Nokia Lumia 720: A Nokia Lumia 920 Light?

If the Nokia Lumia 920 is too much for your budget, the Nokia 720 is a solid alternative. It delivers the same aesthetics and has a lot of similar features including a kick-ass camera (not as good as the PureView of the 920 but very respectable), NFC, Wireless Charging capabilities, and a spacious 4.3-inch ClearBlack display. You also get a lot of storage with this one since you can expand it via microSD up to 64GB. Nokia announced that the SRP is 240 Euros which is roughly Php13,000 directly converted so that’s really not a bad deal at all! I daresay the Nokia Lumia 720 is one of the very best in terms of value-for-money in the Lumia line-up.

Nokia Lumia 720 Spec Sheet

• 1GHz Dual-core ARM CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Processor
• Adren 305 Graphics
• 512MB RAM
• 8GB Internal Storage, expandable up to 64GB via microSD
• 4.3-inches IPS LCD Capacitive Touchscreen, 800 x 480 pixels (~217ppi)
• Nokia ClearBlack Display, Corning Gorilla Glass 2
• 6.7-megapixels rear-facing camera with autofocus, LED Flash, Carl Zeiss optics, F1.9 Aperture
• Records video 720p@30fps
• 1.3-megapixels front-facing camera
• WiFi a/b/g/n, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, 3G, HSDPA
• GPS/A-GPS with GLONASS
• 2,000mAh Battery
• Microsoft Windows Phone 8 OS

Read on for our hands-on and initial impressions!

Built like a Lumia

Nokia has fully embraced the design principles and aesthetics that they initially introduced with the first line of Lumias. Their latest model, the Nokia Lumia 720, remains faithful to their creative direction. The device sports the familiar unibody design, flat body, and squared-off corners. It’s a Lumia through and through.

In the hand the Nokia Lumia 720 is quite comfortable and easy to hold given the compact 4.3-inches display and slim form factor. Just like other Lumias it has a little heft to it which actually make sit a little more comfortable to operate and use with one hand.

Like what we said earlier though don’t think for a second that this is a bare-bones stripped Lumia with just a different screen size. The Lumia 720 is packed with a lot of features that actually almost can elevate it to flagship status.

Potentially awesome camera, high storage capacity, and good battery life

These are the three main features that excite us with the Nokia Lumia 720. First up we have the camera. It’s just 6.7-megapixels but as we’ve learned from HTC, the number of megapixels doesn’t necessarily mean you have the best camera. The quality of the optics, specs of the phone, and more all work together to capture that image to your liking and satisfaction.

While we weren’t able to test the camera for ourselves Nokia showcased a lot of photos taken with the Nokia Lumia 720 during the event and we can say that they were impressive, especially the ones taken in low light conditions. The F1.9 aperture really does a great job in capturing as much light as it can.

Another great feature of the Lumia 720 is the storage. Internal storage is 8GB but you can supersize it by just adding in a 64GB microSD card. This is actually something that even the Nokia Lumia 920 can’t do (which I find weird lol).

Last, but definitely not the least, is the potentially looooooong battery life. The battery of the Lumia 720 is rated at 2,000mAh, the same battery used in the bigger, faster, and pricier Nokia Lumia 920. Hopefully we can get through a day without having to need to charge *wishful thinking mode: on*.

Anyway, these are three of the features that we’re excited to test when we get our hands on an actual unit and we have the time to put it through the paces. 🙂

Smooth, almost lag-free user experience

Despite the “more affordable” price tag, Microsoft Windows Phone 8 runs fast on the Nokia Lumia 720. This is probably due to the optimization done by Microsoft and Nokia. The only time we experienced considerable lags and delays was when we tried searching for contacts on the People app. Other than that it was a near flawless experience. Massive props and kudos to Nokia and Microsoft for this one.

Excited to see this in the Philippines

The Nokia Lumia 720 is the only device on the Mobile World Congress exhibition floor that we asked if we could buy it on the spot. Mainly because the value we could get for the device for the price we were paying looked pretty good. That said we can’t wait for this device to hit the shores of the Philippines. Hopefully it won’t take as long as the Nokia Lumia 920, 820, and 620 took.

Please note that while this is a rather glowing review this is still based on our initial impressions. We’ll try to give you guys a more comprehensive take (especially on the camera) once we get our hands on a unit.