Nokia Lumia 635 hands-on

The new Nokia Lumia 630 and 635 are the same device. Between the 3G single-SIM, 3G dual-SIM, and 4G LTE variants, screen size, chipset, and software are identical.  These new Lumias are going to be affordable, and they will be a pretty good hit, especially in emerging markets, the single-SIM Lumia 630 will retail for $159. The dual-SIM model will be $169.

The Lumia 635 with LTE will retail for $189.  It will be sold in the United States with AT&T and T-Mobile.  The prices are a great starting point for what is arguably a mid-range device.  These new Lumias will certainly put pressure on other accessible devices like the Motorola Moto G.

Design

The Lumia 630 and 635 are lightweight, and use plastic around the body.  The screen is Gorilla Glass 3.  Its overall size is comfortable to hold in the hand.  Two significant design features about these devices is that they are the first Windows Phones to use on-screen navigation buttons.  Also, they are the first Lumias to not have a dedicated camera button.

Display

The display is an IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 854x480 pixels and measures 4.5-inches.  It is protected by the aforementioned Gorilla Glass 3. The colors pop rather nicely based on our brief time observing it.

Interface

As we have show in other Windows Phone news items, Windows Phone 8.1 is not a new user experience, but there are new features, like an action center, and the Cortana digital assistant.  Being a Nokia, all the Nokia experience applications are available, like Nokia Drive, MixRadio and HERE Maps. 

Processor and memory

The Lumia 630 and 635 each have a quad-core Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz processor.  There is 512MB of RAM which seems counter intuitive given trends on some other devices, but there were no hints of the hardware having any issues managing the operating system.  There is 8GB of storage with expandability with microSD cards up to 128GB.

Camera

The camera is a 5MP sensor and there is no flash. The user interface is similar to the old “stock” Windows Phone camera experience which is to say, simple and efficient.  Being a more affordable device, features found in the Nokia Camera app are not present, but you can take panorama and cinemagraph images.  Video can be recorded at 720p at 30 frames-per-second.

Other design items

Keeping the lights on is a 1830mAh battery which is good for 12 hours of talk (16 for the 630) time and standby time of up to 27 (25 for the Lumia 630) days. It should also be able to deliver up to 7 hours of video playback time and 58 hours of music playback.

The Lumia 630 variants will see market availability in Europe, Asia and Latin America this summer, beginning in June. The Lumia 635 will have a similar rollout, though it will also be available in the United States.

Out of the two devices announced today, the Lumia 630 and 635 are set to make a bigger impact. The overall accessibility, smooth operation of Windows Phone, Nokia experience apps and pleasing form factor make for a winning combination.