Nokia Lumia 620 - Best Budget Smartphone

The Nokia Lumia 620 is Nokia's latest entry to the budget phone series but they made sure that everything about this phone doesn't feel low end at all.

Since the Nokia Lumia 620 is under the Lumia line, Nokia has ensured that it be as striking and vibrant in terms of design yet have that sense of end user friendliness that Nokia has been renowned for. Nokia Lumia 620 has been given a dual colored shell (Changeable Dual Colored Shells that is built to last as the color goes all the way through so that even if there are scratches it wont show) that houses a smartphone which delivers everything you'd expect from the Windows Phone 8. Live Tiles means the ability to personalize your "Start Screen" with people and apps that truly matter to you and on the plus side, you get to watch them update in real time. All this is shown on a ClearBlack Display that brings every detail to life even if you are under direct sunlight.

Nokia's unique camera features and exclusive applications also gives users a whole new way of seeing the world and of course how you share it with people that matter. The Nokia Lumia 620 is also equipped with a High Performance Speaker, inbuilt Dolby Headphone Technology with an enhanced noise-cancellation system, it guarantees that the Nokia Lumia 620 not only looks good but sounds just as great too.

Special Features:

Windows Phone 8 with SkyDrive - Windows phone 8 is unlike any other operating system. It is elegant, intuitive and it allows you to personalize your smartphone like never before. With the SkyDrive, all your windows files are truly mobile. Sync your stuff across your Windows devices and access your media files and documents from practically anywhere you are in the globe.

Smart Shoot - Nokia Smart Shoot automatically takes multiple shots with a single click so you can get to choose what you want to keep, like the best smiles, to create the perfect image.

Cinemagraph - is a magical blend of photo and movie-like animation, creating pictures that seem almost alive. Helpful on-screen assistance lets you select the animated area of your picture and easily create a Cinemagraph. The end result is quite enchanting.

Nokia Drive - Free turn by turn voice guided navigation. Simply select your destination, get the speed limit warnings, and find your way faster. You can even access to offline global maps (including a number of other countries) at no additional cost on Nokia Drive.

Stream Unlimited Free Music - If you are a music lover, you can simply stream it for free and unlimited with Nokia Music. Nokia Music allows you to tap into the latest tracks or create your own channels based on the artists you love. It has never been easier to access great music for free anywhere and everywhere you go.

Nokia City Lens - Hold up your Lumia and City Lens shall instantly reveal what is around you. This exclusive augmented reality application is a more intuitive way to navigate the real world. From restaurant reviews to places of interest, you'll get the real picture in real time.

Nokia Lumia Full Specifications:

DESIGN

• Device type:
  • Smart phone
• OS:
  • Windows Phone 8
• Dimensions:
  • 4.54 x 2.41 x 0.43 inches (115.4 x 61.1 x 11 mm)
• Weight:
  • 4.48 oz (127 g)
    the average is 4.3 oz (124 g)

DISPLAY

• Physical size:
  • 3.8 inches
• Resolution:
  • 480 x 800 pixels
• Pixel density:
  • 246 ppi
• Technology:
  • TFT
• Colors:
  • 16 777 216
• Touchscreen:
  • • Capacitive, Multi-touch
• Features:
  • Light sensor, Proximity sensor

BATTERY

• Talk time:
  • 14.60 hours
    the average is 9 h (563 min)
• Talk time (3G):
  • 9.90 hours
    the average is 8 h (497 min)
• Stand-by time (3G):
  • 13.8 days (330 hours)
    the average is 19 days (466 h)
• Capacity:
  • 1300 mAh

HARDWARE

• System chip:
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8227
• Processor:
  • Dual core, 1000 MHz, Krait
• Graphics processor:
  • • Adreno 305
• System memory:
  • 512 MB RAM
• Built-in storage:
  • 8 GB
• Storage expansion:
  • microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC up to 64 GB

CAMERA

• Camera:
  • • 5 megapixels
  • Flash:
    • LED
  • Aperture size:
    • F2.4
  • Features:
    • Auto focus, Touch to focus, White balance presets, Geo tagging, Scenes
• Camcorder:
  • • 1280x720 (720p HD) (30 fps)
  • Features:
    • Video light, Video calling
• Front-facing camera:
  • • 0.3 megapixels VGA

MULTIMEDIA

• Music player:
  • Filter by:
    • Album, Artist, Genre, Playlists
  • Features:
    • Album art cover, Background playback
• Speakers:
  • Earpiece, Loudspeaker

INTERNET BROWSING

• Browser:
  • • Internet Explorer 10
• Built-in online services support:
  • Facebook, YouTube (upload), Twitter

TECHNOLOGY

• GSM:
  • 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• UMTS:
  • 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• Data:
  • HSDPA+ (4G) 21.1 Mbit/s, HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS
• Positioning:
  • A-GPS, S-GPS, Glonass, Cell ID, Wi-Fi positioning
• Navigation:
  • Turn-by-turn navigation, Voice navigation

Overall the Nokia Lumia is a pretty powerful device, despite it's current position as an entry level introduction to the new Nokia Lumia line. It runs smooth without any lag issues and camera pictures turn out to be great considering that it only uses a 5MP camera. It is true to its campaign of easy to use especially with the Windows 8 platform. It packs just the right amount of features and so much more that it truly brings a lot to the table considering that is priced to compete with others in the budget range.

How it shall perform on a a day to day basis, that is something that I would like to get to hear about from Nokia Lumia 620 users. If you happen to have this unit, I would appreciate the feedback and your thoughts on the device. Simply leave a comment below.

Till Next Time...

-Metz-

HTC 8X - The Windows Phone to Beat

I have been such an avid IOS and Android phone user for the past couple of years because of how much they had to offer and yet using it was quite seamless and natural. Now Microsoft wants a piece of that pie and has been releasing version after version of phones in partnership with brands such as Nokia, Samsung and HTC. Somehow it wasn't received well and not much hype was built around it to interest the common buyer and for tech heavy people the features and designs that they came with wasn't at par with that of the other smartphone competitors. That has begun to change at the start of this year with the introduction of the new smartphone lines now carrying Windows Live Tiles 7.5 and Windows 8 Metro Tiles OS. Here you'll get to see what HTC has been able to create in the HTC 8X.

I'll most likely discuss more about the new Windows 8 which features Live tiles in a future post but just to give you a gist of what it offers that is different, Microsoft has made applications, which are normally represented as icons or widgets in other OS platforms, that you want displayed on your main screen into tile formats that display information you choose. These tiles get updated with images, messages and so on and it can be adjusted in any size and in any position on the main screen and is quite smooth to operate. Generally the tiles are colored in very vibrant color schemes that is meant to appeal to people that want to stand out. The Windows 8 Platform does provide a lot of promise and it seems that Manufacturers like HTC has taken this into account and has answered the call to create something to match that need in particular with the HTC 8X.

HTC has been praised when it comes to the way they have been designing their phones since the start of this year with the launch of their HTC One X. They have now started to apply the same design concepts with the HTC 8X and was able to create an iconic design that might very well be the most iconic design for a Windows 8 SmartPhone. But with design they have also impressively matched with hardware as they have incorporated the same imaging technology that made their HTC One X such a big hit.

Here's a quick run through of what the HTC 8X has to offer:

HTC really took a lot into consideration with how the HTC 8X is designed and just to show case the process of how they did it, here is a behind the scenes look of  how they were able to conceptualized the HTC 8X.

In the battle of the Smartphone OS Titans, Microsoft is really showing a lot of promises in terms of what it is bringing to the table and if played right they could potentially become a big player in this fight for Smartphone OS supremacy. For now HTC 8X is seemingly a good contender to be that flagship but  is it enough to capture a big chunk of the pie, that is still something we would have to see.

Till the Next Time...

-Metz-