Nokia has been one of the few phone-makers who is reluctant to cross the 4.5" screen-size, to retain single-handed usability. However, following the huge success of Samsung's 5-incher GALAXY Grand, the Finns couldn't ignore the large chunk of the market that believes "Bigger the Better". Finally, the company unveiled the 625 with a 4.7" screen. Packed with a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 chipset and 5 megapixel camera, this Windows Phone 8 device costs around Rs 16,000 on online stores. Let's find out if it's worth your money.

Design And Build
The 625 is yet another colourful Lumia to feature a polycarbonate shell. The phone is available in red, green, yellow, white, and black. Nokia has used translucent polycarbonate material, which somewhat glows in sunlight. In terms of design, it aims for the 720’s slim body, while retaining the sporty look of the 620. The screen is curved around the edges, which makes the transition between the display and body appear seamless. Although its screen-size is larger than other Lumia phones, the 625 is perfectly fine for single-handed use. The phone has a matte finish that helps with the grip.



Removing the back-panel gives you access to the microSD and SIM cards, but the battery is not user-replaceable. The button placement is a standard Lumia affair. The Volume rocker, Lock button, and shutter key are on the right side. A 3.5 mm jack is at the top, while the bottom side hosts a micro-USB port. Simply put, the design and construction are bright points for this phone. That said, it’s not as good looking as the 720.

Display
The 625 sports a 4.7" IPS screen, protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2. The panel’s colour reproduction is quite good. It also packs in a plethora of usability features such as Sunlight Readability Enhancement, High Brightness Mode, and Super Sensitive Touch. However, since it lacks the ClearBlack polarisation filter, the blacks aren’t as good as that of the 620. The biggest downer here is the pixel dimensions of 480x800 on a 4.7” screen.  That makes for around 200 ppi, which takes away the crispiness we’ve been used to seeing on the Lumia phones.

Specs
The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU and Adreno 305 GPU. Other features include a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with an LED flash, 512 MB of RAM, 8 GB internal storage, and microSD card slot (up to 64 GB). Other than the higher CPU clock speed, the hardware specifications are fairly similar to those of the Lumia 620. To keep the phone powered, there’s a 2000 mAh battery. Full specifications are at the end of this article.

UI And Apps
The Lumia 625 features Windows Phone 8 GDR2 (or simply called Amber for Nokia) out of the box. The interface remains the same; you get dynamic live tiles that push the important notifications right on the homepage. Similar to Android, the WP8 platform supports mass storage mode and Bluetooth file sharing options. And of course, you can share internet with up to eight devices using the Wi-Fi hotspot feature. The new Amber features include flip-to-silence, FM radio, and Smart Cam, which the 625 features out-of-the-box. However, due to the lack of ClearBack screen tech, Glance screen is missing.

Being a Windows Phone device, the 625 comes tightly-integrated with Microsoft’s Office Suite and SkyDrive. Moreover, the Finish manufacturer has also thrown in its very own exclusive apps including Nokia Music, Here Maps+, PhotoBeamer, and a plethora of digital camera add-ons. One thing worth mentioning here is that despite the not so fancy, 1.2 GHz processor, the phone doesn’t lag at all. Although the Microsoft's platform is growing at a good pace, it's still no match for Android's platform, when it comes to gaming. Moreover, due to 512 MB of RAM very few apps (about 0.3%) aren't compatible with this device. If you wish to enjoy all the latest Windows Phone games, the 820 is your best bet.

Camera
The phone packs in a 5 megapixel camera with an LED flash to keep it company. The phone comes with Lumia-exclusive lenses such as Cinemagraph, Smart shoot, and Panorama. Check out our tutorial on how to make most of these digital camera lenses. The camera captures very good images, with a lot of detail and natural colours. That said, it's till no match for the Lumia 720's camera with PureView branding. You can check the untouched sample here. Although not officially available, you can Install Pro Cam on the Lumia 625. Using this app, you can play around with shutter speed, white balance, ISO, exposure, and focus.

The Lumia 625 can record 1080p videos at 30 fps. The resulting MP4 clips offer good amount of detail and stutter-free playback.

Multimedia
Apart from the default music player, the phone features Nokia Music that offers free track downloads from a library of over 9 million songs. Moreover, you get Dolby sound enhancements and equaliser settings. As already mentioned, the FM radio has also been duly covered. Coming to the subject of video playback, the handset managed to handle 1080p MP4, WMV, and AVI without an issue. With 625, you also get the exclusive Your Movies app that lets you download or stream over a 3000 movies for free.

Telephony And Messaging
People Hub offers deep social networking integration. It puts all your contacts from Facebook, Windows Live, Twitter, and LinkedIn in one place. The phone comes with 'Call + SMS filter' that lets you get rid of unwanted callers. The keyboard is very responsive and is designed to minimise typos. As you can expect from Nokia, the call quality is loud and clear.

Battery
The phone comes with a non-user replaceable 2000 mAh Li-Ion battery. In our video loop test, with brightness set to medium, the phone lasted for around 6 hours and 30 minutes. What’s more impressive is that under normal usage, the phone easily lasts for two days on a single charge. That’s quite impressive for a mid-range smartphone.

Verdict
The Lumia 625 is a well-built smartphone that offers pleasant UI. Apart from Microsoft's Office Suite integration, the phone comes with a lot of goodies from Nokia including offline voice-guided navigation, free music downloads for a year, and camera enhancements. The display comes with some useful enhancements including the sunlight readability mode, but is let-down by the low-pixel density. At Rs 16,000, the 620 is definitely better than the GALAXY Grand that retails for 19k. However, if you're confused between the 720 and 625, we'll suggest you spend a few hundred more and go for the Lumia 720, as it packs in a brilliant camera and a much better screen.

Features: 4/5
Design And Build Quality: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Value For Money: 3.5/5
Mojo: 3.5/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Specifications:

• Windows Phone 8.
• 4.7" multi-touchscreen with pixel dimensions of 480x800.
• 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU.
• 512 MB RAM, 8 GB internal storage, Support for up to 64 GB microSDXC.
• 5 megapixel rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, and 1080p@30fps; 0.3 megapixel front camera.
• 3G, 4G/LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0+LE, A-GPS, GLONASS, USB 2.0, 3.5 mm audio jack.
• 2000 mAh battery with up to 15.2 hours 3G talk time.
• 5.25" (H) x 2.8" (W) x 0.36" (9.15 mm) (D), 159 grams.
• Available colours (removable back covers): Red, Green, Yellow, White, Black.

TAGS: Mobile Phones, Windows Phone, Nokia, Lumia