625 display

[Si Haworth]

Hi guys, I'm looking at buying a 625 as a stop gap phone until I can sell my Xperia Z and buy a 925 (currently in a battle with Sony to get it repaired, then it's getting sold!). Carphone Warehouse are selling the 625 for ?129, with a ?50 experience day voucher. That, coupled with Nokia also offering a free cover and a ?20 app voucher; this represents extraordinary value I think.

The last Lumia I had was an 800 and although I loved the hardware and the OS, at the time the lack of apps was just too much of an issue to overcome. Since then, things seem to be changing for the better and I'm looking to get back on board with WP.

The 625 seems to represent the best value as a temporary measure but what are peoples thoughts on the quality of the screen and the low ppi? I've currently got an iPhone 4 and I'm slightly concerned I'm going to notice a considerable drop in screen quality. Has anyone made a similar jump?

Any opinions appreciated.

 

[dznk]

Welcome Si. Yes, there has been several large app releases on WP recently, things overall are looking very good. Onto your questions, I can't comment on the screen difference as I don't own a 625, but I'm fairly familiar with the iPhone 4 as my sister has one. I would say though that Yes you will definitely notice the difference between the screens because of the lower ppi on the 625 as you mentioned. How dramatic the difference will seem, I'm not so sure, but hopefully you'll hear from someone who knows this.

What I will say though, is that by the sounds of it, you have quite a good plan That price for the 625 is brilliant, it appears to have come down quite a bit. As you are potentially using it as a stop gap, I wouldn't worry too much about the screen. There's nothing wrong in using the 625, then once you've sold the Xperia, then sell the 625 and get the 925. You would hardly be losing out money wise at all by the looks of things. Even just quickly checking on ebay now, there are a few Used 625's that are selling for more than you can buy it for new, plus you're getting the goodies thrown in as well. Sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[xandros9]

Well I can't say about the quality of the panel itself, it uses the same type of display as the 920 and 520, yet they have drastically different quality-ness. I don't know if the display will be 920-beautiful or 520-bargain-bin, although its probably mediocre, I know my sister's 521 display is OK.

As for the PPI, it's all relative. Yes it clocks in at a relatively low 199 PPI (give or take) and its a far cry from the 300+ of today's flagships. However, once upon a time, the nice display on the iPhone 3G and such was 163 PPI. The Palm Pre's display, a sharp one, clocked in at 186 PPI, and having owned one Palm Pre 2, I can say that the resolution looked OK except in cases of dinky text.

Due to Windows Phone's styling, the lower res isn't as obvious as well. Obviously it's not going to be as sharp as say the 620 or 920, but it should work OK in the end.

 

[sejgiul]

Hi guys, I'm looking at buying a 625 as a stop gap phone until I can sell my Xperia Z and buy a 925 (currently in a battle with Sony to get it repaired, then it's getting sold!). Carphone Warehouse are selling the 625 for ?129, with a ?50 experience day voucher. That, coupled with Nokia also offering a free cover and a ?20 app voucher; this represents extraordinary value I think.

The last Lumia I had was an 800 and although I loved the hardware and the OS, at the time the lack of apps was just too much of an issue to overcome. Since then, things seem to be changing for the better and I'm looking to get back on board with WP.

The 625 seems to represent the best value as a temporary measure but what are peoples thoughts on the quality of the screen and the low ppi? I've currently got an iPhone 4 and I'm slightly concerned I'm going to notice a considerable drop in screen quality. Has anyone made a similar jump?

Any opinions appreciated.

Well, I was the same as you, concerned about the screen. But to be honest, it's not all that bad. I had the 620 previously and only just upgraded to the 625. The 620 does have extremely black blacks, but the display on the 625 is just fine. I don't even miss glance screen either, which makes it a gimmick lol.

Let's put it like this, when the display on the 620 is off, it's black. When the display on the 625 is off, it looks more like when the iphone 4 display is off. To be honest, if you are used to an iphone 4, the 625 is a breath of fresh air and you won't even notice it

I'd say either check it out in-store (if there are no functioning models on display, ask them to get one out for you to see) or just take the plunge

I would however suggest making use of that 4G! I got mine on a ?18.99/month contract with EE from carphone warehouse. If I'd wanted to get a separate sim-only deal, it would have cost me ?23.99/month plus a one-off cost of the phone itself! The 4G really makes a difference speed-wise.
So I'd really suggest the contract from EE instead

Battery, omg, the battery in this beast is amazing. Had my best day yet yesterday coming off charge at 7 in the morning and had 45% left at 12:30 (midnight lol) with downloads, texting, IMs, phone calls, games etc.

 

[Si Haworth]

Sejgiul,

That's really helpful, thanks! I went to both Tesco and Asda today to see if they had them. Asda did but no working ones, and Tesco didn't but Tesco had a 925 out working though. I knew I shouldn't have looked at the screen but I just couldn't resist... on my word, it was amazing.

Anyway, I digress. I'm with Three who are supposedly rolling out 4G in my area for no extra cost next year, so even if I've not got the 925 as soon as I'd liked, hopefully I'll be rocking some super quick speeds.

It sounds as if the display is more than good enough. I just need to see one in the flesh I think.

Thanks again.

 

[Si Haworth]

Well got myself to Carphone Warehouse to buy the phone today, only to find they wouldn't sell it me as same price online as they get penalised apparently when people don't use the payg sim thats inclunded. I think I messed up by saying I already had a contract but anyway, I'm getting one delivered tomorrow.

So the display? Well, I actually thought it looked very good considering the negative press it's been getting. To be honest, I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference now that my iPhone has been sold, and the 625. Obviously the tile lay out helps but I'm more than happy with it. The 925 was directly above it and obviously you could tell the difference immediately (a lot more punchier, some might say over-saturated) but that's ?300+ more so that's to be expected.

On a negative I ordered white, instead of black, by mistake :straight:

 

[sejgiul]

Nice one! Hope you enjoy it

And don't worry about the white, my mrs has the white one and it looks fab. I've got the black one and once we get our free covers in, I will be swapping to either white or yellow!

 

[Tuvoc]

For everything but very small text, I find the screen absolutely fine.