First Impressions: The selfie specialist
It could be that the Nokia Lumia 735 and the Lumia 830 are two of the last Nokia branded phones we see. In the Lumia 735, Microsoft's produced a mid-range 4G phone with a focus on taking great selfies.
It's as stylish and colourful as we've come to expect from Lumia phones, but how does it compare to rivals like the upcoming Moto G 2 and the Asus Zenfone 5? On paper, very well.
Nokia Lumia 735 release date The Lumia 735 goes on sale in early October for €219 ex VAT (~£178). UK price to be confirmed.
Nokia Lumia 735: Design and Specs
It's a good looking phone. The colourful, curvy plastic body looks smart and feels nice in the hands. It weighs 134g and is just 8.9mm, though it tapers to slightly less than that at each end. The rear cover is removable, as is the battery.
Like the new iPhone 6, the Lumia 735 has a 4.7-inch screen. It has an ever so slightly lower resolution of 1,280 x 720, but you really won't notice the difference. This puts it in good company with other affordable phones, particularly 4G ones. In fact, quite a few, like the Sony Xperia M2, have lower resolution screens.
Inside is the hugely popular Snapdragon 400 processor, which seems to power almost every low to mid-range phone at the moment. It's a capable processor that should keep things moving along smoothly.
It's a feature packed phone for the price, too. There's NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and even wireless charging, though you need an extra rear cover and charge plate to use the latter. There's 8GB storage and a microSD card slot to expand on it.
The removable battery has a 2,200mAh capacity that claims to last for nine hours of video, 10.5 hours of Wi-Fi use and 8.5 hours of 4G web browsing.
Nokia Lumia 735: Camera
As with all Lumia's, however, the cameras are the most interesting part. The main camera has an unusual 6.7-megapixel resolution that Nokia feels is the right compromise to achieve the performance it wants.
One of the benefits is it allows for an f-stop of just 1.9, which is a wider aperture than even the iPhone 6 (f2.2) enjoys. The 26mm focal length is wider than usual, too.
But Microsoft thinks the front-facing camera is the star of this phone. It's 5-megapixels, which is high for a phone this price, and it has an f/2.4 aperture. But it also has a wide-angle lens so you can fit more people into your shots.
And if that's not enough, Nokia's introducing a dedicated selfie app lets you make all sorts of adjustments for better-looking shots. Those include the ability to make you look thinner and have fewer wrinkles, which feels a little excessive, but it's a nice extra if you take lots of selfies.
First Impressions
If it's priced right, the Lumia 735 could be a real catch. It has a nice screen, looks and feels great and has a generous set of features. On paper, it's everything we look for in a mid-range phone. We'll see if it lives up to that billing in October.
