Nokia Lumia 625 review

The Nokia Lumia 625 is a bitter-sweet piece of engineering. It gives you a big screen, bright and colourful covers and best of all, a battery that actually waits until you get home before it runs out, no matter what time you get home. This is a far cry from Android smartphones, which seem to hardly wait till you are out of the door before running out.

It is however sad that the Lumia 625 has to come with a bitter-to-swallow pill, in the form of an under-performing 5 mega-pixel rear camera. The camera is the worst that I have seen on a Nokia device, and does fall short of what I have come to see as superior camera performance on previous Nokia devices. It is however not the worst camera I have seen in a phone, that I will tell you.

Completely interchangeable covers 

The Lumia 625 was designed as a low cost smartphone that borrows a number high end features. As mentioned earlier, it boasts a huge 4.7 inch display that you will find in other premium smartphones, a battery that lasts twice as much as you would expect other smartphones to. It also does throw in a flash for the rear camera and has a front facing camera too.

Another feature of note for this device is 4G-LTE, which would have been great if the perpetual politicking in Kenya had paved way for there to be presence of a 4G network.

That’s not all, there are other under the hood features that contribute to this device being a premium smartphone, from advanced, low power Bluetooth 4.0, and an accelerometer which will come in handy for those who take their games seriously. Bluetooth is great for wireless headphones and speakers, and other wireless accessories.

Windows Phone tile interface

There’s also 8 gigabytes of phone storage (though this is a bit taken up by system files) which gives you ample space before you start thinking of adding a memory card. Of course it is easier to overlook radio, and a phone speaker that is loud. The FM radio is a standard feature on other Nokia handsets too.

Another feature that some of you will love is the interchangeable covers. They may be plastic, but being polycarbonate, they don’t feel cheap. The use of plastic covers allows for them to be colourful, be it green, or orange, white or black. The covers can be completely removed such that changing to a different coloured cover completely changes the colour of your phone - no bits are left.

There is also a scratch proof display courtesy of Gorilla Glass 2, a chemically treated glass that ensures your Lumia 625 will not scratch under what we will call normal usage. This includes placing keys and coins in the same pocket as your phone, if that is your thing.

That’s pretty much what sets the 625 apart from other Lumias.

Inside the Lumia 625

Running Windows Phone, the device comes with the standard Windows Phone features that sets the device different from other devices. This include a full offering of Microsoft Office at no extra cost, including Lync for free if you are a corporate user.

3D map of a cathedral in Stockholm
in Here Maps - quite a good feature
for the lone tourist who needs a
physical feel of where they are.

Windows Phone on Nokia devices also comes with free Nokia Here (maps), which if I may remind you, prides itself as a totally offline map app. I have used it, and liked it. I find the 3D features on Nokia Here to be the best you will find in a map service, but these were mostly of help in Cape Town, South Africa and Stockholm, Sweden. I may have overlooked a number of 3D buildings in the Nairobi map. With the map being offline, you can download new city maps before you visit a new country and save the pain of suffering from high roaming costs - or you can download the same from your hotel’s WiFi.

Here maps are now also available on Samsung Galaxy devices.

There’s also OneDrive which backs up your photos and files up to 15 Gigabytes for free. OneDrive is also available for Android and iOS however, for pretty much the same terms.

Another distinct feature on Windows Phone is Xbox Live Music pass, which at less than KSh. 1,000 a month will allow you to stream music. The charge is separate from your data costs for the same. There’s also a downside in that setting the same service in Kenya or East Africa might not be that straight forward, since the service isn’t explicitly offered here.

Transit on Here Maps, Istanbul

Windows Phone also comes with an app known as Data Sense, which helps you manage your data usage. The best bit is that you can set data limits, so that you do not use more than your bundle has and end up unknowingly using the expensive out-of-bundle data. 

The limit can be a monthly one or a one time one, say, if you load 200 megabytes and set a limit of 190 megabytes. Android does not offer this functionality within the operating system as Windows Phone does.

Other things that Windows Phone can boast about in this region is the ability to purchase apps and content using your airtime. This means that if you lack a Visa/MasterCard debit/credit card,  or you find it difficult to use one for some reason, all you need to do is top up airtime and you can purchase your app. Easy as *1…#,  right?

You will also want to note that Lumia devices come with a lot of support from Nokia (Microsoft Devices). At the 625 price range, the Nokia devices are pretty much the only devices where you will get a new version of the software when it is released. Microsoft has released 2 major updates to Windows Phone 8, the software on the Lumia. Nokia has released these updates in the form of Lumia Black and Lumia Cyan.

3D  Here Maps in Nairobi

This review already covers the Lumia 625 running Lumia Black. The Lumia 625 had not received Lumia Cyan at the time of this review and Lumia Denim has also been announced as coming soon. The updates come with better functionality and better looks,  especially for Lumia Cyan,  meaning your phone becomes beautiful with time :-)

The downsides

The downsides of the Lumia 625 are it’s weight, which is pretty noticeable, probably due to the long lasting battery.

The display is also not the best in terms of picture quality. Even though it supports 16 million colours, the detail of the image is low when measured in pixels per inch,  the standard here. 

The 201 pixels per inch that the Lumia 625 carries is under half of the 441 pixels per inch that the Lumia 930 has. Lesser pixels means there is lesser detail in your images, though 200 ppi isn’t as bad as it sounds like. But you get the message, we can do better here.

You can choose to update your Here
Maps if in a new city, or keep what
you have if no WiFi or local data

As for Windows Phone, it’s pet peeves remain having fewer apps that you can install on your device. Example, while Angry Birds and Temple Run may be available on Windows Phone, Candy Crush is not. It’s a problem you can live with, unless you are the sorts of geeks who can’t imagine life without some mildly popular app.

Google apps including Gmail are also not available for Windows Phone due to competitive reasons - Google’s Android competes with Windows Phone. Windows Phone however has alternative apps in most cases.

Another downside is the Settings under older versions of Windows Phone, which are quite cumbersome. The Lumia Cyan update should however deliver some much needed relief when it arrives for this device.

Xbox Music Service on Windows
Phone

The Lumia's 625 can go on forever,
well, for a day and more,
which is forever for a smartphone

I wish Windows Store had more
browser choices, for
those of us who need more out of a
browser. For powerusers, Windows
Phone has a limited choice of apps
such as alternate browsers.
The choices keep trickling in though.
eg, Metromail is a good Gmail alternative

The Camera, a let down compared to what you expect from
a Nokia/Lumia device.