Nokia Lumia 635 Quick Review

Nokia Lumia 635 Quick Review

Brief:  A Nokia PMP that makes calls too.

Price:  £130 or in the US US$99

Specification:  Go read here http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_635-6254.php

Accessories:  Err a charger, that’s it.

Build Quality:  Very nice.

Aesthetics:  Plain, very simple visually and as such quite inoffensive.  You can change the back covers if colour is more your thing.

As a Phone:  Meh.  WP is nice and snappy, elegant even but still I found randomly limited in its capabilities.  It’s lovely and straightforward if that’s what you want but I like things to be how I like; WP did not offer me that ability.  Calls and stuff were fine.

Sound:  I did not expect much as my experience with phones audio wise has been that on the whole they suck.  It doesn’t help that I’m mostly a Nexus person and as a rule on Nexus phones, the camera sucks and the audio sucks.  The 635 then, at a relatively “bargain” end of the market I expected it to suck.  It does not.  If you want warmth and smooth look elsewhere, if you want clean and pithy liveliness you have come to the right place.  The 635 has a cracking little DAC/amp in there.  The amp does need a crack of the volume dial to be its best but when you do, its sooo bouncily lively.  Clean and crisp tonally, the bass while lacking a little depth has great punch and vim.  Vocals are clear and gleefully articulate.  Highs are pin sharp and crisp.  A touch over crisp for treble happy IEM’s but you stick to warm bassy things and it’s all good.  Lively pop sounds fantastically lively and articulate for a phone, it is all joy and exuberance all the time and for the target teenish market I’d say they are onto a sure fire winner audio wise.  They would do better marketing this as a playful PMP that just happens to make calls and text too.  For the price I am well impressed with its clean articulate sound

A hint of warning though, it need to be a little loud to be its best.  WP doesn’t really support FLAC.  The HP out is rather noisy, pops and crackles galore, quiet classical pieces kinda get ruined if your have a sensitive IEM.  However I don’t particularly see any of these downsides being all that much of a problem for the people likely to be buying this in the first place.

Value:  For £130, hmmm I know I bought it but I wouldn’t again.  Still, if you must have a convergence device, want a really simple OS and want that SD card slot (upto 128GB supported) then as a PMP that can also text and make calls, its audio quality is good.  Note, Microsoft has just set the US    price to only US$99 direct from them, that is bloody cheap!

Pro’s:   Sounds great, so fresh and articulately punchy. Acoustically fun.

Con’s:  WP either works for you or it doesn’t.  Not the most noise free output.