Nokia Lumia 820

After much delay, Nokia's latest Lumia phones finally reached Indian shores. Since we have already reviewed the much coveted Nokia Lumia 920, we decided to spend most of our time with its younger sibling — the Nokia Lumia 820. At first glance, the Lumia 820 looks very similar to the 920 except for a relatively smaller screen and flat design. The device's glossy back cover doesn't help with the grip, and chances of the phone slipping from your hand is high. The right side of the device sports a volume rocker, power switch and the dedicated camera button. The buttons were quick to respond, however, they are slightly hard to press (the Nokia spokesperson was quick to point out that unlike the test units, the on sale handsets will be a lot easier to handle; we dont get the logic though). 

 The handset has an AMOLED display producing deep blacks. The pixel dimensions of 480x800 result in a relatively low pixel density of 217 ppi on its 4.3" screen. Despite this, images appear sharp. The Lumia 820 is powered by the same dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU as is the case with the Lumia 920, giving you a buttery-smooth navigation on the UI. Unlike the flagship Lumia 920 though, the Lumia 820 has a micro-SD card slot which expands the storage capacity to as much as 64 GB. Overall, the performance is great, and on-par with what we experienced in the Lumia 920.

 The USP of the Nokia Lumia 820 is its removable back panel. Switching between shells is pretty difficult and chances of breaking it would have been high, had its construction not been sturdy. We noticed that the battery was loose without the back cover, and just flipping over the phone will make it pop out. The Lumia 820 doesn't ship with a wireless charging unit. But you can buy a wireless charging compatible shell seperately.

The phone's 8 mp camera offers images with good detail. However, since it lacks the PureView tech, low-light photographs contain a lot of noise.

The Nokia Lumia 820 has been priced at Rs 26,500 It is a good buy for those who want to customise their phone's appearance and can overlook the absence of the PureView camera tech. However, we'd advise you to wait it out till we do a in-depth review of the smartphone in the coming weeks.