Shootouts

Shootout: Compact 4G LTE Smartphones under S$600 (mid-2014)

By Sidney Wong - 15 Jul 2014

Nokia Lumia 635 - Design & Features

Nokia Lumia 635

The Nokia Lumia 635 is the most affordable 4G smartphone you can find in the market at the moment.

Nokia did not break any new ground with the design of the Lumia 635; in fact, it looks like every other Lumia device before it. It is also dressed in true Nokia’s fashion style with a range of colors including bright yellow and bright orange plus the classic white and black.

Thankfully, the bright color masks fingerprints and smudges well on the Nokia Lumia 635.

As the rear shell is removable, you can change the color according to your mood or preference. Removing the rear cover requires a little more effort than usual and one should start off from the top right corner to pry it off.

You have to remove the 1,830mAh battery - the smallest in this comparision - to access the micro-SIM and microSD memory card slots.

The microSD and microSIM card slots are not hot-swappable; this means you have to remove the battery before you can access the slots. With only 8GB internal storage, users can rely on the memory card slot - supports memory cards up to 128GB in capacity - if the onboard storage is used up.

You get about 3GB of available storage space out of the box on the Nokia Lumia 635. Apps and the Windows Phone 8.1 OS take up the bulk of the 8GB storage space.

The glossy plastic shell makes the phone extremely susceptible to fingerprints and smudges, and does not contribute to a reassuring grip if you happen to have sweaty palms. Fortunately, it is not very heavy at 134g to use in one hand.

The Lumia 635 houses a 4.5-inch ClearBack IPS display with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. While the colors look nice and well presented, it has the lowest resolution screen of this comparison. Essentially, you get what you pay for. At its price point of S$239, there isn’t anything more you can expect. Of course Xiaomi's Redmi easily tops this in specs and price, but it's unfortunately not a direct comparison as it doesn't yet have 4G connectivity support.

Despite its proposition as an entry-level model, the Lumia 635 is one of the first few phones to ship with Windows Phone 8.1. You get Action Center, a swipe-down notification panel that has long existed on Google Android and introduced in Apple iOS 7 last year. Action Center can be accessed from any app including the lock screen, and allows you to customize the four quick settings.

A long overdue feature, the Quick Settings and Notification Panel finally arrives on the Windows Phone platform! You can customize the four quick settings on Windows Phone 8.1.

Even with just 512MB RAM, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core 1.2GHz in the Lumia 635 is able to deliver a smooth user experience. Animations and navigation are snappy that you won't realize that the phone is handling this with such minimal hardware specs. The Lumia 635 supports theoretical LTE speeds of 100Mbps (download) and 50Mbps (upload), which is a step down from the LTE CAT 4 support in some of the competing phones, but this is really more of an informational note than a sore point.

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