Design
The Nokia Lumia 720 was launched in 2013 alongside the budget model Nokia Lumia 520. This phone, along with the Lumia 620, 820 and 920, is the mid-range of the Nokia Lumia lineup.
By design, this device is a classic Lumia phone, with a striking plastic casing and great build quality. The phone weighs 128 grams, which is quite a lot, but the Lumia 720 fits perfectly in the hand. The manufacturer offered a choice of five body colors: black, white, blue, yellow and red.
Below the screen are the standard Windows Phone control buttons, and above the screen there is a 1.3 Mpx front camera for video calls.
On the right side of the device there are physical buttons: a sound rocker, a power / lock button, a camera control button. On the left side there is a slot for a microSD memory card (up to 64 GB). Above are the microSIM card slot and headphone jack.
By the location of the connectors, you can guess that the battery in the phone is not removable.
Screen
One of the downsides of many Windows phones is the low screen resolution. This is also the case for the Lumia 720, which has a 480 x 800 pixel screen and a pixel density of 217.
This is small for a 4.5-inch screen. And if the programs that are standard for the operating system look good thanks to the text anti-aliasing technology, then in third-party programs and video files, a low screen resolution is immediately noticeable.
On the plus side, the touchscreen can be used with gloves.
Interface
The Nokia Lumia 720 runs on Windows Phone 8, the latest development from Microsoft. With each version, this operating system gets better and better, although there is still no such freedom of action as in Android. Although Nokia is trying to improve the situation by installing its own applications, such as: Nokia Music, maps, navigator, camera software.
The Lumia 720's lock screen is no different from other Windows Phone devices, where you can see the time, missed messages, emails and notifications. The desktop is made according to the Live Tile principle, the tiles with programs can be deleted, resized and moved.
The operating system runs fairly smoothly, although the 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM is hardly the most progressive combination. To the right of the home screen is a list of all installed applications. The programs are arranged alphabetically, from here you can install applications on the start page.
There are not many preinstalled applications in the phone, there are no Facebook and Twitter clients. Basically, there are such basic applications as: Alarm clock, Calculator, Calendar. But I would like to note the presence of mobile versions of Microsoft Office suite and OneNote, giving access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. You can easily read or correct any document.
The Lumuia 720 also has a handy PDF Reader.
Cards
Nokia offers its own navigation software and it is also installed in the Lumia 720. Here Maps may be slightly inferior in functionality to Google Maps, but you will be able to check public transit times, traffic conditions and get directions in many countries around the world. In addition, Here Maps has the ability to preload maps so that you can use them when there is no Internet connection available. These maps will also come in handy when using the Here Drive Beta navigation app.
Phone book
All your contacts are stored in the People app. All your friends from various social services such as Google, Facebook and LinkedIn are also displayed here. The phone copes well with linking contacts and various social profiles, although manual configuration is also possible.Contacts are arranged alphabetically, they can be combined into groups.
You can fill in a personal contact profile with additional information such as phone numbers, email addresses, place of work, and so on. If the contact has an account on a social network, his latest updates will also be displayed here.
Nothing bad can be said about the quality of the connection, the interlocutor is well and clearly audible, the signal is quite good.
Communication
As with many modern smartphones, the Lumia 720 has a variety of communication and messaging services.
The texting app is pretty simple, it is a list of people from whom you received SMS. By clicking on one of the contacts, you will open your dialogue with this person. Messages are displayed in white text on a black background. In the same application, you can communicate on Facebook and MSN Messenger. No additional functions are required from such programs, and this application does an excellent job with its tasks.
For the email clients Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo, the manufacturer has installed separate applications. This is a little inconvenient, especially if you use email a lot. Fortunately, your mailboxes can be linked together.
One of the biggest drawbacks is the Windows Phone operating system developer's policy that prevents the phone manufacturer from changing the built-in apps. In this case, it refers to the keyboard. It may not be disgusting, but for anyone accustomed to SwiftKey technology, it will seem too slow to type. In addition, there are few symbols and punctuation marks, which cannot negatively affect the grammar of your text, especially if it is important or important to you.
Unfortunately, there are no alternatives to the standard keyboard in the Windows Phone Store.
the Internet
The Nokia Lumia 720 has only one Internet Explorer (IE) browser. It is an unassuming browser that provides basic web surfing tools.
At the bottom of the screen there is a line for entering the address, next to it is a page refresh button. The rest of the controls are hidden at the bottom and can be accessed by clicking on the three small dots to the right of the address bar. You can choose Bing or Google as your search engine.
Flash is not supported on the Lumia 720.
Multimedia
Considering its relatively large screen, memory card slot and surprisingly loud speaker, the Nokia Lumia 720 is an excellent multimedia phone. In addition, there is 8GB of internal storage, only 2GB of which is taken up by the operating system.
Music
To play music, use the Music + Videos application, which displays all the audio files downloaded to your phone or memory card. The Lumia 720 supports formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV and AAC.
The music player has a basic set of functions: play, stop, skip, repeat, shuffle. Songs can be sorted by name, album and artist, and it is also possible to create a playlist.
If you are subscribed to the Microsoft Xbox Music service, you can connect their account to Music + Videos, which will give you access to a library of tunes.
There is also a link to the Windows Phone Store in the app, leading to the music download section.
In addition, the manufacturer has added its own Nokia Music app. This is a music player that does not differ much from Music + Videos in functionality, but it has a built-in Mix radio that allows you to create playlists from songs in the free online library, which you can then download to your phone.
The external speaker is surprisingly loud, there are Dolby Digital settings, and with headphones connected, an equalizer is available.
Video
The Music + Videos application is also responsible for video playback. There are currently no online video stores on Windows Phone, so content needs to be downloaded from other locations.
The Lumia 720 supports AVI, WMV, MP4, H.264 and H.263.
Functionally, a video player is even simpler than audio. You can play the file, pause and skip.There are no additional features. During video playback, the low resolution of the phone screen is especially clearly visible, although the quality cannot be called catastrophically low.
Gallery
All the photos that you have on your phone appear in the Photos application, you can easily find the desired image among the thumbnails.
You can save your albums to SkyDrive so you don't lose a single photo, even if you don't have your phone with you.
This also includes photos from social networks, including Facebook.
Windows Phone 8 also has a simple photo editor built into the gallery that lets you crop and rotate images. However, Nokia also installed its own Creative Studio program in the Lumia 720. This program has a variety of editing options and many effects that you can add to your photos. You can change the color balance, brightness, clarity of the image, as well as remove red-eye from the photo.
Camera
Nokia Lumia 720 is equipped with 6.7 Mpx main camera and 1.3 Mpx front camera. In addition, there is a single LED flash and a Carl Zeiss lens. The functionality of the camera is quite simple: you can control the flash, change the white balance, ISO, exposure, switch between the main and front cameras. There are many modes of operation, but the phone copes well with the situation with automatic settings.
In the Camera app you will find some interesting add-ons such as Bing Vision, which allows you to scan barcodes, Smart Shoot, which analyzes photos to make sure everyone is smiling and having open eyes. The rest of the add-ons can be installed from the Windows Phone Store. In order to take a photo, just tap anywhere on the screen, which is not very convenient, especially if you are just trying to open the menu. Fortunately, there is a physical button with which you can take pictures.
The shooting speed is not very high, in order for the autofocus to work, it takes a few seconds.
The image quality is pretty good and you can get decent photos with the Lumia 720. Quality can be degraded around the edges, especially in low-light areas, but otherwise the phone's camera is pretty good, especially considering it's a budget model. Photos have good contrast, colors are vivid and lifelike.
Unfortunately, the Nokia Lumia 720 lacks OIS, Panorama and HDR.
Video recording in Nokia Lumia 720 is possible in 720p resolution. The camcorder is accessed through the Camera application. There are even fewer features than a camera, you can turn the flash on and off, change the white balance, and choose between 720p and WVGA resolutions.
The video quality is not bad, especially in well-lit places.
Battery
A 2000mAh battery is installed here, which is quite enough for comfortable work with the phone all day long.
Nokia says the Lumia 720 is capable of 520 hours of standby time and 79 hours of music playback. And with moderate use, the phone is capable of two days of battery life, which is pretty impressive for a modern smartphone.
In addition to the relatively large battery, this is facilitated by the operating system and not the most powerful processor. The only drawback of the battery is that it is not removable.
Output
The Nokia Lumia 720 is a beautiful phone that brings you all the power of the Windows Phone 8 operating system. It's definitely a budget phone given its not-so-powerful processor and low-res screen, but it does a pretty good job. It has multimedia apps, document editors, a decent camera, and a good battery.
