Nokia Lumia 630 Review

Introduction

The Nokia Lumia 630 is an affordable and colorful Windows Phone 8.1 handset, one of the first devices running on Microsoft’s operating system to come in both a single and a dual-SIM variants.

Nokia struck it big with the extremely affordable Lumia 520, and while the Lumia 630 is not as cheap, it is still in a class of devices that offer a lot of bang for the buck. With a vivid, 4.5-inch display and a quad-core Snapdragon 400 system chip under the hood, the Lumia 630 promises to be able to showcase the best of the newest Windows Phone 8.1. Nokia throws in its own improvements in a set of exclusive apps part of the Nokia Cyan package.

Is that enough to distract the world from a global flood of Android devices, and shift the topic towards Nokia and Windows Phone? Let’s find out.

In the box:

• User Manual
• Wall Charger with non-detachable microUSB cable

Design

The colorful design and wrap-around cover make this an unmistakably Nokia phone, however, the cheap plastic design spoils the otherwise good impressions.

The Lumia 630 looks and feels like a typical Nokia phone from the moment you first see it. First and foremost because of its bold and bright colors (you have 5 color options - black, white, yellow, green and orange), but also because of the specific way the plastic shell encircles the whole frame of the phone. This plastic cover, however, is made of matte plastic that feels decidedly cheap, even slightly jagged, and the overall impression is of a toy-like, disposable gadget. While this cheap choice of materials is disappointing, it does not mean that it has any practical consequences - the handset does not suffer from any build quality issues, it’s actually well put together.

In terms of pure size, the 4.5-inch Lumia 630 is definitely conveniently compact and well-suited for single-handed use. It’s 0.36-inch (9.2mm) thick, and even though this is above the average, it does not feel too chubby, because of its otherwise compact size. It is also on the light side, tipping the scales at 4.73 oz (134g).

The most notable change in the Lumia 630 comes as a result of it adopting Windows Phone 8.1. Yes, the signature physical Windows Phone navigation buttons below the display are nowhere to be seen. Instead, the handset is the first one we see to use on-screen buttons (a la Android). It’s also lost the physical camera shutter key, and now the only buttons are the lock key and volume rocker on the right side. Both are plasticky, but also very clicky and easy to press, with nice travel.

Display

The 4.5-inch display is not among the sharpest, but its punchy colors and good viewing angles are above what you’d expect of an affordable device.

The 4.5-inch IPS LCD display of the Nokia Lumia 630 comes with a middling resolution of 480 x 854 pixels (FWVGA). This results in a pixel density of 218ppi, not the best around, even if we look at the affordable price class of the Lumia 630 alone. While this is definitely not among the sharpest displays out there, and pixelization is noticeable, especially when you start looking at text, its colors are pleasingly punchy.

With great contrast and deep blacks, the 4.5” Lumia 630 screen actually looks better than the average phone in this class. In addition, it’s got great viewing angles, and colors don’t fade out even if you look at the phone from an angle.

Speaking from the point of view of the color purist, however, we should note that colors are in fact clearly oversaturated, and while they do look punchy, they are not perfectly accurate. The white point is just slightly colder (blueish) than we’d like, but still not way off.

The screen also sports Nokia’s ClearBlack anti-reflection filter that improves outdoor visibility and make the phone easier to use under the bright sun. In fact, the Lumia 630 does surprisingly well outdoors, even better than some more expensive phones, and that’s a huge plus when summer is right around the corner.

Finally, we should note that the Lumia 630 - disappointingly - lacks an ambient light sensor, so you’d need to manually change brightness to the adjust to ambient light.