Preview: Nokia Lumia 620 Vs HTC 8S

Nokia's budget Windows Phone, Lumia 620 is now available for pre-order on a couple of ecommerce websites in India. As some of us were expecting, the device is pegged at Rs 15,199. Considering the Lumia 510 has been selling for less than 10k for months, the 620 isn't the cheapest Lumia in the market. However, it's the most inexpensive Windows Phone 8 device to reach the Indian shores.
To put things in perspective, the Nokia Lumia 620's closest rival HTC's 8S, costs around Rs 19,000. So let's do a quick features comparison and find out whether this new Lumia can give the HTC 8S a run for its money.


Screen
The Lumia 620's 3.8" screen is slightly smaller than the 4-incher found on the 8S. On the other hand, thanks to Nokia's ClearBlack tech, you can expect deeper blacks on the 620. With pixel dimensions of 480x800, it's not going to be impressively sharp. But, since Windows Phone 8 UI contains mostly tiles and straight lines, the effect of lesser number of pixels is less pronounced to the user.

Design
Similar to its older sibling, the Lumia 820, this phone comes with replaceable outer shells. This design has allowed Nokia to offer user removable battery and microSD card slot. On the other hand, the 8S does not offer easily replaceable battery, but definitely comes out as a winner due to its beautiful polycarbonate unibody design.

Processor And Storage
Both the Lumia 620 and 8S are powered by the 1 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 SoC. Having reviewed the 8S, I think it's safe to assume that the Lumia 620 won't have a problem handling Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 platform especially with a WVGA display. Coming to the subject of storage, the HTC 8S packs in 4 GB of storage, whereas the 620 offers 8 GB out of the box. Apart from that, both the handsets have a microSD card slot for additional storage.

OS And Apps
As mentioned in many reviews, the WP interface is a refreshing break from the grid of icons found on rival platforms. Since the OS still lacks a proper navigation app, Nokia compensates for it with its Drive app that offers offline voice guided satellite navigation for free. Other Nokia apps that deserve a mention are City Lens and Photobeamer. On the other hand, HTC doesn't have anything exclusive up its sleeve.

Camera
In photography department, the 620 as well as the 8S sport a 5 megapixel camera. The 8S comes pre-installed with HTC's Photo Enhancer app that offers Instagram-like filters. However, it's no match for Nokia exclusive lenses (camera plugins) such as Cinemagraph and Smart shoot. The 620 also has an edge over the HTC's offering due to the presence of front-facing camera. We will share details about the image quality comparison after we put the Lumia 620 through a thorough grind.

Battery
While the WP platform isn't as battery intensive as Android, Nokia's decision to go with a 1300 mAh battery remains questionable. Since, I haven't tested the phone yet, I would like to hold back my judgement on the same for the time being. However, considering the HTC 8S offers a 1700 mAh battery, the Finnish phone-maker should have gone with a similar capacity.

On paper at least, the Lumia 620 comes out as a better phone than the HTC 8S. Apart from the features, a more aggressive price tag also gives it an edge over the 8S. Those looking to buy a budget smartphone usually don't have much choice but to go with Android phones. Let’s hope that the Nokia Lumia 620 changes that trend. Watch out for a detailed review shortly.