HTC’s latest mid-range smartphone, the HTC Desire 620, is now official in Taiwan. It comes in two models – an LTE variant with a Snapdragon 410 CPU, and a non-LTE variant (Desire 620G) with a MediaTek octa-core CPU.
The HTC Desire 620 and Desire 620G sports almost the same specs except for the CPU, microSD card support capacity, network connectivity, and price.
HTC Desire 620 / Desire 620G specs:
5-inch HD display, 294ppi
1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core CPU
1.7GHz MediaTek MT6592 octa-core CPU (Desire 620G)
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 128GB via microSD
up to 32GB via microSD (Desire 620G)
8 megapixel BSI rear camera w/ LED flash
5 megapixel front camera
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
4G LTE
3G HSPA+ (Desire 620G)
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0, A2DP, apt-X
GPS, A-GPS
Android 4.4 KitKat w/ Sense 6 UI
2,100mAh removable battery
150.1 x 72.7 x 9.6 mm
160 g
The HTC Desire 620 with LTE costs TWD6,990 (around Php10,100) and will be available in Taiwan on December 1. The Desire 620G has a more affordable price tag of TWD4,990 (around Php7,200) and will be available mid-December.
The Lumia 830 is one of the last few Windows Phone smartphones to carry the Nokia brand. It’s a mid-range device but sports a PureView camera and a beautiful design and build that reminds us of its flagship brother, the Lumia 930. Is the Nokia Lumia 830 worth buying? Find out by reading our full review.
Design and Construction
The Lumia 830 has a lot of similarities with the Lumia 930 flagship. If you put them side by side, the two almost look identical. Like the Lumia 930, the Lumia 830 sports an aluminum frame which gives the device a premium look and feel.
On the front we have the 5-inch HD display with Gorilla Glass 3. Above it are the earpiece and 0.9 megapixel front camera. Down below are three navigation buttons and pinhole for the microphone. On the left are the volume rocker, power/lock button, and dedicated camera key. Right up on top is the microUSB port and the headset jack.
Take a look at the back you will see the plastic rear cover with matte finish, the 10 megapixel camera and LED flash housed in an awkward-looking circle, another microphone, and the speaker.
Before we further enumerate the good points, we’d like to mention a defect that we noticed on our unit. It looks like an adhesive problem with the glass as the upper left part won’t permanently stick to the body. Take a look at the photo below.
The gap isn’t that wide but dust could easily get in. We hope that this is just an isolated case and is not affecting other units.
It’s a bit difficult to accept that the Lumia 830 is a mid-range device as it feels more like a flagship. It has a tough glass that smoothly curves down at the edges, the cool to the touch aluminum frame, and the brightly colored polycarbonate back plate. Overall, it’s a well-crafted smartphone with a sleek design.
Display and Multimedia
High-end smartphones nowadays sport at least Full HD displays and are now gearing towards Quad HD. Any lower than Full HD is sometimes frowned upon. The Lumia 830 features a 5-inch IPS HD display or equal to 294ppi. But before you start wishing that it should be higher than that, we’d like to point out that the display quality in this thing is stunning.
The Lumia 830 utilizes the company’s ClearBlack display technology so images and texts appear crisp, viewing angles are good, colors are rich with deep blacks, and has great contrast, even when used outdoors.
With that in mind, the Lumia 830 makes a good multimedia device for watching movies or browsing through photos. The speaker on this thing is also fantastic as it is capable of producing very loud yet clear sounds. We don’t even need to pump the volume to maximum if we’re just listening privately. Really good audio.
Camera
The Lumia 830 sports a 10 megapixel PureView camera as its main shooter. It features a 1/3.4-inch sensor size, Carl Zeiss optics, and optical image stabilization. That set of hardware is partnered with a couple of camera apps – the standard Camera and the Nokia Camera.
The standard camera app is pretty basic as it only features Burst mode and video mode, but if you want more control over the settings the Nokia Camera is recommended.
As expected, camera performance is really good and captures photos with great details and colors. It can also hold its own when it comes to low light but not that impressive. Check out the sample photos below.
If you like shooting videos with your smartphone, the Lumia 830 will do a fantastic job. With Nokia Camera it can record up to 1080p resolution at 24/25/30fps with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound. Watch the video below.
Software and Apps
We were expecting the Lumia 830 to ship with the latest Lumia Denim update, unfortunately, this one does not. At the time of writing we’re still waiting for the update to arrive so we’re missing out the best bits of the new firmware for this review.
Still, I was able to enjoy the features and pre-installed apps that came with the device. Being the camera as one of its strongest suit, the Lumia 830 comes with a bunch of camera-centric Lumia apps like Cinemagraph, Creative Studio, Selfie, and Storyteller. There’s also the nifty Lumia Refocus app that is available at the Windows Phone Store.
The Lumia 830 comes with 16GB of internal storage with 14.56GB available for the user. It supports microSD cards up to 128GB so if you’re heavy on media files you can put it all right there.
Performance and Benchmarks
This is the part where the Lumia 830 becomes a “mid-range” device. It is powered by Qualcomm’s Snadragon 400 quad-core CPU clocked at 1.2GHz, Adreno 305 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. It may not sound much if you’re looking at it from an Android perspective but this is Windows Phone OS so performance is different. If we put things into perspective, the Lumia 530 we reviewed last month performed very decently on a Snapdragon 200 CPU with just 512MB of RAM.
In the case of the Lumia 830, the performance is good. Animations and transitions are smooth, apps launch fast, and games run well without any lags. When playing games we noticed that the upper left portion of the device becomes noticeably warm. It’s not really a big issue but your fingers will get easily sweaty on that part. We also ran a benchmark test using AnTuTu and the score is 12,170.
Battery Life
The Lumia 830 is equipped with a 2,200mAh battery which is decent for a smartphone of this caliber. Although we’re wishing that it is atleast 2,500mAh. Still it was able to perform well on our battery test (Airplane mode, 50% brightness, 50% volume with headset plugged, 1080p video on loop) as it was able to churn out 10 hours worth of playback which is really good.
Conclusion
To conclude, the Nokia Lumia 830 is a solid mid-range smartphone that feels looks and feels like a flagship. It’s well crafted, has a beautiful design, packs a great PureView camera, brilliant display, fantastic speakers, long battery life, and good performance. Not to mention that it’s not running the Lumia Denim update yet so we expect this device to perform better when it arrives.
The Lumia 830 is priced at Php18,990. It’s more powerful brother, the Lumia 930, costs Php29,990. So if you’re on a hunt for a good Windows Phone device but can’t shell out an extra Php11,000 for the flagship, the Lumia 830 is your next best bet.
Nokia Lumia 830 specs:
5-inch IPS HD ClearBlack display, 294ppi
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core CPU
Adreno 305 GPU
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
up to 128GB via microSD
10 megapixel PureView rear camera w/ LED flash
1/3.4-inch sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, OIS
0.9 megapixel front camera
Nano SIM
4G LTE, 3G HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
NFC
Bluetooth 4.0 w/ A2DP, EDR, LE, apt-X
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
FM Radio
Wireless charging support
2,200mAh battery
Windows Phone 8.1 OS
139.4 x 70.7 x 8.5 mm
150 g
What we liked about it:
* Great build
* Nice design
* Great display
* Good camera
* Long battery life
* Good performance
* Great speakers
What we didn’t like:
* Usual app limitations from Windows Phone Store
* Doesn’t come with Lumia Denim out of the box
* Gets warm when playing games
Gionee is reported to be gearing up to launch a clamshell-type smartphone called the Gionee W900. What caught our interest though is not its form factor, rather the fact that it will boast two (2) 4-inch displays, both with 1080p resolution if we may add.
According to PhoneArena, Gionee filed for a certification on China’s TENAA. This filing brought forth some information about the handset’s components which include a pair of cameras (13MP on the back and 5MP on the front), LTE connectivity and an engine setup that comprises of an unnamed 1.5GHz chip with 2GB of RAM and an expandable 16GB of storage.
Things are looking pretty good for the Gionee W900, until we found out that it’s only equipped with a measly 2050mAh battery. Obviously, these kind of smartphones don’t cater for road warriors and are more geared for consumers who are still in to clamshell-type handsets.
There’s currently no word of when the Gionee W900 will be available. The same can be said for its SRP when it does hit the shelves.
Rounding up the list of new devices that were launched last night is the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro – the first locally-available Ultrabook that runs on the new Intel Core M processor.
Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro specs:
13.3-inch QHD+ (3200 x 1800) IPS display, 276ppi
Intel integrated graphics
8GB LPDDR3L RAM
512GB SSD
720p webcam
WiFi 802.11 a/c
Bluetooth 4.01
2x USB 3.0
1x DC-in with USB 2.0 function
4-in-1 card reader
micro-HDMI out
Audio combo jack
Integrated KBL stereo speakers w/ Waves Audio
9 hour battery life
Windows 8.1 OS
330 x 228 x 12.8 mm
2.63 lbs
Platinum Silver and Champagne Gold
This thin and stylish ultrabook will be available in the country starting this December and will have a official SRP of Php76,995.
