Nokia Lumia 630 Review
by Brett Howse on July 22, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Nokia
- Mobile
- windows phone
WiFi
The Wi-Fi department is decidedly lacking, with the Lumia 630 only supporting 802.11b/g/n, and only on the 2.4 GHz bands. While I personally prefer the range 2.4 GHz gives me, people in more congested areas have come to rely on 5 GHz for quality connections. It’s not surprising that this is cut it seems to be one of the first things to go once budgets are looked at. For the budget, I can understand why it was done.
Once again we’re bumping into the easy to cull features on an affordable smartphone. While the Lumia 630 is 802.11n, it has a single 2.4 GHz antennae which results in connection speeds that max out at 65 Mbps. With overhead, I have yet to see sustained speeds of over around 27 Mbps, though I’ve seen the occasional peak speeds of around 40 Mbps. Certainly not great but it gets the job done I suppose.
Cellular
The Lumia 630 utilizes the Qualcomm MSM8226 SoC, and is therefore limited to 21.1 Mbps HSPA+ speeds. If you want LTE, you need to go with the Lumia 635 which uses the MSM8926. The 8226 is definitely a known part at this point, with it being the heart of quite a few smartphones including the Moto G. Download speeds are right what you’d expect for a HSPA+ device. As always, these numbers are skewed by the current load on whatever cell site you are attached to, so keep that in mind. The theoretical maximum speed is never going to be reached.
GNSS
Again, with the Qualcomm silicon at the heart of this device, we’re working with well known, and well tested parts such as the GNSS. The Lumia 630 supports Cellular and Wi-Fi assist and supports GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou for location, and it locks quickly. Hopefully the days of poor location tracking are over.
Speaker
With just a single speaker on the back of the device, the Lumia 630 is not great for playing music. The quality of the sound is typical of most smartphones – tinny and very low dynamic range. The overall volume is decent though, assuming the speaker isn’t covered by your hand, which it normally would not be with the placement of the speaker grille.
For notifications, the speaker is adequate and provides ample volume so that you won’t miss a call or notification. The same can’t be said of the vibration mechanism. It’s too weak, and if the phone is on vibrate and in your pocket, it is very easy to miss a notification.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
83 Comments
View All Comments
name99 - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - link
I don't want to turn this into an Apple/MS/Android fight, but WTF is up with those BaseMark OS II memory scores? They certainly suggest something is very broken with the benchmark in some way.Is there any reason to believe that the 630 (a super budget phone) really has an awesome memory subsystem, substantially superior to iPhone 5S, to Android flagships, and vastly superior to the 620?
coachingjoy - Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - link
Nice review.lumia 930/ICON review next please.
Thanks
Rainer - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - link
Hi Brett, the Lumia 620 features also a 5GHz-band (802.11 "a") as well as a VGA front camera (at least the European models), could you please add this to the Hardware specs in tue table? Thanksaustinsguitar - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - link
ugh these phones need to get the picture. higher equipment, better battery "that doesn't suck," and a friendly OS that doesn't stray too far to what many are used to.... i just dont think these phones will advance unless these things are met in FULL!Death666Angel - Wednesday, July 23, 2014 - link
Hm, thanks for the review.I would really like to see the resolution added to the display category in the tables. You already have a RAM/ROM space, why not have a diplsay size/resolution space? I haven't found it in the first page or second page tables where it really needs to be. Neither have I seen it while glossing over the article.
As for the phone itself, without a front facing camera and an ambient light sensor, I'd rather spend 30€ more on a Moto G. This really needs to be 109€ tops, not 130€.
SC7 - Thursday, July 24, 2014 - link
Hi also Checkout thisLatest Nokia Lumia 530 - Full Mobile Specification http://bit.ly/1ogA1S0
leopard_jumps - Friday, July 25, 2014 - link
Nokia 630SAR US 1.52 W/kg (head) 1.25 W/kg (body)
SAR EU 1.51 W/kg (head) 1.52 W/kg (body)
i wouldnt buy it .
whatsa - Sunday, July 27, 2014 - link
Pity you did not add the 1520 but just IOS and droid high end.I just amazes me that this BS continues
Why not show the 1520?
well on graphics it kills the competition.
Come on Guys you can do better than this.... disappointed.
Brett Howse - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
I didn't have a 1520 for comparison is the only reason.operaghost - Wednesday, August 6, 2014 - link
If the 630/635 is the successor to the 520 why wasn't the 520 included in the performance results? It would be nice to see what the new model can do over the old model. Likewise, since I bought my 520 for $50 outright, no contract, and the 630/635 can be had for about $100, why is it being compared to the high end phones? I can see adding perhaps a single high-end for comparison, but I don't expect a $100 phone to beat out a $650 GS5 or iPhone 5S in a performance test. Compare other phones in a similar price range. Let's see the $100 Androids compared to this instead. That makes more sense to me.