Software
For sure you’ve known well at this point: Lumia
720 runs Windows Phone 8. You can check our full review about the latest
version of the mobile OS of Microsoft here, but we’d like to make it brief. WP8
is curtail and simple. Apart from the lock screen is the Live Tile home screen and
on a nearby screen is a list of all core apps and features such as settings, message,
email, etc. it’s truly understandable, and Microsoft has built an OS which runs
amazingly on the hardware which Android phones laugh at. OS is an important
factor but not a decisive one when considering new devices, so considering
whether WP8 is suitable for you is a waste of time. On WP8, basically you’re
tied with Internet Explorer, so be ready to invest some of your time in moving
these bookmarks if IE is not your default browser in another place.
For
sure you’ve known well at this point: Lumia 720 runs Windows Phone 8.
However, once you’ve set up all, WP8 is
pretty clear, easy to navigate and understand. Our phone comes directly from Nokia,
so you just have to uninstall the fake Angry Birds Roost store to get rid of
the floating software. Since this is Lumia, you can access to many exclusive
apps which is unavailable on other Windows Phones, such as PhotoBeamer, Nokia
Music and Pulse messenger (currently at beta process). There’re also lots of
shooting apps which gives you the premium features which doesn’t exist in the
incident camera software: Cinemagraph, Creative Studio, Glam Me, Panorama and
Smart Shot. Some of these apps and the Here navigation app of Nokia is
preinstalled on 720, with any shortcomings easy to download from the software
store.
Among the Here apps for 720, only City Lens
is exclusive for Lumia line. Beta Here Drive+ version, which is already packed
with 620, is absent. Instead of that, you have Here Drive (available on all \Windows
Phone) – 1 a nation-limited navigation app which your micro-SIM links to. On
the other hand, Drive+ is international, and considering 720 is releasing with
pretty high price for the entry-level WP2, its missing feels a little cheap on
the Nokia side. You should also remember that 720 lacks of supports for some
apps by default, due to RAM requirement. But at least the Twitter client app is
good, isn’t it?
Beta
Here Drive+ version, which is already packed with 620, is absent.
Camera
The front camera of 720 is one of the main
components making it stand out from the other WP8 models with the same core
technical specs. While 520, 620, 8S and Ascend W1 all have 5MP to work with, 720
has 6.7MP BSI sensor, Carl Zeiss lens and f/1.9 aperture. However, before
coming to that point, let’s take a quick surf over the front 1.3MP camera.
Wide-angled lens with f/2.4 aperture can take nice and vibrant shots in
daylight (which means under good conditions), but if you tie it off the light
or bring it indoors the images are extremely noisy. Under man-made light, you
can see that exposure seems to have problems in the viewfinder when it tries to
adjust.
The
front camera of 720 is one of the main components making it stand out from the
other WP8 models with the same core technical specs.
Recording 720p video at the front camera
leads to the quite similar experience. If you’re in your house or in lowlight
condition, it will look like an image: grainy. In better conditions, video
exposes acceptable frame rate and quality, but tends to change fast in white
balance if you record at auto settings, creating inconsistent clips. To be
straightforward: the front cameras are not a special point. However, you won’t
be disappointed when using it for the occasional video calls or
“self-shooting”. Glam Me Airbrush/filter apps dedicated for front shooting is
preloaded on 720, so you have things to play with.
Like most of the touch screen phone, you
can tap on the screen for direct focus and shooting, but like all Windows Phones,
a two-stage physical camera button is available for focusing the main camera before
capturing. We realize that this switch is a little too responsive on other
tested phones, but that’s not the case on our 720. 2 levels care clearly
defined, so there’s nothing to disappoint there. However, the shooting speed
leaves some regrets. It takes 2 seconds for the lens to focus, the image to be
shot and the saving animation (saving) to complete before you get ready for the
next close-up shot. It’s pretty tiring, and one sturdy hand is vital during the
slow process to avoid it from filling the microSD card with the blurred shots.
If you’re not familiar to the core WP8 camera,
it’s pretty basic with only a few settings for image and video mode: scene
type, ISO, exposure, while balance and aspect ratio. In the sub-sections,
there’re limited options and we only leave the auto settings for lowlight
shooting. On the viewfinder screen, you can set up flash style, switch between
cameras and turn on/off image/video mode, as well as access to other shooting
apps. There’s no other premium feature in the core app such as HDR, burst
shooting, panorama, slow-motion video, etc. to get to these modes, you’re
entered from the standard camera interfaces to the specific apps, with the
loading screens at the center. We’re preinstalled with Cinemagraph, Glam Me,
Panorama, Smart Shoot and Photosynth of Microsoft. Panorama is a stable app
that is easy to use and works well in sticking images together, though exposure
sometimes changes. Smart Shoot is the approach of Nokia to burst shooting mode,
but the app can’t improve its shooting delay on 720, so it’s only faster than
shooting several normal images continuously.
We’re
preinstalled with Cinemagraph, Glam Me, Panorama, Smart Shoot and Photosynth of
Microsoft.
How about the 6.7MP Carl Zeiss lens camera on
the back? In general, we have mixed feeling. When shooting samples, we can’t
“get mixed up” with many settings except for choosing the suitable scene type (night,
close-up etc.). Finding the best result appears when we let 720 decide to jump
into auto mode. However, if you do so, you give the phone full power to
determine. Some shots are nice, with the same vibrancy and contrast as HDR, while
the others are dark or colors seems to be absorbed out. Macros are largely
consistent. Without help from the sun, everything turns a little worse. The
colors are not suitably presented in man-made light. If these bulbs are off and
at roper distance, the small flashes created enough light to reduce
overexposure at the minimum level. We don’t expect you to use the flash
frequently, as the f/1.9 aperture and BSI sensor absorb all the light in dim
condition and create some impressive shots. We realize some compromises in
quality, and the focus fails 50% of time, but the lowlight ability of Nokia is
very clear here. It’s not equal to the lowlight performance of Nokia Lumia 920,
but it’s pretty close, which is a good thing.
Video recording with the main camera (720p,
30fps) is not as good as the images in lowlight condition, but you will sense
some benefits on that aperture and sensor. Recording in daytime is smooth, but
there’s no complex image stabilization tech to hide the hand shaking. We have
no complaint about audio recording, but will say that auto focus is a little
stutter, and brightness is not so consistent throughout recording process.
Noticeably, the video startup time is about 1 second – half the time it needs
for shooting.
