Nokia Lumia 720 Review

The construction of the phone isn’t as solid as the Nokia Lumia 920 and the quality of the material seems to be different from its bigger bro but the phone is effin light. It is one of the lightest phone that I’ve tried and reviewed. I think there may be a chance that you can break it if the phone fell on a very solid ground. Unfortunately, the phone’s construction is unibody and you can’t remove the back cover just like the 920. Unlike the Lumia 920 that has a flat top and bottom, this one has curve edges on all sides. The Nokia Lumia 720 is a real beauty, it’s thin and sexy. It’s the best-designed Windows Phone for me.

The 4.3” Clearblack display is one of the things that I really hate on the white paper  because of its small screen and WVGA resolution but it doesn’t disappoint after I used it. It isn’t one of its biggest strengths but the display is quite good for a WVGA. But of course, nothing beats browsing and playing on a HD screen. Nonetheless, it doesn’t disappoint and the sunlight legibility is average.

One of its advantages over the Nokia Lumia 920 and the other Windows Phone 8 phones is this one has a MicroSD card slot. Yes, the flagship doesn’t have that while the Lumia 820 and 720 has one. And just like the Micro-Sim card slot, you’ll need to have a pin to eject the MicroSD Card tray. Sometimes I get confused which is which because there’s no label if it’s a MicroSD tray or a Micro-Sim tray. Speaking of that, the phone can only handle HSPA+ and there’s no LTE. Didn’t expect that much from the phone but it is acceptable since this is just a mid-range phone from Nokia.

The Nokia Lumia 720 only has an 8 GIGs of storage but if you’re planning to put on a lot of media files on the device then I suggest that you get a MicroSD card for that since you can’t use the who 8 GB of the phone. Transferring files from PC to the Nokia Lumia 720 is a little bit of a pain since you’ll need to have that Windows Phone Connector on your desktop.

One of the things that I loved about it is the battery life of the Nokia Lumia 720. It’s the second longest that I’ve tried on a smartphone. The battery life of the Nokia Lumia 720 last up to 2 days of average use. Not bad for a Windows Phone. I really didn’t expect that since the phone is very light and the construction of the phone is very slim. I didn’t expect that the phone could handle that juice. Here’s a screenshot of the battery life of the Nokia Lumia 720:

The sound quality is really not that loud but it is acceptable for me. And if you have a wireless charger at home, you might want to try it on the device since the phone supports wireless charging. But I would still prefer charging on a Micro-USB charger rather than the wireless one.

Nokia is known for making devices with devices with great camera capabilities. The Nokia 808 Pureview and the Nokia Lumia 920 are just some of their amazing products. This one packs an amazing camera too just like its bigger brothers but it doesn’t pack an 8.7 MP Carl Zeiss Camera instead the Nokia Lumia 720 features a 6.7 MP BSI Carl Zeiss Camera. It might not have the OIS of the Nokia Lumia 920 but It can produce bright videos and images even at lowlight because of its aperture. Nokia is very proud of its f1.9 aperture that allows more light to the camera. But of course, the LED flash would come in handy if there’s no light. There’s a 1.3 MP camera for video calls and for your vanity needs. Oh and both cameras are wide angle. Here are some of the images that I took using the Nokia Lumia 720:

The phone can’t record 1080p videos but it can record 720p HD videos. Since it doesn’t have an OIS feature just like the Lumia 920, the videos would be sometimes shaky if you don’t have a steady hand. The Nokia Lumia 720 can focus immediately and the video quality was really good. Here, check out the video recording of the Nokia Lumia 720:

It might have a good camera but it can’t replace our point and shoots and SLRs compared to the Nokia Lumia 920 which came in very handy because of its overwhelming and great camera. Well at least, the phone is better than some of the flagship phone’s camera.

The Nokia Lumia 720 is powered by Windows Phone 8 and again, it doesn’t fail to impress me. The phone is still powered by a Dual-Core Snapdragon processor but there’s one thing that I really didn’t like about the phone. The Nokia Lumia 720 only has a 512 MB of RAM. Yeah, I know. That’s okay for a mid-ranger. But that doesn’t apply on Windows Phone 8. Why? Because some apps and games like Real Racing 2 and Temple Run requires 1 GB of RAM on a Windows Phone 8. I know, it’s really weird that they require the devices to have a Gig of RAM while their Android counterparts could run those apps even at a Single core device with 512 MB of RAM. 

Don’t worry about the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram anymore on the Windows Phone because there’s the Facebook Beta that is on par with the Android and iOS counterpart, the Twitter for Windows Phone is already nice while the Instagram already has a free 3rd party Instagram client called Itsdagraph that enables you to upload images to Instagram for free. You might miss some of the games on the Android and iOS but don’t worry, there are other alternatives. If you’re planning on switching to Windows Phone, I suggest that you check out the apps you’ll need on a smartphone before buying this one. Up until now, Windows Phone needs more apps on their app store. 

Of course, there are Nokia Exclusive apps on the Windows Phone store like the Here Maps. One of the things that you’ll love about the Nokia Lumia phones is the Nokia City Lens, which gives you an augmented reality of the nearby places that you want to check out. It came in handy to me when I was in Fort Bonifacio and I was looking for a certain store.

The Nokia Lumia 720 might have the same dual-core processor of Nokia Lumia 920 but this one has a lesser performance. You might not notice it but the Nokia Lumia 920 still wins in terms of performance because of its larger RAM and faster processor but nonetheless, the Nokia Lumia 720 is still great and fast thanks to the Windows Phone 8. 

Nokia Lumia 720 isn’t the best Windows Phone 8 in terms of specifications but it is the best Windows Phone 8 for me considering its form factor, price and its features. It might still have the iconic Lumia design but the Nokia Lumia 720 is the one of the best phones in its form factor. The phone packs a great camera and a long battery life but it doesn’t sacrifice the thin and light body of the Nokia Lumia 720. I would love the Nokia Lumia 720 as my 2nd phone. The features of this phone are just amazing. Too bad, there are a lot of apps that I really need on Android that are not on Windows Phone 8. The Nokia Lumia 720 is now available at stores for P14,990