Nokia Lumia 625 Review: First 4G Smartphone with Great Build from Nokia

People are well known about Nokia brand mobile phones. It has a wonderful brand, famous around the world with wide variety of excellent build quality and high performance mobilephones. Most of the people only prefer Nokia, before buying new cellphones, if they experience its quality at least once.

Now, Nokia brand is owned by Microsoft, from the last April 2014 and released their new smartphone, Microsoft Lumia 535 in the November of the same. However, still Nokia brands in the market and performs well in market than Microsoft’s new phone. Let us see Nokia Lumia 625 smartphone review in Honest Review Network.

What is Nokia Lumia 625?

Nokia Lumia 625 is one of the high performing, nice design and low price Smartphone in Nokia Lumia series. It was released on the market in August 2013 and most of them sale in India and Gulf countries. It has 4.7 inch sized, multi-touch, responsive touchscreen, high performance processor with 512 MB RAM. The design and build quality are amazing and available in colors such as black, red, green etc.

I have a black colored one, looks more professional and classic than other colors. The display resolution is very less and camera pictures are too granny with low light. Overall, it is a nice Smartphone with worth for money and performance as compared with Samsung Galaxy Core 2, Ace-3 and Sony Xperia M.

Nokia Lumia 625 Key Features:-

4.7 inch, WGVA Capacitive Display with 480 x 800 pixels resolution; 1.2 GHz, Qualcomm S4 dual core Processor; 512 MB; 8 GB internal Memory; 5MP rear with LED flash and 1.2 MP front camera; 200mAH battery; 4G/3G/2G support.

The Pros

• Good Design and build
• decent performing smartphone
• 4G (LTE) support
• Good camera
• Value for money

The Cons

• Low screen resolution
• limited apps availability

Let us see the Nokia Lumia 625 hands-on review in detail, explained both manufacturer features and my experiences with this beautiful mobilephone.

Nokia Lumia 625 Review: Design (9/10)

As say about design, Lumia 625 got better look than its previous version Lumia 620. Design is much more improved and has changes in the total look and size specifications. I think it is better and slim than previous one. It is 133.3mm in length, 72.3 mm in width, and has 9.2 mm thickness. It weighs around 159 grams (5.61 oz). The size of Lumia 625 is pretty good and useful, while, watching movies, video calling and internet browsing purpose. It is a solid and sleeker smartphone than 620.

The front side is fully covered with scratch free, corning Gorilla glass 2 up to edges. The back cover is made of Polycarbonate material, which is very smooth, and matte type colored. The curved edges, which helps to removes the sharp edges and a value addition to the look of Lumia 625. We can open this back cover; it is not too easy and really cares while removing it from back.

According to Lumia 625 design, battery movement is completely arrested, i.e., in-built battery is comes with all Lumia series smartphones. For inserting microSIM and memory card, there is no battery movement is needed. I feel too easy to change SIM and memory card without a restart of the entire system. I just do not know about problems related with in-build battery type devices.

Tip!: Before removing your SIM from it, first lock screen and then remove it. Follow the same step before inserting the SIM and Memorycards.

It contains only three small buttons, on the right side of the phone; volume rocker button (up&down), power/lock button, and camera button, in the order of top to bottom. They are simply responsive, easy to access, and sensitive. However, I feels difficult to reach volume adjust button, while calling with same hand.

There is no sim or memory card slots present on the outside sides, the slots are only accessible by opening the back cover and you can find microSIM and MicroSD card slots at topside.

The primary camera is on backside with single LED flash and secondary one placed top right corner side. In addition, the 3.5 mm headphone point on top side and microUSB/Charging ports at bottom side.

Overall, in designs, it is a kind of solid and sleeker mobile phone. It is very easy to handle and I feels some difficulties for accessing the volume buttons with single hand at first. But, now it’s fine. The grip is OK, but not excellent because of stain finish, reduces the grip at sides and feels more at the center portion. For this reason, Nokia Flip cover recommended to get the best gripping.

Nokia Lumia 625 Review: Performance (9/10)

The performance of Lumia 625 is a decent one, as compared with other android smartphones, Java and Symbian mobilephones. It is build with 1.2 GHz, Qualcomm snapdragon S4 dual core processor with 512 MB RAM. The processing speed is faster and flow like water without any delay. The camera image processing is easily carried with Qualcomm S4 processor and 512 MB RAM gives additional support to do lighting speed processing of such functions inside the device. There is no waiting time for opening and using of windows apps and games with Lumia 625.

Related Post: Smartphone SoC Processors Explained

The gaming is also interesting with Lumia 625, by the addition of Adreno 305 graphics processing unit (GPU). You can download and install high graphics games from Microsoft apps site. There is no lagging or disturbance, while playing any high-end graphics games with this Smartphone. The only disadvantage is apps and such high-end games are very limited, as compared with Android One version phones.

In addition to above performance features, Nokia Lumia 625 offers 8 GB internal memory and which is expandable up to 64 GB. You can use this memory to store data like apps, videos, games, music, and pictures. However, there is a common problem associated with all Smartphone, which is made by people are overfilling the internal memory with such of apps, games, pictures and videos. As a result, processor is completely overloaded and shows some hanging problem.

Tip!: Do not overfill the internal memory of your phone with data. Try to use some external microSD cards of different sizes is recommended.

There is no performance problem with network, that was used in this smartphone. The networks supported are GSM, HSPA and LTE. Both GSM and HSPA (3G network) tested in my region and not tested in LTE network. It performs well in the first two networks and feels more speed with 3G network mode. Network selection and processing are very fast with Lumia 625.

Related Review: Moto E 2nd Gen Smartphone Review

Nokia Lumia 625 Review: Display (8.4/10)

In this Smartphone, Nokia offers 4.7 inches, IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch features. The touchscreen covered with corning gorilla glass 2, which is scratch free and no screen guard is required. The resolution is 480 x 800 pixels (199 ppi).

The resolution is low as compared with same range of smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 and Sony Xperia M. Touchscreen is very responsive, no need of applying extra pressure on the screen, and only needs a simple touch. The low resolution is the only con, I felt in the display category.

Nokia Lumia 625 Review: Camera (8/10)

It contains 5 MP (Megapixel) primary camera at backside and 0.3 MP secondary camera at the front. The primary camera has pixel resolution of 2592 x 1936 pixels and auto focus features. To focus objects, you need to press slightly on the camera button or touch on the camera screen.

I am not sure about which type of lens used in Lumia 625, but not Carl Zesis lens. It also contains single LED flash, not effective at nights; only useful for taking photos of closer objects. Camera settings are also available and have control over ISO, white-light and exposure.

Related Review: Lenovo A6000 Smartphone Review

If you have good light that results high quality pics, otherwise picture is too grainy. The secondary camera is VGA type, used for video calling and takes selfies.

Nokia Lumia 625 Review: Software (7.5/10)

All of the Nokia Lumia series follows the same smartphone operating system of Windows phone 8. Now it could be upgradable to 8.1. The windows phone 8.1 has lot improvements from the previous version, many modifications in front menu, speed and ease of apps access. It modifies the home page like android platform, top dragging down menu with access to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, settings etc.

The sensors included are accelerometer and proximity sensors. The typing pad is well arranged, sized and responsive as compared with android phones. Messaging option are SMS with threaded view, multimedia messaging (MMS), email, push mail and IM. The default internet browser is Internet explorer with latest version and HTML 5 language support. Other popular browsers are also works on Lumia 625.

There is no java support throughout the software. The OS contains noise cancelling with mic, support audio formats such as MP3/WAV/CAPC; Video formats such as MP4, H.264 and wmv player. The Microsoft offers free 15 GB cloud storage on OneDrive. The document viewer is more helpful feature, which allows opening and reading documents on it.

Nokia Lumia 625 Review: Battery (9/10)

Lumia 625 uses a non-removable, Li-Ion battery with 2000mAh capacity. The manufacturer offers up to 152 hours in standby, 15 to 24 hours talktime and have 50 hours for music playback. I got an average of 19 hours with combined use of GSM calling and 2G Internets, than Apple iPad 4 and Samsung tab 3 tablets. The 3G networks use is better than 2G, because it is speedier and save a lot of battery charge and your valuable time.

Nokia Lumia 625 Review: Other features (8.8/10)

Connectivity:-

The connectivity feature contains WLAN with hotspot sharing, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS, Radio and microUSB 2.0. WLAN is Wi-Fi of 802.11 b/g/n, with hotspot sharing. That is your phone is act as modem and other devices, which support Wi-Fi can use the internet through your sharing network. The Bluetooth v4.0 is also good one and has speedy data transfer. It is a GPS enabled phone with A-GPS and GLONASS. The FM radio and microUSB 2.0 supports are also available. One separate microUSB 2.0 cable is included in the phones box.

Sound Quality:-

The sound quality of calling is very good and easily understandable. The main sound s is vibration and MP3 ringtone. The loudspeaker sound is good quality. It also provides a headphone with mic and 3.5 mm jack type include in the packet.

Nokia Lumia 625 Specs Full:-

General Specs

Name	Nokia Lumia 625
Storage	8 GB; Expandable up to 64 GB; MicroSD Card
Operating System	Windows Phone 8/8.1
Dimension	13.33 cm x 7.23 cm x 0.92 cm
Weight	159 g
BatteryLife	Avg.Life up to 18 hours (Both 2G&3G)
Connectivity	WiFi/LTF/3G/2G/Hotspot/EDGE/GSM
Model no	625
Manufacturer	Nokia

Display & Performance Specs

Screen size	4.7 inches
Type	WGVA Capacitive display, 200 ppi; Multi-touch
Resolution	480x800 pixels
Glass Type	Corning Gorilla Glass 2
CPU	1.2 GHz, Qualcomm S4; Dual Core
RAM	512 MB
Graphics Driver	Adreno 305
Camera	Rear: 5 MP;1080p Video recording; 4x Zoom;LED Flash Front: 0.3 MP

Miscellaneous

Port	Charging/microUSB
Audio	3.15 mm Headphone jack
Battery	2000mAH; Lithium ion battery
What's in Box?	Charger; microUSB cable; Headset; User Guide&Warranty card

Final Words

As per Nokia Lumia 625 review, it is nice piece of Smartphone with decent performance and has great design. The cost is low as compared with competitors and great value for money, if you are don’t expecting fully featured, high-end Smartphone’s. The two main cons are low display resolution and limited access of apps and high-ending games. Overall, it is affordable Smartphone with good features and less maintenance, as compared with other low cost Smartphone’s.

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Smartphone Features Explained

Smartphone is also a mobilephone which is having more fun features like camera, touchscreen, internet browsing, touchscreen, efficient operating system, Gaming, better performance and multimedia tools. Actually you can call it as “minicomputer”, because it is that much efficient and can do most of the basic things as computer. Currently, smartphones having wide variety of uses and it is depends on their specifications. Android, Windows phone, Blackberry and Apple iOS are main smartphone operating systems competing in the market. In this post, I will explain some of the common smartphone features.

Smartphone Features: Operating system (OS)

Most of the people going to buy a new smartphone, the first consideration is operating system. With Symbian OS, begin the smartphone era and which is owned by Nokia. With this OS, Nokia developed low-end smartphones and have better hype in the mobilephone market. Then There are several new OS will come and older ones are out of date. Some of the new OS are Android, Windows phone, Apple iOS, Blackberry, Firefox OS, Sailfish OS, Tizen and Ubuntu Touch.

Android OS is completely free of cost, user-friendly and licensed as open source. Currently, android OS is owned by Google which still maintained as open source. Any software developers can customize the platform as for their own business purposes and also can create needful android apps, which published through GooglePlay store.

Today, android smartphone are most used in the world wide and available in the range of $60 to $800. Windows phone is updated version of Windows mobile operating system, which developed by Microsoft. With Windows phone OS, Microsoft combines their product such as Xbox, OneDrive, Bing and Office. It is completely unique in look and style. But people is not that much attracted in this OS, because of the less user-friendly.

 Apple iOS is specially made for apple devices like iPhone and iPads. It is developed by Apple. iOS is one of the stable operating system in the world which very easy to use and user-friendly. The main cons side is that less free apple apps are available and most of them you need to pay above $0.99.

Blackberry is another simple smartphone OS system which enables the simplicity in usage, smooth internet browsing and uses special encryption methods to secure the phone. Most of the business people uses Blackberry smartphones, because it offers both security and work effectiveness. Also there are other operating systems are used in the smart phone which explained in the later posts in very detail. Let us see the next main feature of smart mobiles.

Smartphone Features: Display Screen

For smartphone, display screen is really important and it defines the size of them. Now, screen are touchscreen type and improved from the resistive touch to highly sensitive capacitive touch. The captive touch screens are higher response than resistive type. In the new smartphones, around 85-90% of screen covered by touchscreen and it is measured diagonally (distance between two opposite corners of screen rectangle). The screen sizes available are in the range of 3 to 5.7 inchs. The smartphone having screen size above 5.2 inches called as “phablets”.

Why size of the smartphone is important?

The screen size gives better idea of easy handling and portability. Just think like that…if you have Smartphone and you couldn’t use it with one hand. That is worst situation and it affects the ease of use and handling abilities of phone. But in the other sides there are several advantages over the bigger sized screen smartphones. It also uses various HD display technologies like IPS display, LED, LCD, AMOLED, OLED etc.

Smartphone Features: Processor

Processor is mainly refereed as heart of smartphone device, which provide power to do computer like things in it. Processor controls all the tasks like opening user interface, apps usage, gaming, controls the camera etc. All they are related to processor performance and speed. If your smartphone is loaded with faster processor and have ability to do multi tasking at a time, then your device overall performance will improved. The no of cores in processor and clock speed is two important features which mainly affects the performance of the system. Currently available processors are Qualcomm snapdragon, Apple A9, MediaTek, Motorola X8 and Samsung Exynos. I will explain details in later posts of honest review.net.

Smartphone Features: Camera

Before going to buy smartphone, people always looks for the camera pixels. They did not care about the lens quality and performance, due to lack of knowledge about the phone cameras. It is not like DSLR, but it is not as complex as DSLR. The Megapixel (MP) doesn’t mean the camera performance, because smartphones having 13 MP can take pictures better than 20 MP in the current market. The performance in different light conditions and image processors are important for camera and then only produces good pictures even in low light conditions. The image processor of camera controls the speed of autofocuing, storage device and resulting high quality pictures.

Smartphone Features: Battery

If you have smartphone with good fun features, but don’t have enough batterylife; not even getting a 16-18 hours. Then it is not good thing. So, battery of cell phone is really important and then only it can provide power to working of all of the above features. In today’s market, cell phone manufactures consider batterylife of phone as a critical item. Therefore they are developing high battery capacity cell phones and it is ranging from 1700mAh to 4000 mAh. You will see more depth in battery performance with respect to talktime, standby time and other tasks in the upcoming posts.

Smartphone Features: Network Selection

Mobile network selection is also important, but it is depends on the customer’s choice. Each one of them has different uses with their own phone. Some are using smartphones for better internet browsing, video calling etc. and others are for basic calling, multimedia purposes etc. That doesn’t matter. The main thing is that phone will better support the networks available in the customers region or geo locations. Currently, the available networks modes in the smartphones are CDMA (code division multiple access), GSM (Global system for mobile communications), HSPA (High speed packet access or 3G), HSPA+ (high speed packet access plus or 3.5G) and LTE (Long term evolution or 4G).

The CDMA network technology usage is less, because customers don’t have freedom to change the network provider. Most of them are uses the GSM technology, which is provide customer choice and network flexibility. The internet users are increasing day by day. For that high speed supporting smartphone are needed and manufactures are comes with new phones supports 3G, 3.5G and 4G or LTE networks. Also smartphones provide Wi-Fi calling using your local area network. To enable this call functions, you need internet data, social apps like whats app, skype, Facebook messenger etc. It will helps to minimize the phone bills.

Smartphone Other Features

It provides Bluetooth data transferring, USB tethering, Wi-Fi access, high quality speakers, more supporting apps and games. In today's market, it also offers more and more advanced features like NFC (Near field communications), wireless charging, OTG, Heat rate monitoring, curved screens etc. NFC helps to transfer data from one phone to another, when are come to close.

Overall, smartphones are pre-loaded mini computers which can most of the things as a computer can do. There are different categories of smartphones mainly categorized as Low-end, Mid-end and high-end ones. Each of them have different abilities a compared inside with them. You will see each smartphone features in detailed manner with lot more information. Keep reading honest review network. To know more about smartphones features, see the wiki page.

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Mobilephones: Basic Phone Features Explained

Mobilephones or cellphones are one of the greatest competing electronics mobile devices, which provide both entertainment and accessibility in all over the world. It helps to communicate with two persons in two different places with full freedom and portability. It enables the wireless communication all over the world. Today, the mobilephones technologies are well developed and going on its advance mode vary rapidly. When you just turn back and look at the history of cellphones. You could see the advancement in mobile technology and its demand and growth in the market.

Read Smartphone Basic Features in Honest Review

In starting, only the phone calling facilities are provided to users. But the development in the industry so fast and also invent the additional features like Short message service (SMS), MMS, email, internet browsing, Bluetooth, mobile games, infrared, Wi-Fi, camera etc. Anyway the journey to old bulky cell phones to today’s smartphone is really interesting and makes a lot of difference in both facility and portability. To know more the history, see wiki page now.

Watch Evolution of Mobilephones

Mobilephones should need a communication channel, which provided by cellular network operators. With the development of cellular network technology, mobile phones got better hype in the market and lot more manufactures are came in the market. Major mobile phone manufactures are Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry, Lenovo, Sony, Panasonic, Micromax, etc.

Basic Mobilephones Features

All mobilephones have some common features and parts. No one can exclude these items while manufacturing it. Let us see some of the important features of basic mobilephones.

Battery: Every portable electronics devices should need a power source to do their desired function. Like that mobilephones contains battery as power source which may removable or non-removable. (E.g: Li-ion rechargeable battery).

Display Screen: It is one of the important feature, which is very basic black white display ins old phones. It enables to show the phone calls numbers, text messages, contacts etc. Now, the mobilephone display is lot more improved and various display technologies like LED, AMOL, LCD etc available in latest smartphones. The screen size also categorizes the smartphones like large phones (5.4 inchs or higher), Medium (5.0 to 5.3 inches) and small screen phones (less than 4.9 inches).

Keypad/Touch interaction: At the old stage, there is only keypad interactions are available. It is very noisy and responsive speed too slow. But, now the interaction become touch and the market is fully filled with touch based mobile phones ( also called as smartphones).

Network: To enable communication or call your friend using phone need a proper network connectivity. There are lot more network providers like Vodafone, Airtel, Idea, MTS and other international network operators. They provide network card as SIM/CDMA type. The SIM is removale and CDMA is non-removable or inbuilt type network cards. In the current situation, GSM to nano SIM are available.  

IMEI number: IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) is number provided to each mobile for both communication and security purposes. Without registered IMEI number you can’t access network for communication and it is unique for every mobilephones. These are the basic features needed to a cell phone for doing its desired function.

What are different Mobilephones Types?

Basic Phones:-

If you are using the phone only for the purpose of calling or messaging, basic phones are well suited for you. They are very simple handy design, highly portable, easy to use and less complicated than feature phones. Screen size is too small and 50% area is coverd by the traditional keypads. Older basic phones little bulky in terms of thickness and also size varies as per the manufactures.

Feature Phones:- 

These are the one of the basic type of cell phone which contains only phone calling or messaging or both. This type of low-end mobilephones called as “Feature Phones”. Feature phones have basic features such as battery (either removable or non-removable), SIM/CDMA, keypad, small size display, etc. The platform used in feature phones is depends on their manufactures. If you are looking for 15 years back, Nokia brand having java platform and symbian feature phones. With latest models they also contain internet facilities, VGA camera and RGB display with low quality. The keypad is little improved and resistive type touchscreen phones are available at the older times.  

Smartphones:- 

Actually, this is new era of smartphones which almost takedown the mobilephones market as compared with others. Because smartphone is a combination of basic and feature phones and it also provide more fun things better than the other phones. Smartphone main feature is support of operating system. Currently, available smartphone OS are Apple iOS, Android, Windowsphone and Blackberry OS with good performance SoC Processors.

The Android OS have great support of different apps which are very helpful for users and it also helps android mobilephones have better hype in the market than other OS. The blackberry smartphone mainly used for business applications and provide better security to users.

Now, the network (3G or 4G) connectivity also plays major part in the smartphones market. The internet browsing speed and video calling facilities provided by smartphone depends on the camera functions and network connectivity speed. Overall, smartphones are the current trend of users who loves internet browsing, photography, watching movies, listening music, playing mobile games and more fun things with mobile apps.

Major MobilePhone Manufactures

Here honest review.net provides some of the major mobilephones manufactures or brands list with their official website.

Apple	Official Website
Sony	Official Website
Motorola	Official Website
Samsung	Official Website
LG	Official Website
Blackberry	Official Website
Asus	Official Website
Microsoft	Official Website
HTC	Official Website
Micromax	Official Website
Lenovo	Official Website
ZTE	Official Website
Huawai	Official Website

Mobilephones is a mobile device which helps to connect or call with a person from one place to another wirelessly. This post explains the mobile phone main features, types of phones and major mobilephone brands. In the upcoming posts, Honest review network will update more details about different mobilephones types, different parts, what are the thing consider before buying cellphones etc.

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