Hands on: Nokia Lumia 720 review

| at Monday, February 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

As well as the budget Nokia 520, Nokia also announced the Lumia 720 at MWC 2013.

The new handsets join Nokia's increasingly broad Lumia range, slotting in around the Lumia 620, 820 and 920 for Windows Phone 8.

The 4.3-inch 720 retains the familiar unibody casing and it's available in five different colours - we've opted to photograph the rather striking mustard yellow. Do you like it? We actually do.

If you've used a Lumia before, the new model will seem unremarkable, but it is a lot lighter than the high-end Lumias at just 128g.

The phone will make its debut in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore soon - the Nokia Lumia 720 UK release date is likely to be in the Spring. It seems the US release date will be further out.

Performance of the handset is snappy - there's a 1Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor inside - but the screen doesn't innvovate - it's 800 x 480 just like the 820's 4.3-inch display. It 217ppi though, and it has a high enough resolution to make some third-party live tiles look a little substandard.

However, all the standard OS and Nokia Here add-on apps look the part, and you won't be disappointed with how things look.

The camera is, again, a selling point for Nokia; Carl Zeiss optics are used as usual, although it's only a 6.7MP snapper. Pictures did look vibrant though, but some images were a bit blurry under the MWC show lights.

Video is 720p at 30fps, while the front camera has a resolution of 1280 x 960.

We've always liked how the Lumias look and feel in the hand, but some of the handsets have been a little too big for our liking. 4.3-inches is a good size

On the top of the handset there's a 3.5mm headphone jack and you can see the camera lens and flash here too.

On the side are the standard three Lumia buttons - volume, screen on/off and the camera control. This picture makes the handset look a lot thicker than it actually is - it's 9mm.

Towards the bottom of the back is a speaker as well as three tiny holes for a Wireless Charging cover, which fits on the back of the device..

Early verdict

The Lumia 720 doesn't have the high end features we've come to expect from the more expensive Lumia's but it does have a decent spec sheet for something that's bound to be available on next-to-nothing contracts. Nokia wants to spread the Lumia's appeal - and that of Windows Phone 8 - and sees this and the low end 520 as crucial to its hopes.