While the Android smartphone market has been recently dominated by cheap and powerful models from Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Windows Phone is the only smartphone OS that’s facing less to almost no competition in its own category. Despite of that, Windows Phone remains one of the most beautiful and silky smooth smartphone operating system that we’ve ever seen. Microsoft Devices f.k.a Nokia’s first Windows Phone 8.1 smartphone for this year – the Lumia 630 Dual SIM, is one serious contender in the entry level and mid-range smartphone market for its affordable price tag and software capabilities.
Nokia Lumia 630 Dual SIM Video Review
Funky looking yet brilliantly capable
Lumia smartphones have not been serious looking smartphones all these while, except for the case of the Lumia 925, most phone models released formerly like Nokia have very striking and lively colors that will strike anybody’s attention, yet such design approach has even attracted some competitors. The Lumia 630 is easily recognizable as a Lumia smartphone by the looks of it, which our review unit has the striking signature yellow back cover, the design is also clearly positioned itself as a mid-range device by the looks of it and simply wants to be noticed. Let’s take a look at the phone’s humble hardware specifications down below:-
Nokia Lumia 630 Dual SIM Specifications
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Quad Core 1.2GHz
RAM/ROM: 512MB/8GB (expandable via MicroSD)
Display: 4.5″ FWVGA (854×480) Nokia ClearBlack Display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Camera: 5MP Autofocus (Main)
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
Features: Lumia Cyan Update, Nokia Cinegrapher, Nokia Creative Studio, Nokia MixRadio, Nokia Storyteller
Networks: HSPA+ 21 Mbps/GSM
Battery: 1830mAh
Put the above hardware specs on an OEM Android device, you could probably experience an extremely sluggish and uninspired user experience, but on the Lumia 630, it is brilliantly capable thanks to software optimization and support for phones with 512MB of RAM, the Snapdragon 400 quad-core CPU plays an important role as well.
Windows Phone 8.1 – an operating system that’s still trying to catch up with others
We all know that Windows 8.1 made a huge difference in PCs by having improved performance and usability, we have to say the same for Windows Phone 8.1, which has also made an apparent difference by having a much more optimized framework and bringing long missed features on to the table. Being the first commercially Windows Phone 8.1 device in the market, the Lumia630 also comes with Nokia’s Lumia Cyan update, which brings a collection of imaging apps which we’ll be discussing down below.
Probably the most wanted and longest missing feature of Windows Phone is a proper notification center, which has been introduced as the Action Center in Windows Phone 8.1, we are finally able to realize our “dreams” of swiping down the screen to reveal our incoming notifications. It still isn’t perfect, such as not able to dismiss them although they have been accessed and we need to manually swipe them off to dismiss them. The four configurable quick action buttons are pretty functional as we can configure them as wireless toggles or shortcut to a feature, we really wished we could have more buttons like this.
Windows Phone is still mainly dominated by its elegant and simple live tiles and is our favorite feature as we rely them on checking out our app notifications before the existence of Action Center. Microsoft has finally allow us to set a custom background to our home screen, which actually uses the live tiles to create a paranomic scene.
Overall, we love Windows Phone 8.1, though it still misses a few things and you will probably find some usability of the operating system pretty half baked, the smoothness and reliability of the operating system on a mediocre hardware like the Lumia 630 will really impress you.
Lumia Cyan and Camera – Nokia never disappoints
Microsoft is really lucky to have bought over Nokia, because mobile photography is one thing that Nokia has never failed to impress many over the years despite the company’s downfall. Thankfully, Nokia has seriously contributed a lot to Windows Phone’s incomplete photography experience and made it even better on the Lumia Cyan update, which comes along with most Nokia devices that got the Windows Phone 8.1 update.
First of all, the Pro Camera and Smart Camera app are finally married and renamed as the Nokia Camera app, which combines both auto and manual shooting modes in one single app. You may be surprised that even a mid-range device like this has access to extreme levels of picture control, which is certainly an advantage if you want to make the best out of the phone’s humble camera. Check out some camera samples down below from the humble 5 Megapixel shooter, it looks pretty decent in our opinion.
What’s fun without making some touch ups to your pictures? The Lumia Cyan update also intrdoduces Nokia Storyteller, an app that lets you create video highlights of your pictures and Creative Studio to further enhance pictures with filters.
On the Lumia 630, you are getting the best bang out of the buck in its photography experience which no other smartphone makers are able to offer, though you can pretty much download 3rd party apps to achieve some features, but hey, who doesn’t like preinstalled and original stuffs?
Performance, Battery Life and Call Quality
We are not going to perform any benchmarks on a Windows Phone device as it doesn’t really need one, the Lumia 630 is a pretty fast device although fully loaded with apps and only having a paltry 512MB of RAM. The best thing is, apps has never crashed and we haven’t even faced app restarts when we switched apps from one to another, in our opinion such capability has surpassed most entry-mid range Android devices.
Before you say ‘meh’ to the 1830mAh battery, it handles pretty decently on a moderate usage as in a few short texting sessions and phone calls in the day, browsing the web, streaming music over Spotify. In most cases, the Lumia 630 will last us a full working day in our review period and we have never cared to carry a powerbank along with us.
Nokia has always excelled on cellular networks, the Lumia 630 has reliable HSPA+ speeds over the Maxis network and our call experience is fantastic with callers reporting a reasonably clear voice from our end with both SIM slots. Also, the phone’s loudspeaker is extremely loud and vibrant in producing phone call volumes.
One thing that we think Microsoft can improve is how we choose our SIMs to call, the current operation method looks cheap and half baked, there’s also no way to configure ringtones for respective SIM cards.
A great mid-range smartphone, but…
Windows Phone is a beautiful operating system, no matter how you hate its live tiles or inconsistent ecosystem, it is the only mobile operating system that is almost on par with Apple’s iOS in providing a reliable and almost flawless user experience. Microsoft Devices has taken the necessary steps and strategy in making the Lumia 630 an affordable, capable and functional mid-range smartphone.
But…
The Windows Store isn’t improving much, despite already having a few essential apps ported over from competing platforms, the app catalogue isn’t as interesting as those found on iOS and Android, they simply exist for the sake of existing and doesn’t have much added value to the platform, unless you are just a person who generally wants a smartphone with the necessary apps onboard, or else we will still suggest you stick back to an Android device if you aren’t looking at a flagship device.
However here’s still one point to consider, the Lumia 630 retails at RM549, which is really hard to resist for a smartphone with reliable software and performance. If you can live with the compromises of not having fancy apps on your smartphone, theLumia 630 is one device that you should have in your smartphone shopping checklist.
Verdict
The Nokia Lumia 630 is an outstanding mid-range smartphone that delivers reliable performance which many of its competitors aren’t able to do so, all thanks to Windows Phone 8.1.
The Good:
+ Reliable and consistent performance
+ Acceptable camera performance
+ Lumia Cyan extras made a difference in Windows Phone
+ Great battery life
+ Excellent voice and data performance
The Bad:
– Display resolution can be better
– Windows Store still needs more quality and fun apps
– Dual SIM functionality half-baked and looks cheap
The Nokia Lumia 630 gets a 4 out of 5 star rating from us.
