Created to ride on the selfie wave, Microsoft brands the Lumia 730 ‘Made for Selfies’. But as we have seen it is much more than a ‘selfie phone’.
Although the Lumia 730 is not the first selfie phone in the market, Microsoft is showing how pop culture is influencing product design and function. This mid-range Windows Phone packs a 5MP full HD camera with wide-angle capacity. This is the main selling point of the 730 and it doesn’t disappoint in terms of capturing quality selfies especially if you use with the preloaded Lumia Selfie app.
The selfie selling angle is good for Microsoft but you can take only so many selfies, that’s why the 6.7MP main camera is quite decent for a phone of this price range. In addition to LED flash, the Lumia Camera app allows 730 users to adjust exposure, focus, ISO and shutter speed.
Design
Simple and elegant is the philosophy of the Lumia line and the 730 doesn’t deviate from that. The back case is easily detachable to reveal dual-SIM slots and the battery. Surprisingly, in spite of the compact look, the Lumia 730 is light, weighing 140 grams. The plastic glossy casing is designed to protect the screen in case of nasty falls.
The 4.7” HD screen with a pixel density of 316 ppi rivals top-end Samsungs and iPhones. For the bold, you have the option of going with the bright orange and green cases or tone it down with white and black. The fact that the phone comes in various colors clearly indicates it is targeting the young and upwardly mobile.
The downside is that you don’t get to see the home screen basics when the phone is on idle mode. In other Lumias, you can see the clock, new email and text notification without switching on the phone. But you can double-tap to quickly wake up the screen. Noise cancelation speaker, next to the flash light, it makes your calls really clear even when someone is in a noisy place.
Specs
Operating on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 processor, the 730 is relatively fast. You can multitask on different applications and apps without any lag. However, this is the expected average capacity for this range of phones. The advantage is the 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory compared to the 600’s Lumia line.
It also helps that it has 128GB microSD card support and 2G, 3G connectivity. We would have loved to see LTE options available especially with telcos promising to deliver this range but that is something in the future. Unlike the previous Lumia models, you get 8.1 software packed with Cortana. It’s worth checking it out and testing the personal assistance.
At a retail price of Sh28,850, the Lumia 730 is a phone for the young professional who is active on social media and still wants to be taken serious (especially if you go with black or white). Windows has being doing a lot in the app development zone, so you will find play and work apps for daily use. Going with the price, we are not sure if this is a phone for the selfie generation though.
