Nokia Lumia 720 - specs, price and release date

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Posted on 25 Feb 2013 at 15:44, by

Announced at MWC 2013, the new Nokia Lumia 720 is a mid-range Windows Phone 8 smartphone with a better than average camera. If the Nokia Lumia 920 was a little too big or to expensive for your liking, then this slimmer, smaller sibling might be just the thing. We break down the new handset to give you everything you need to know.

NOKIA LUMIA 720 SPECS

This new Windows Phone 8 handset uses a fairly typical 4.3in display with a standard 800x480 resolution. Its an IPS display and uses Nokia's Clearblack technology for darker blacks and better contrast. The screen is sculpted at the edges to fit the unibody design and is protected by Gorilla Glass 2. It's not the most highly-specified screen then, but it still looks pretty good, and should stay that way.

Inside is a Qualcomm SnapDragon S4 chipset with a 1GHz dual-core processor. It's a modern chipset, and the clock speed is perfectly acceptable on a mid-range handset. More disappointing is that it's only paired with 512MB of RAM, so you might find switching apps rapidly a bit sluggish.

The 2,000mAh battery is a good size, the same in fact as the one in the Nokia Lumia 920. That phone had a mediocire score in our battery test, but the 720 should do a lot better thanks to its much lower clock speed and smaller display.

Despite the same size battery and the smaller display, the Lumia 720 is actually slimmer than the 920 at just 9.0mm. At 127.9mm high and 67.5mm wide, it's a small handset that shouldn't trouble any pocket. It also weighs just 128g, so no problems there either.

NOKIA LUMIA 720 CAMERA

The camera is Nokia's big feature on the Lumia 720. The 6.7-megapixel rating doesn't sounds all that impressive, but pixel counts are highly misleading - as should be proven by the 4-megapixel camera on the new flagship HTC One.

The impressive number here is the F1.9 aperture, beating the Nokia Lumia 920, the HTC One and practically every other smartphone we can think of. This means more light through the lens, and better photos, particularly in low light. Furthermore, Nokia has confirmed that this is a backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor design, which again lets the sensor pick up more light.

The front-facing camera also looks impressive, with a HD resolution of 1,280x960, F2.4 and a wider than usual angle for group self-portraits.

NOKIA LUMIA 720 PRICE

The Nokia Lumia 720 will cost approximately £250 in the UK - based on a EUR249 price plus VAT. That's a very reasonable price for a rather-appealing Windows Phone 8 handset with a well-specified camera. On contract that should put it in the middle-to-low price bracket, if you shop around you should be able to pick one up on a decent contract for under £20 a month.

NOKIA LUMIA 720 RELEASE DATE

Nokia has pencilled in a Q2 release date for Europe, so we could see the Nokia Lumia 720 as early as April, or as late as June. With the exception of the lens, there's nothing groundbreaking here, so we'd hazard a guess that it will sooner rather than later.