Nokia 635 Review
So recently purchased 2 new Nokia 635 phones from the Microsoft Store and so far I am impressed. There were a fair price at $129 - a $40 discount from what TMO is selling them for and the color shells where $15.
Previously I owned a Nokia 521, and when the specs came out on the 635, to be honest I was a little underwhelmed. Sure the 635 had LTE capability where the 521 was UMTS+ only and a larger screen 4.5 vs 4.0, but otherwise many of the specs seemed the same. 512MB RAM, 8GB ROM, 5Mp Camera, No Flash, etc etc.. In fact while it had a larger screen it had the same resolution - so the PPI was actually slightly less.
With that said though, I have been impressed. I was able to pop in my existing TMO SIM and SD Card from the 521 and was off to races.
Apps like Cortana, Mail, etc are snappier due to the new processor and while I didn't originally think that LTE would make that much difference for apps like Mail, etc - it did.
So the story was a little different with my wife's transition. She had a very old Nokia 710 which was running 7.8. It was her first smart phone and had finally reached the level of proficiency that she started to demand more capability. From a hardware standpoint the 635 certainly filled the bill and obviously WP 8.1 is much improved from 7.8
With that said, the one area I was very disappointed with was OneDrive and it's inability to download her Camera Roll from the cloud. Over the 3 years or so that she owned the 710 - my wife had snapped some 1800+ photos - all of which were very nicely uploaded to OneDrive. It wasn't a huge amount of data - not even 300Mb, but yet from the One Drive UI on her computer or the OneDrive App - I simply couldn't press and hold on that folder and say download.
This is one of those little but yet very annoying lack of use cases that really make wonder where MS's head it at. I was able to get here photos eventually downloaded to her phone - but it was a multi-step process. First I had to down the folder to her computer, then attached the phone via USB and load he Windows Phone App, then I could transfer. But the question comes back why should I have to do this ? If you can upload files and folders from your phone, why can't you download.
Anyway back to the phone. So overall the 4.5 in screen has been good, performance is snappy, camera seems okay, but then again was not expecting much.
But there are few quirks. First, there is no dedicated camera button and while the screen shutter works fine, sometimes when you are holding the camera landscape, the lack of a button seems to be a mistake.
Next, MS moved away from dedicated back, home and search buttons to ones integrated into the screen. They work fine but are very small in comparison and are packed in at the bottom of the screen, so you can miss them.
Still like the SD option though. I think this is best approach for a phone. Allow you the buyer to decide how much you want to spend on local storage. I use a 32Gb SAN Disk and for my wife's I got here a 16Gb for under $20.
The battery is bigger at 1800+, and so all day usage is not a problem. Also the WiFi and BT stacks seem cleaner. The 635 easily connected to headsets, cars, etc with no problem. Still 2.4Ghz WiFi, but honestly I have found more problems with 5Ghz bands than they are worth in extra bandwidth.
So of course MS is getting ready to announce the 730/735 and 830/835 which improve upon the specs adding items like front camera, 1Gb RAM, 20Mp Camera, etc.
We'll have to see if they price them competitively. If they are under $200 and $300 respectively - I may consider one and give the 635 to my daughter. Anything more and I think MS is making a mistake.
The only reason MS has the level of market share it does is that is sold a ton of 521s at $100 or less. There is just too much competition at those prices and the phone stores tend to push android or iphone anyway.
In fact it will be interesting to see if the price of the 635 drops after the announcement. One of the nice things about buying from the MS Store is if the price drops within 30 days, they will match the discount and give you a refund. You don't get that from TMO.
Bottom line is - if you're a 521 owner - take a serious look at the 635. It is just an evolutionary product, but it's a nice little upgrade. But don't spend $170 on it. Look around - I bet by the end of Sept 2014 - you'll find it for $100 or less...
Previously I owned a Nokia 521, and when the specs came out on the 635, to be honest I was a little underwhelmed. Sure the 635 had LTE capability where the 521 was UMTS+ only and a larger screen 4.5 vs 4.0, but otherwise many of the specs seemed the same. 512MB RAM, 8GB ROM, 5Mp Camera, No Flash, etc etc.. In fact while it had a larger screen it had the same resolution - so the PPI was actually slightly less.
With that said though, I have been impressed. I was able to pop in my existing TMO SIM and SD Card from the 521 and was off to races.
Apps like Cortana, Mail, etc are snappier due to the new processor and while I didn't originally think that LTE would make that much difference for apps like Mail, etc - it did.
So the story was a little different with my wife's transition. She had a very old Nokia 710 which was running 7.8. It was her first smart phone and had finally reached the level of proficiency that she started to demand more capability. From a hardware standpoint the 635 certainly filled the bill and obviously WP 8.1 is much improved from 7.8
With that said, the one area I was very disappointed with was OneDrive and it's inability to download her Camera Roll from the cloud. Over the 3 years or so that she owned the 710 - my wife had snapped some 1800+ photos - all of which were very nicely uploaded to OneDrive. It wasn't a huge amount of data - not even 300Mb, but yet from the One Drive UI on her computer or the OneDrive App - I simply couldn't press and hold on that folder and say download.
This is one of those little but yet very annoying lack of use cases that really make wonder where MS's head it at. I was able to get here photos eventually downloaded to her phone - but it was a multi-step process. First I had to down the folder to her computer, then attached the phone via USB and load he Windows Phone App, then I could transfer. But the question comes back why should I have to do this ? If you can upload files and folders from your phone, why can't you download.
Anyway back to the phone. So overall the 4.5 in screen has been good, performance is snappy, camera seems okay, but then again was not expecting much.
But there are few quirks. First, there is no dedicated camera button and while the screen shutter works fine, sometimes when you are holding the camera landscape, the lack of a button seems to be a mistake.
Next, MS moved away from dedicated back, home and search buttons to ones integrated into the screen. They work fine but are very small in comparison and are packed in at the bottom of the screen, so you can miss them.
Still like the SD option though. I think this is best approach for a phone. Allow you the buyer to decide how much you want to spend on local storage. I use a 32Gb SAN Disk and for my wife's I got here a 16Gb for under $20.
The battery is bigger at 1800+, and so all day usage is not a problem. Also the WiFi and BT stacks seem cleaner. The 635 easily connected to headsets, cars, etc with no problem. Still 2.4Ghz WiFi, but honestly I have found more problems with 5Ghz bands than they are worth in extra bandwidth.
So of course MS is getting ready to announce the 730/735 and 830/835 which improve upon the specs adding items like front camera, 1Gb RAM, 20Mp Camera, etc.
We'll have to see if they price them competitively. If they are under $200 and $300 respectively - I may consider one and give the 635 to my daughter. Anything more and I think MS is making a mistake.
The only reason MS has the level of market share it does is that is sold a ton of 521s at $100 or less. There is just too much competition at those prices and the phone stores tend to push android or iphone anyway.
In fact it will be interesting to see if the price of the 635 drops after the announcement. One of the nice things about buying from the MS Store is if the price drops within 30 days, they will match the discount and give you a refund. You don't get that from TMO.
Bottom line is - if you're a 521 owner - take a serious look at the 635. It is just an evolutionary product, but it's a nice little upgrade. But don't spend $170 on it. Look around - I bet by the end of Sept 2014 - you'll find it for $100 or less...
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