With the Windows Phone 8 device portfolio still relatively small, it’s been left up to the likes of Nokia to help flesh out the device range and at MWC this year, they did just that with the arrival of the Nokia Lumia 520 and 720. As Nokia’s numbering suggests, the 720 is supposed to sit between the already established Nokia Lumia 620 and Lumia 820, with a few unique features, some of which we’ve never seen on a smartphone before actually making it feel closer to an 820 replacement than a lesser device.
The first thing we noticed was of course the colour: in true Windows Phone 8 style, the Lumia 720 is available in a number of punchy colours (yellow, red and cyan) as well as more conservative black and white variations. Unlike the two aforementioned Nokias, the 720, like the flagship Lumia 920, utilises a unibody construction, making for a strong, sturdy build quality with a polycarbonate body with consistent colour to help hide those nicks and scrapes as the handsets deals with the trials of everyday life.
Like the 820, there’s a bright 4.3-inch WVGA (480×800) ClearBlack LCD on the front, however viewing angles didn’t appear to be as impressive as its bigger brother’s were when we reviewed it late last year. Above the display is a front facing 1.3-megapixel camera and on the back is an unusual 6.7-megapixel snapper.
As you’d expect, the Windows Phone user experience felt as premium as ever and highly responsive, even with the mid-range hardware under the hood (a 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB of RAM). Although the 720 employs a unibody construction Nokia have included not one but two removable trays; one for the microSIM and the other for a microSD card, with support for up to 64GB alongside the 8GB of internal storage.
We liked the premium look and feel and like the potential price tag even more, with Nokia suggesting a £220 cost when it hits Europe later this year.
Leave a Reply