Nokia Lumia 520, 720 Smartphones Outed, Details Emerge

[zakislam]

Higher-end 720 powered by a 1GHz dual-core chip.

Nokia Lumia 520, 720 Smartphones Outed, Details Emerge : Read more

 

[Avus]

do they have removable batteries??

 

[rb420]

Lumia phones seem to be lacking in RAM compared to their android counterparts, even in their "higher end".

Is Windows just more efficient with it's RAM use/management or is this a potential drawback?

 

[Bloob]

[citation][nom]rb420[/nom]Lumia phones seem to be lacking in RAM compared to their android counterparts, even in their "higher end".Is Windows just more efficient with it's RAM use/management or is this a potential drawback?[/citation]
WP, like iOS, tombstones apps, leaving only requested services running in the background, saving RAM, but removing full multitasking.

Not all that many Androids have over 1GB of RAM either though.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]rb420[/nom]Lumia phones seem to be lacking in RAM compared to their android counterparts, even in their "higher end".Is Windows just more efficient with it's RAM use/management or is this a potential drawback?[/citation]
Ive had my lumia 920 and memory is nowhere near an issue, 1GB seems like more than enough for this operating system, that runs smoothly on just about anything!

 

[fudoka711]

Yea, my lumia 920 has been running w/out any hiccups aside from a couple bugged apps. I'm not actually sure how the lumia is utilizing its memory. It just seems to be doing a pretty nice job so far. I guess I'll see how things are in a year or two, depending on app development and how much ram they end up using in the future.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]rb420[/nom]Lumia phones seem to be lacking in RAM compared to their android counterparts, even in their "higher end".Is Windows just more efficient with it's RAM use/management or is this a potential drawback?[/citation]
2 reasons for this

1) WP is quite a bit more efficient with ram usage than Android
2) These are low end phones. How many low end Androids have more than 512MB of ram in them?

That said, I would love to see more 1-2GB phones on the market. Ram is so dirt cheap that it seems like it would be an obvious selling point with very little markup. I think we will start seeing a lot more ram in phones in 2014 when DDR4 becomes cheap as you can fit 4GB of DDR4 in the same physical space as 1GB of DDR2 that they are using in phones today.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]wozza365[/nom]Ive had my lumia 920 and memory is nowhere near an issue, 1GB seems like more than enough for this operating system, that runs smoothly on just about anything![/citation]
[citation][nom]fudoka711[/nom]Yea, my lumia 920 has been running w/out any hiccups aside from a couple bugged apps. I'm not actually sure how the lumia is utilizing its memory. It just seems to be doing a pretty nice job so far. I guess I'll see how things are in a year or two, depending on app development and how much ram they end up using in the future.[/citation]
Same here, I am on a Lumia 920 and my only real complaint is that running GPS or Skype will kill the battery in no time, but even those run just fine with 1GB of ram. I thought that the lack of removable storage would be an issue, but other than not being able to hold my entire music collection on my phone it has not been a problem (and I am still able to load several CDs and podcasts on, so it is not a huge problem). Hopefully next gen phones will have enough onboard memory (64+GB) where removable storage is simply not needed and I can have all of my music, documents, and a few movies on there.

Oh, and they need to get Wallet working and supporting secure NFC payments! Almost every store I walk into has NFC payment capability now. If they do not get this working before my contract is up in 2 years then it will be a deal breaker. I love WP, but I love the idea of getting rid of my wallet even more!

Hopefully these new Lumias are available State side. We need more cheap WP8 devices to eat up the 'free with contract' Android market so that we can attract more software!

 

[rb420]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]2) These are low end phones. How many low end Androids have more than 512MB of ram in them?[/citation]

The article twice calls the 720 "higher end". My HTC one s, truly a mid to low end phone, has 1GB ram.

I just think that when you see articles like the other one on Tom's about unifying windows RT and windows phone 8 Apps so they can run on each platform interchangeably, more RAM might be useful. Especially when, as pointed out, RAM is so cheap these days.

 

[ojas]

What i find odd is that the 620 is confirmed to be a 3.8 inch screen...why would the 520, a tier lower, have a bigger screen? And the 820 already has a 4.3-inch.

I think it'll be 520=3.5 inch, 720=4-inch.

I may be wrong, but i'm just using logic...

[citation][nom]rb420[/nom]The article twice calls the 720 "higher end".[/citation]
Higher end than the 520.

 

[hannibal]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]What i find odd is that the 620 is confirmed to be a 3.8 inch screen...why would the 520, a tier lower, have a bigger screen? And the 820 already has a 4.3-inch.I think it'll be 520=3.5 inch, 720=4-inch.I may be wrong, but i'm just using logic...Higher end than the 520.[/citation]

Well the size is not all that matters. If 620 has smaller but better guality screen, the difference is ok. We just have to see how these compares to older Lumia WP8 phones.

 

[scrumworks]

6MP is an interesting snapper rez. Interesting times for Nokia.

 

[zybch]

[citation][nom]rb420[/nom]Lumia phones seem to be lacking in RAM compared to their android counterparts, even in their "higher end".Is Windows just more efficient with it's RAM use/management or is this a potential drawback?[/citation]
WP7-8 was designed from the ground up to make far better use of its resources than the other mobile OSes out there. Thats partly why it was able to win the vast majority of the 'smoked by windows phone' tasks even though at the time (wp7.5) it had only a single core @ 1ghz or less on average and 512Mb RAM.
I've had several WP phones and now a Lumia 920 and the perceived lack of RAM has, so far, been a complete non-issue, same with its CPU which I believe is a dual core 1.5Ghz snapdragon. Its still able to do pretty much everything I've tried faster than my Nexus 7 (quad core 1.3Ghz tegra) and is a lot less app-crashy.
I keep on trying various android devices, but they simply don't feel as nice and the WP offerings.

 

[tomfreak]

wow damn, and here I was almost wanting to get Lumia 620. Looks like I gonna wait these 2 out to see how.

 

[Soda-88]

Think I'll be getting 520 since I'm a light phone user.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]Hopefully these new Lumias are available State side. We need more cheap WP8 devices to eat up the 'free with contract' Android market so that we can attract more software![/citation]The lowest we should subsidize completely (free w/ contract) would be the 720. The 822 is already only $50 with contract, so there's really no need to go any lower than a 720. I picked up an 822 myself actually. It's a great phone so far, I ordered a really fast microSD card off Newegg for it. That way I'll have room for music, offline maps, etc.

Now, off-contract, sure the lower-end 5xx phones are good to have. But that's not what you were talking about. Anyway, for a budget smartphone, the 520 actually seems like a very good buy. I'm willing to bet it runs great, and it's got a microSD slot so no major woes about storage. It should do well overseas.

 

[szleaves]

Higher end than the 520. yeah should be