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The Microsoft Lumia 735 was the last Nokia handset to have the Nokia brand on it when Microsoft acquired the Finnish company. This is a 4.7-inch midrange smartphone that runs Windows Phone 8.1 and is quite the selfie expert. The Lumia 735 boasts an ultra-wide 5MP front camera accompanied by NFC, 4G connectivity, wireless charging, and much more.
The Microsoft Lumia 735 is a colorful 4.7 inch phone. You can get various colors and interchangeable cases just in case you want to switch things up a little bit. Colors range from orange to green to gray and even black. The packaging is quite exquisite making you anxious to see what lies inside. Inside the box, you find a Microsoft Lumia 735, a microUSB cable, a wall charger, product and safety information, and a quick start guide to help out whenever you are in a jam about anything.
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The Microsoft Lumia 735 pretty much took its cues from the other Lumia smartphones in the market currently with rounded edges and square corners. The back has a removable polycarbonate cover which is very special since it includes the sides of the phone as well. At first glance, you wouldn’t think the cover is removable. This gives way for the user to switch out back covers and accessorize without any restrictions.
Under the back cover, we see a micro SD card slot, a SIM card slot, and a removable battery. The back cover has a Qi wireless charging plate that enables the device to charge wirelessly. Volume rockers and the power button fall on the right side of the phone. A 3.5mm headphone jack is at the top and a Micro-USB port is at the bottom of the phone.
The phone has an executive finish which makes it feel comfortable in hand. The rounded sides and uniformly flat top and bottom make the phone feel compact and easy to use with one hand. Some might consider the phone to be small given its 4.7 inch display, but it doesn’t feel that way when gripped in hand. The phone’s dimensions are 134.7 x 68.5 x 8.9 mm and it weighs 134g only.
There is a 6.7-megapixel camera at the top back together with an LED flash. The camera doesn’t protrude much to cause a problem in case the phone falls.
A phone’s camera is one of its biggest selling points or biggest downfall. The Lumia line has never been shy about its incredible cameras. The Microsoft Lumia 735 comes with a 6.7-megapixel primary camera backed by Carl Zeiss optics. The number of megapixels on this device might seem small, but great cameras are not measured only by the number of megapixels. Together with the magnificent f/1.9 maximum aperture, we can be sure to get some decent photos even in low-light environments. The 6.7-megapixel resolution means the media caught using the camera will be more than decent to share with friends, and on social media.
The front facing camera is the centerpiece of this phone. The Microsoft Lumia 735 features a 5MP front camera with a wide-angle lens. This wide angle lens makes this phone the perfect selfie device. The camera is ideal for anyone who loves taking group selfies. Since the selfie camera doesn’t have a LED flash, for best results one should take the photos in an environment with enough light.
Microsoft Lumia 735 comes with a 4.7-inch screen with a 1280 x 720 resolution. The device boasts of an OLED capacitive touchscreen which has a 312 PPI pixel density. For the price tag, this is quite the offering Microsoft is giving its customers. Thanks to its OLED display, this phone fully embraces overblown colors and iridescence. What this means for photos and videos is that the user sees rich and profound colors full of contrast which is an excellent thing if you love watching different media on your device.
Just as seen in other OLED technology powered phones, the Microsoft Lumia 735 reproduces punchy color tones, wide viewing angles, and its black color reproduction is extremely accurate. When it comes to brightness output, the device maxes out at a 341-unit luminance mark. This means that viewing the screen in direct sunlight can be a bit tricky. For protective purposes, the Microsoft Lumia 735 has a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 screen designed to keep the screen from easy breakage and scratches while still giving the device a superior surface quality.
The Microsoft Lumia 735 has a standard 2200mAh battery. This is not extravagant by any means but offers quite the decent service for a device of this caliber. Combining a typical day’s usage, which comprises of some texting, listening to music, social media browsing and some light gaming, we had about 15% battery remaining after a 12-hour day. If you are not a frequent gamer, you would probably get some more hours out of it, but not enough to forego the need for overnight charging. The Microsoft Lumia 735 takes about 3 hours to get fully charged, which again is pretty standard for a phone of this caliber. As opposed to the regular way of charging, the phone can also charge wirelessly which is a great plus.
Given that this is not a premium device, we expected budget specs when it comes to storage. As such, the Microsoft Lumia 735 has 16 GB of internal memory coupled with 1GB of RAM.
16GB is enough for most regular users, but if you want to save more pictures and videos on your phone, you can always expand the memory using the dedicated slot for microSD cards that supports up to 256GB.
This sleek phone is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. To take care of the graphics, we have an Adreno 305 GPU that makes the UI smooth with no lag at all. By default, the phone comes with Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1, which can later be upgraded to Microsoft Windows 10, which is smoother and comes with a nicer UI. With such resources, I found the performance of the phone to be incredible. The screen is extremely responsive and snappy and the apps launch at an incredibly fast speed.
The Microsoft Lumia 735 was released on September 4, 2014