Nokia Lumia 735 Review
by Brett Howse on February 3, 2015 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Nokia
- Lumia
Wi-Fi
Windows Phone does not give us as much access to the hardware as Android, making outright declarations about hardware difficult. However, it is most likely the Wi-Fi solution in the Lumia 735 is the Qualcomm VIVE which is part of the SoC. Unlike the Lumia 830 though, this is a single band only, with one spatial stream. The maximum connection speed is 72.2 Mbps.
Maximum transfer speed that I achieved was only 29 Mbps, which is not fantastic. Many people have faster internet connections in their home, so the 735 will likely not be able to max those out.
Cellular
The MSM8926 SoC supports up to Category 4 LTE, which offers a maximum of 150 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload, depending on tower traffic, provider hardware, and location of course.
The model shipped for review can support GSM at 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz, along with WCDMA Band 1 (2100 MHz), Band 5 (850 MHz), and Band 8 (900 MHz). LTE FDD is on bands 3 (1800 MHz), 7 (2600 MHz), and 20 (800 MHz). In North America, the main LTE band is band 4, which is not available on this sample to allow LTE speed testing.
GNSS
Qualcomm’s IZat Gen8A is the GPS in the Snapdragon 400 SoC, and as with most modern Qualcomm location solutions it is fast and accurate. With location services enabled on the phone, GPS lock happened within a couple of seconds. Going from location services disabled to a GPS lock took around thirty seconds, which is pretty good.
The Lumia 735 supports A-GLONASS, A-GPS, BeiDou, and assist from cellular and Wi-Fi networks to get a quicker location fix.
Speaker
The Lumia 735 has a single speaker on the back of the device, which reduces bezel sizes but does not give you the optimum location for a speaker. The maximum SPL playing music is around 81 dBA, and the sound quality is as expected not fantastic, with very little low range and a very tinny sound.
If you are to play music on this device, it would be best to do it through either headphones or a Bluetooth speaker. It does have a graphic equalizer, which can be used for the internal speaker or headphones.
Due to technical issues, I am unable to do a recording for call quality at this time.
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peterfares - Tuesday, February 3, 2015 - link
PenTile screen? Yuck.Paulo Constança - Tuesday, February 3, 2015 - link
Great article as always! I decided to finally create an account just to comment on this one. I have this phone, bought it 3 when it barely came out to replace my old and ageing trustworthy Nokia 5800. I tried several phones before making the decision to buy this one, several androids from several brands, i even glimpsed at the iphone (but that one was is too expensive for my poor pockets), and then i tried windows phone on a low end device. After seeing how fast it was, i decided to search for the lumia phones. Seeing this one had just came out 2 weeks ago back then, i decided to check for the pricing, and it was with a great discount: Unlocked for 189€ (it was, and still is, 249€ in most stores), so I decided "what tha hell, let's jump into the windows phone and see what's it about.", as i pretty much already knew well what android and ios could offer me, and kept hearing how "bad and lacking windows phone was".God damn it's great!
Phone runs super smooth, the hand feel is just right, screen has incredible colous, love the blacks, the entire system just pieces together incredibly well, and the so called "app lacking" problems are not nearly as close as people say it is: actually so far i haven't felt the need for any app that's lacking, even multilayer games a few of my collogues have and want me to play with them, i have them available on the store.
I can't believe i went for 6 years with Nokia 5800 thinking not a single phone could replace it anytime soon, and it seems this one was a heck of a deal for the price i got it (it was back in November, it had just arrived to my country it seemed).
Battery lasts for me 2 full days, and i do use the phone quite a lot during my day. Only thing i found sad to discover this one didn't have is the glance screen, but it's not that much of a big deal breaker.
A few stores have knocked the price down to 199.90€ (unlocked, it's at 168€ in Vodafone right now, locked of course) recently, so this phone should start being a hit, IF people stop being idiots saying Windows Phone isn't any good and actually try it out.
So far I don't have any problems with it, except for one: My wallet is screaming right now, as i just bought a second one to offer my sister for her 38th birthday haha. Got the Orange one for her as well, mine's the dark grey one.
Slap on it a SD card and you wont have any storage issues. 16GB fast mSD cards run so cheap this days (8€), it's a steal really. I got a 64GB card for mine to store all the things and more though :)
faizoff - Tuesday, February 3, 2015 - link
Just to piggyback on your comment, before I bought my first smartphone (iphone 4) in 2010 I had the Nokia 7250i since 2004. I too went with the older nokia phone for 6 years. I bought a cheap lumia 525 and I'm seriously thinking of getting a high end windows phone once my iphone 6 plus dies (probably another 4 yrs).Cpt. Obvious - Tuesday, February 3, 2015 - link
The Glance Screen is available as a download from the app-store. See: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/glance...AlluringRaja - Friday, February 13, 2015 - link
Yes I saw that but I think glance screen is not available to download for Lumia 520. There is no download button.atata - Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - link
Why you never test audio output quality from jack? Is no one listening to the music anymore?cbf - Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - link
Well, I guess this is good review for users outside the US. But why does Microsoft give you a phone to review that's not really available for sale here, or support the common US LTE bands?BMNify - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link
Thanks for the review Brett, I have bought the dual sim Lumia 730 for $200 factory unlocked version, so its a very good deal when compared to the $375 Lumia 830 in my country. I was sick of carrying two phones and badly needed a dual sim phone and the Lumia 730 announcement got my interest.I don't like huge phones, so the 4.7inch screen is perfect for me, the OLED screen is of good quality, windows phone has the best implementation of MicroSD cards and thus storage is a non-issue, the phone design is nice with light weight and comfortable curves, got the Matte finish dark grey colour as i prefer matte finish and dark colours. The camera quality is actually good and can be bettered only by flagship phones, no other $200 phone can compete with Lumia 730 in this department !!
Now, looking forward to Windows 10 technical preview, i know that the final W10 launch will be in Fall-2015 but its nice of Microsoft to allow direct OS updates via technical preview or preview for developers app.
loimlo - Saturday, February 7, 2015 - link
The charge time is incredibly long given its battery capacity! Is it possible to charge the Lumia 735 using beefier chargers like 5V/1A or 5V/2A so as to reduce charge time?BMNify - Saturday, February 7, 2015 - link
Definitely, you can charge 730/735 with the beefier chargers, i charge my Lumia 730 Dual Sim with a 2A charger and i haven't timed it but its much much faster than the 0.75A charger i got in the box.