Nokia Lumia 630 Review
by Brett Howse on July 22, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Nokia
- Mobile
- windows phone
Hardware
The first thing that anyone will ever do with a smartphone is hold it, so we will start with the design of the phone. If you have ever seen or held any Lumia phone, then you will instantly recognize the 630 as a Lumia. The polycarbonate back is much thinner and more flexible than the 620, but has an excellent matte texture to it which makes it easy to grip and hold. The design has progressed from the earlier Lumia models with removable backs, and now features nicely rounded corners, and an angular side which makes the device quite comfortable to hold on to.
As is often the case with Lumia phones, there are several colors to choose from and in this case you can get white, black, yellow, green, or the color I received as a review unit which is a nice bright orange. As someone who has always owned black phones, I have to say that I’ve grown to really like the orange.
The power and volume buttons can be found on the right side of the device, with the micro USB port on the bottom, and the 3.5 mm jack on top. The back has the 5 MP camera sensor, a speaker hole, and a very faint Nokia logo. There is no fake chrome, or fake leather. This is a plastic phone that is made out of quality plastic, and with the small by today’s standard display of 4.5”, the phone fits nicely in the hand and is quite comfortable to hold.
The back of the device peels off, unlike older Lumia phones which definitely popped off. Behind the removable back cover we get easy access to the SIM slot (or dual SIMs if applicable) as well as the replacable battery and a microSD slot.
Lumia 620 (left) vs Lumia 630 (right)
The move to on-screen buttons for the back, home, and search keys was something that took me no time to adjust to. You can set the device to provide haptic feedback of button presses, and in that sense they work and feel exactly like the capacitive buttons of most phones. I also accidentally triggered the buttons less than the hardware buttons of other phones I’ve used, which I attribute to not having the buttons so low on the device, so if I rest my thumb at the bottom, I don’t hit search. A nice touch to the on-screen buttons is you can customize the navigation bar color to be always dark, match the background, or match the accent color.
The one thing I do miss though is the camera button, and perhaps that’s because Windows Phone 8.1 isn’t ready to give this button up yet. There’s no easy way to access the camera from the lock screen like on competing operating systems, and with other Windows Phones that’s not an issue because of the physical button to launch the camera. The workaround on this device is that one of the quick action buttons in the action center is set to the camera function out of the box. It is not the ideal fix, and I hope they add a slide right for camera experience to the start and lock screens in a future update to address this issue.
As far as the specifications, the Lumia 630 is also the first Windows Phone to sport the Snapdragon 400 class of SoC. This brings the MSM8226 model which is a quad-core Cortex A7 CPU at 1.2 GHz, Adreno 305 Graphics, integrated modem, and improved ISP over the Snapdragon S4 of the previous generation. Also in-line with the Lumia 520 and 620 is the 512 MB of RAM which is a shame in 2014. Windows Phone as an OS gets by just fine with 512 MB of RAM, but many games in the store are limited to devices with at least 1 GB of RAM, so it would have been nice to see the 630 include the 1 GB to open the device to all apps in the store. The full specifications are listed below.
Lumia 630 Specifications | ||||
Nokia Lumia 520 | Nokia Lumia 620 | Nokia Lumia 625 | Nokia Lumia 630 | |
CPU |
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8227 Krait Dual-Core 1.0 GHz |
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8227 Krait Dual-Core 1.0 GHz |
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8930 Krait Dual-Core 1.2 GHz |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8226 Cortex A7 Quad-Core 1.2 GHz |
RAM/NAND | 512 MB / 8 GB + MicroSD | 512 MB / 8 GB + MicroSD | 512 MB / 8 GB + MicroSD | 512 MB / 8 GB + MicroSD |
Display Size and Resolution | 4.0" 800x480 | 3.8" 800x480 | 4.7" 800x480 | 4.5" 854x480 |
Network | GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps | GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps | GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, DC HSPA+, LTE up to 100 Mbps | GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps |
Dimensions | 119.9 x 64 x 9.9 (mm) | 115.4 x 61.1 x 11 (mm) | 133.2 x 72.2 x 9.2 (mm) | 129.5 x 66.7 x 9.2 (mm) |
Weight | 124 g | 127 g | 159 g | 134 g |
Camera | 5MP rear camera, 1.4 µm pixels, 1/4" CMOS size, F/2.4, 28 mm focal length, No Flash, No FFC | 5MP rear camera, 1.4 µm pixels, 1/4" CMOS size, F/2.4, 28 mm focal length, LED Flash, VGA FFC | 5MP rear camera, 1.4 µm pixels, 1/4" CMOS size, F/2.4, 28 mm focal length, LED Flash, VGA FFC | 5MP rear camera, 1.4 µm pixels, 1/4" CMOS size, F/2.4, 28 mm focal length, No Flash, No FFC |
Battery | 1430 mAh 3.7 V (5.291 Wh) | 1300 mAh 3.7 V (4.81 Wh) | 2000 mAh 3.7 V (7.4 Wh) | 1830 mAh 3.7 V (6.771 Whr) |
Current Shipping OS | Windows Phone 8.0 with Black Firmware | Windows Phone 8.0 with Black Firmware | Windows Phone 8.0 with Black Firmware | Windows Phone 8.1 with Cyan Firmware |
Connectivity | 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio | 802.11 a/b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, NFC | 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio | 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, MPT, DLNA, FM Radio |
Location Technologies | Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS | Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS, Magnetometer | Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS | Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS, BeiDou |
SIM Size | MicroSIM | MicroSIM | MicroSIM | MicroSIM (Dual SIM Optional) |
There’s not too many surprises here. Wi-Fi is 802.11n and not ac, the 630 doesn’t have LTE (although the 635 does for a bit more money) and the camera is decidedly low end. 8 GB of NAND may seem low, but to get to this price it’s not unexpected. You can add up to 128 GB of storage via microSD though, and Windows Phone 8.1 now allows apps to be installed on the SD card, so storage isn’t really an issue.
83 Comments
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name99 - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - link
I don't want to turn this into an Apple/MS/Android fight, but WTF is up with those BaseMark OS II memory scores? They certainly suggest something is very broken with the benchmark in some way.Is there any reason to believe that the 630 (a super budget phone) really has an awesome memory subsystem, substantially superior to iPhone 5S, to Android flagships, and vastly superior to the 620?
coachingjoy - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - link
Nice review.lumia 930/ICON review next please.
Thanks
Rainer - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - link
Hi Brett, the Lumia 620 features also a 5GHz-band (802.11 "a") as well as a VGA front camera (at least the European models), could you please add this to the Hardware specs in tue table? Thanksaustinsguitar - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - link
ugh these phones need to get the picture. higher equipment, better battery "that doesn't suck," and a friendly OS that doesn't stray too far to what many are used to.... i just dont think these phones will advance unless these things are met in FULL!Death666Angel - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - link
Hm, thanks for the review.I would really like to see the resolution added to the display category in the tables. You already have a RAM/ROM space, why not have a diplsay size/resolution space? I haven't found it in the first page or second page tables where it really needs to be. Neither have I seen it while glossing over the article.
As for the phone itself, without a front facing camera and an ambient light sensor, I'd rather spend 30€ more on a Moto G. This really needs to be 109€ tops, not 130€.
SC7 - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - link
Hi also Checkout thisLatest Nokia Lumia 530 - Full Mobile Specification http://bit.ly/1ogA1S0
leopard_jumps - Friday, July 25, 2014 - link
Nokia 630SAR US 1.52 W/kg (head) 1.25 W/kg (body)
SAR EU 1.51 W/kg (head) 1.52 W/kg (body)
i wouldnt buy it .
whatsa - Sunday, July 27, 2014 - link
Pity you did not add the 1520 but just IOS and droid high end.I just amazes me that this BS continues
Why not show the 1520?
well on graphics it kills the competition.
Come on Guys you can do better than this.... disappointed.
Brett Howse - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
I didn't have a 1520 for comparison is the only reason.operaghost - Wednesday, August 6, 2014 - link
If the 630/635 is the successor to the 520 why wasn't the 520 included in the performance results? It would be nice to see what the new model can do over the old model. Likewise, since I bought my 520 for $50 outright, no contract, and the 630/635 can be had for about $100, why is it being compared to the high end phones? I can see adding perhaps a single high-end for comparison, but I don't expect a $100 phone to beat out a $650 GS5 or iPhone 5S in a performance test. Compare other phones in a similar price range. Let's see the $100 Androids compared to this instead. That makes more sense to me.