Nokia Lumia 720

Available now
25th February 2013

Sitting in the middle of Nokia's range of Windows phones is the new Nokia Lumia 720, which is similar on the surface to the Lumia 820 but inside it is much closer to the cheaper Lumia 620. But there's a bit more to it than that, and this Lumia has a few things going for it that make it an attractive proposition.

Like the Lumia 820, the display is a 4.3" 480 x 800 pixel ClearBack panel which is slightly curved and covered in Gorilla Glass. The housing is Nokia's attractive unibody design, which makes the Lumia 720 look more expensive than it really is. On the back is a camera with the slightly odd resolution of 6.7 megapixels with Carl Zeiss optics and 720p video capture capabilities, plus a wide angle 1.3 megapixel camera on the front.

Inside the Lumia 720 is a dual-core 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM, 8GB on onboard flash storage plus a microSD slot, GPS plus GLONASS positioning systems, along with WiFi, 3.5G and Bluetooth connectivity. The Lumia 720 also has NFC support, and it can be used with an optional snap-on cover to allow wireless charging. However, unlike the 820, the Lumia 720 does not support LTE data.

There are a couple of more fundamental features that might appeal to many customers - the Lumia 720 has a large 2000 mAh battery which is the same capacity as in the top-end Lumia 920 and holds 21% more charge than the one in the Lumia 820. Despite this, the Lumia 720 weighs just 128 grams, which is 20% lighter than the Lumia 820. Nokia say that the talktime is 13 hours on 3G with a standby time of 21 days.. of course, those figures don't match real-world usage, but the battery on the Lumia 920 is pretty beefy and we would expect the Lumia 720 to be able to last a long time between charges.

The operating system is Windows Phone 8 with Nokia's own enhancements on top, including unlimited ad-free music streaming, free turn-by-turn navigation and the new HERE Transit application which allows you to find your way around with public transport.

Nokia say that the Lumia 720 should cost just €249 before tax and subsidy, it will roll out in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore during Q1 2013 with Europe, Asia, India and Africa to follow during Q2. Available colours will be gloss white, and matte red, yellow, cyan and black. It looks to us that Nokia might have hit the sweet spot when it comes to features and pricing, so there's a good chance that this will be a much-needed success.