Affordable with a few trade-off — that’s the Lumia 630. But, its too early to judge. Please read my full review after the break.
The Nokia Lumia series has always been known for its hip and vibrant design. The Nokia Lumia 630, which was released last month, retains the same design but with a much more wallet-friendly price.
Design
Without a doubt, Nokia Lumia 630’s design not only looks vibrant, but it is also well-designed. It comes in bright orange, bright green, bright yellow, white, and black. We got the bright orange unit for this review. Orange is usually a tacky color, but Nokia has a way of making bright orange looks sleek and elegant. Its back cover almost looks like and feels like a silicon case. In fact, I’ve mistaken it for a case the very first time I opened the back cover.
Except for the volume rocker and the power button on the right side, there are no other physical buttons. This phone comes with soft keys for the back, search, and home buttons instead of having physical or capacitive buttons.
Features
You have the option to use Twitter, Facebook, or the Weather app as your background on the lock screen. What’s great about this option is upon unlocking the screen, the latest updates from my Twitter timeline are displayed beautifully.
The Windows 8.1 also comes with a notifications center similar to Android. Like in Android OS, you simply have to pull down from the top of the screen. It also serves as the “control center”. But it is worth noting that the controls isn’t that comprehensive. It only provides shortcut to WiFi, Bluetooth, camera, and brightness settings. Instead of giving full control for the brightness, you are limited to choosing “low”, “medium”, or “high”.
Camera
The Nokia Lumia 630 sports a 5 MP rear camera. It performs well when there is good lighting. Taking photos indoors isn’t impressive. But it performs better than most 5 MP cameras. When opening the camera, however, there is a three-second delay. After pressing the camera icon, the “loading…” screen will display. This is quite odd most especially if you’re used to using an iPhone wherein the camera lens opens instantaneously.
For people who love taking selfies, you might be disappointed that there is no front camera. This might be one of the reasons why the Nokia Lumia 630 is more affordable compared to the high-end versions of the Lumia series. Depending on how you use your smartphone, this can either be a pro or a con. A pro if you don’t normally use your phone for Skyping or video calling. A con if you take tons of selfies, use your front camera as a mirror, or if you connect with friends and family through video calls.
Performance
The Nokia Lumia 630 runs Windows Phone 8.1. It is fast and responsive. Its quad-core processor is also responsible for its fast performance. Browsing the apps and using the phone overall provides a smooth experience.
However, using a Windows Phone means that you don’t get all the apps that are available on Google Play and App Store. So, this limits the experience. In addition, popular apps like Facebook aren’t exactly the same as its Android or iOS counterpart.
A quick summary of Nokila Lumia 630 Specs:
• Dual SIM
• 8 GB, 512 RAM
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
• Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
• microsSD up to 128 GB
• 5MP, 2592X1994 pixels
• IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen
• 854 x 480 pixels in resolution
• Removable Li-Ion 1830 mAh battery
The Nokia Lumia 630’s official SRP is 7,990.
