR3 update expected sometime next year, the phone is futureproof by quite a margin as well. If you are on the lookout for a decent mid range handset and wish to steer clear of the Android junta, the Lumia 625 looks like a perfect option.
