At first glance, we mistook Lumia 650 for a premium smartphone. Surely no one would spend so much effort on a budget phone we thought, but we couldn’t be more wrong. Even though Microsoft didn’t seem to care about designing its flagships, here we ended up with a totally different situation. While most budget devices are wrapped in some kind of inexpensive polycarbonate, this smartphone sports an aluminium frame combined with extremely tough polycarbonate. It’s very unusual to see aluminium in this price bracket, but Microsoft has somehow managed to implement it without raising the price. The decision to do that has propelled Lumia 650 straight to the top of our “design on a budget” list. Sporting dimensions of 142 x 70.9 x 6.9 mm and weighing 122 grams, it fits nicely in the palm of any sized hand and doesn’t feel strenuous in the long run.
Another welcome surprise came in the shape of a 5-inch OLED display producing 720 x 1280 pixels for a total density of 297ppi. As many of you know, OLED screens have excellent properties such as great contrast, vivid colours, and deep blacks. Thanks to these properties, Lumia 650 manages to bring all content types to life, especially Windows 10. Browsing the web alongside other similar content didn’t reveal any flaws, as all the text parts were perfectly legible with any amount of zoom. Outdoor performance was respectable and it allowed us to enjoy the device without excessive eye strain.
Powering Lumia 650 is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 212 with four cores clocked at 1.3 GHz. Supported by 1GB of RAM and Adreno 304 GPU, it’s a reliable source of power for basic tasks but not much more. Truth be told we yearned for just a smidge more performance, but asking for more would push us into another price bracket. Microsoft did the best it could for the price and we respect their decision to stick with this hardware. Even though it’s not a powerhouse for playing games and multitasking, actions such as browsing the web, checking emails, and scrolling through social networks are handled sans compromise. Windows 10 is continually receiving updates so performance might improve over time. Those using their smartphone for multimedia will be glad to know that there is 16GB of on-board storage with the possibility to further expand it via a microSD card. Imaging is taken care of by an 8-megapixel main camera alongside a 5-megapixel front camera. Like most cameras in this class, both sensors struggle in low-light conditions but perform much better in well-lit areas. Images taken in favourable conditions deliver plenty of detail and accurate colours.
While many have nearly forgotten about Nokia, this phone reminded us of how things were done in the past. Smartphones weren’t cheap a decade ago, but it seems you couldn’t even buy a budget device without getting the feeling it’s indestructible. Like the immortal Nokias we now make fun of, Lumia 650 seems to follow the same ethos delivering an experience seldom found in its class.
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