Nokia Lumia 620 review

The Lumia 620 is Nokia's most affordable Windows Phone 8 smartphone to date. The device is the final shot in Nokia's opening campaign to wrestle control of the enterprise market from BlackBerry.

Given our tepid feelings towards Nokia's mid-range Lumia 820, we didn't have high hopes for the device, thinking it would follow the pattern of many budget phones and prove to be an underpowered, featureless bore.

But to our surprise, Nokia has managed to keep a number of the innovations that made its flagship Lumia 920 smartphone great, despite the 620 only retailing for a modest £220 sim-free.

Design and build
Visually, the Lumia 620 differs from many smartphones, featuring a much rounder, curved design than other Lumias.

The 620 is also both smaller and lighter than other Lumia smartphones measuring in at 115x61x11mm and weighing 127g. That makes it over 30g lighter than the 160g Lumia 820 and nearly a third lighter than the 185g Lumia 920.

We found that, this combined with the 620's more curvaceous plastic outer chassis, makes the smartphone very comfortable to hold in your hand.

The 620 features interchangeable covers. This means that, as well as being able to customise your phone's appearance, you can simply replace the chassis if you damage it. The covers are available in a variety of colour options, including white, black, yellow, blue and green.

While some of the brighter coloured case options make the 620 look a little like a kids toy, we found they are very solidly built.

When we accidentally dropped ours on the street, for example, we were surprised how scratch-proof the 620 cases are, with the device surviving the ordeal completely unscathed.

Display
Nokia has equipped the 620 with a 3.8in, 480x800 pixel 246 ppi capacitive touchscreen.

While the screen is nowhere near as good as the 4.5in PureMotion HD+ WXGA display seen on the Lumia 920, which boasts 768x1280 pixels and 332 ppi, we were surprised how good it was compared to other devices in its price bracket.

Next: Display and operating system