chuck232
New member
Up-front caveat: I live in the United States, so there's a bit of price extrapolation, based on historical precedence. One cannot simply do the currency conversion from Euros to USD and call it a day.
You can compare the Lumia 735/830 to its competitors in a couple ways:
At the end of the day, folks appear to be holding a single product up against a bevy of alternatives, each which has made a different design compromise. The device should have similar specs to a Nexus 5 (which is a margin-subsidized device, for the Android program), with as wide availability as a flagship Samsung, but at a price point equivalent to any Xiaomi or Xolo device with a 720p display (targeted at a few regional emerging markets), while maintaining the same Lumia differentiators as a 1520 or 930 (like Glance or physical camera buttons or etc.).
If a device like that truly appeared on the market, it would simply mean that everyone else was incompetent or negligent in their business.
You can compare the Lumia 735/830 to its competitors in a couple ways:
- Against something like the Nexus 5, OnePlus, various Xolo, Micromax devices, where a company's goals are to be price leaders in primarily emerging markets or have marketing-led pricing schemes, these Nokia devices, which will be sold in 100+ countries, fall down on price-performance.
- Assuming they come to North America (despite some comments here and there, I'm confident they'll show up in the US, as well), I estimate the 735 will appear for $199-249 (at the lower-end as a "pre-paid" phone or the higher end, as part of a loan-installment, a la Lumia 635 today), while the 830 will typically only appear as a loan-installment type device, around $349.
a. In North America, the vast majority of cellphone customers walk into their local carrier store, check out the selection, and get pushed a suggestion by the CSP. Recently, carriers have begun to split out the cost of the phone payment/subsidy from the actual service portion of the contract. That means the transfer price of the device matters more than ever, and becomes visible to the customer (e.g. pay $10/month for 24 months for A phone versus $15/month for 24 months for B phone). In that environment, the 735 goes up against whatever you can get for $200-250 at your local carrier store. That's something like an HTC Desire 610 or a Samsung Galaxy Avant. Both are Snapdragon 400 devices, with LTE, 4.5-4.7" qHD displays. Both look and feel very much like budget phones. At an estimated $350 for the 830, you'll find the likes of a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, LG G Vista, or Moto X between $300-400. Screen sizes start to vary, but resolution doesn't exceed 720p, SoCs are all still Snapdragon 400s, and each has 1 or 2 differentiators up their sleeves (Moto X - design, voice activation, G Vista - giant display, S4 mini - Samsung brand?)b. Compared to open market phones, such as the Moto G LTE (or the upcoming new G), the Lumia 735 should be within $50 of the transfer price, and spec-for-spec, pretty similar. You probably get a marginally nicer design in the 735. Compared to a Moto X or Nexus 5, the 830 loses out on SoC performance and/or display resolution, but tries to counter with a better camera and possibly design, subjective, of course. I've owned both the Moto X and currently own a Nexus 5. If you asked me how I'd rank them, given what I know, it'd be Nexus 5 > 830 > Moto X. For the 830, it's definitely not a home run, but neither is it a complete blow-out, except perhaps for the spec-focused.
At the end of the day, folks appear to be holding a single product up against a bevy of alternatives, each which has made a different design compromise. The device should have similar specs to a Nexus 5 (which is a margin-subsidized device, for the Android program), with as wide availability as a flagship Samsung, but at a price point equivalent to any Xiaomi or Xolo device with a 720p display (targeted at a few regional emerging markets), while maintaining the same Lumia differentiators as a 1520 or 930 (like Glance or physical camera buttons or etc.).
If a device like that truly appeared on the market, it would simply mean that everyone else was incompetent or negligent in their business.