Quick hands on: Nokia Lumia 625

I had the opportunity to meet some guys from Nokia Germany after the Gamescom on the Xbox Camp and of course there were some devices shown. In this case it’s the Lumia 625 as well as the Asha 501 but since this is a Windows Phone blog  I will give you a quick look at the Lumia 625 only but first a bit about the day itself:

We (some WP friends) were meeting Nokia at the Xbox One stand at 5 p.m. and they bought us to the Xbox Camp VIP-Zone. We then talked a little at the Nokia van and then David, product manager at Nokia Germany, gave the 625 and the 501 in the round. We all could test a bit and after that we all went back to the Xbox VIP zone. Then the BBQ started which basically was the main event (the food was very good by the way, so well done, Microsoft and Nokia ). The guys at Nokia and Microsoft are really nice and I think more companies need people like this because this is really great for creating a relationship to the customer. Unfortunately the Nokia guys had to leave soon after the BBQ but the Xbox guys stayed. Two of us also had the opportunity to stay over night because two people surprisingly cancelled. The rest of the day and the night was mostly playing Fifa 13 on Xbox 360 and chilling with the others who have won the VIP pass. It was very fun and me and our colleague at phoneseven.de really enjoyed it, so Microsoft did a very nice job! But let’s get to the hands on now:

What I experienced first was that the device isn’t as big as expected. The device is “only” as big as my 920 but has a bigger screen and it’ also thinner and lighter. I wouldn’t go too far and say this is a masterpiece of architecture, this comes mostly from the lower hardware. However, the device feels very nice in the hand and the design isn’t too bad either.

The finish is matte but doesn’t have this nice “soft touch” fell we know from matte 920s already, which is a pity because I really liked that feeling. Additionally I found the battery cover to be a bit loose. It fits great but is too easy to take off which is not very good in my eyes.

The display is the thing I was interested in most because it has actually a very low resolution for this screen size. Anyways, that is absolutely OK because it’s meant to be a bigger low end device and that’s what it is so the resolution is acceptable especially when the screen is nice to look at what it is. I was outside and the black wasn’t that nice; it reminded me a bit of the 520 so it looked kind of like a brighter 520 screen, but when I was at the Windows stand at Gamescom there was also a 625 and inside the black is totally fine. The screen’s colors are nice; natural but shiny and yes, even the sharpness is acceptable. It’s of course not as clear as a 920 but I didn’t find it to be unclear in any way.

In terms of performance I can’t tell you very much but what I looked at so far was that it is actually kind of the same as the 520, 620 and 720, maybe a little faster because of the 200 Mhz more power.

What was surprising is that there was no Lumia Amber preinstalled which is a bit strange I think; there was no Glance screen as well as no double tab to wake.

All in al the 625 seems to be a solid low budged device for people  who want something bigger for a lower price with LTE as a nice addition. The 625 comes in orange, black, white, yellow and green at a price point of €299