Nokia Lumia 730 First Look: A Nice ‘Selfie’ Smartphone You Actually Want To Buy

By Anuj Bhatia

| Published: Monday, October 6, 2014, 12:21 [IST]

Rating:

3.5/5

Nokia Lumia 730 First Look: A Nice ‘Selfie’ Smartphone

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PROS

Well-built Design
Nice Front-Facing Camera
Rear-Facing Shooter
Pre-loaded apps

CONS

Average Processor
Steep pricing

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The so-called "selfie" craze is taking India by storm. Although there is no research data available yet to measure the popularity of selfies, but with close to 30 % of photos shared on social media platforms are selfies, this trend seems to be growing. Naturally, smartphone makers worldwide are aware about the growing "selfie" craze, thus encashing on this phenomenon makes sense.

After Sony, Samsung and Lava, Finnish giant Nokia is the latest smartphone maker to launch a "selfie" centric mid-end phone India. The Lumia 730 is a lethal combination of good looks and, of course, houses a wide angle front-facing camera.

That doesn't mean the device is perfect, as the spec sheet on offer not necessarily boasts high-end hardware internals. However, one need to understand that the new Lumia 730, like its predecessor, is targeted at the mid-end market.

Priced at Rs. 15,299, Nokia's Lumia 730 is apparently giving tough competition to other handsets in the same class, for instance, the Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime: a mid-end Android-powered smartphone which largely focuses on a 5MP front-facing shooter.

Nokia says the Lumia 730 will go on sale in India, starting October 6. We recently got to experience the Nokia Lumia 730 at the launch event. This is our first impression after a few minutes spent with the new Windows Phone 8.1 running smartphone. Stay tuned to GizBot for more updates!

Nokia Lumia 730: Form Factor, Design, Display and Operating System (OS)

In terms of design, the Nokia Lumia 730 follows closely to its predecessor, the Lumia 720. The new Lumia 730 doesn't feel cheap, despite being crafted out of plastic build. It still has a solid construction giving users a sense of trust while holding the device. The demo model we handled at Nokia launch event had a rugged feel to it.

Although the device feels very sturdy, we'd have liked the handset to be little more rounded. Like Nokia's other handsets in the Lumia series, this very handset comes in removable and funky colors. At 130g (8.7mm thick), the smartphone isn't on a heavier side, it's well balanced design makes us feel satisfied.

Up front, you get to see a 4.7-inch display. On the right side, there is the power and volume rocker. A USB 2.0 jack is down in the phone's base, while there the 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top. Unfortunately, there's no dedicated camera key, which should be seen as a disappointment.

Nokia uses a 4.7-inch AMOLED screen, with a resolution of 1280 x 720 at 316 ppi. The screen is of very high quality, based on our brief experience. Nokia is using ClearBlack LCD screen, which promises high contrast ratio. That said, we found the display excellent for watching movies on go. Display quality is decent enough, we were unable to test the screen indoors. Viewing angles are also good. Notably, the screen has a super sensitive mode, which means you can type on it wearing gloves.

The Lumia 730 is running on the latest Windows Phone 8.1 mobile OS. However, we're not sure yet when Nokia plans to push " Lumia Denim" update for the Lumia 730. Basically, the new updated introduces Cortana voice assistant feature and a few other notable changes. The company, however, says the Cortana voice assistant, is still being tested in the Indian context. The exact release date is anticipated sometime next year.

Apart from this feature, there are a couple of positive changes you'd appreciate. For anyone who has used Windows Phone 8, it'll all seem same. This time around, you'll get to see drag and drop menu and notifications center. Moreover, there's an ability to set a picture wallpaper behind the transparent live tiles.