8 Differences which make Nokia Lumia 630 better or worse than Lumia 520

I am not quite surprised that people are finding similarities between Nokia Lumia 520 and the new Lumia 630. They do have specifications that look similar to each other but only when you go down a little deep would you realize that it is not so. Here we would take you on the trip of a showdown between these two Nokia mid-range mobiles and show you how Lumia 630 is in some areas better than Lumia 520 and in some, not.

1. Display

Display on Lumia 630 is 4.5-inches with 854x480 resolution (exactly 800x480 actually with the little bit occupied by the virtual keys). Not only is Lumia 630 bigger by 1/2 inches from 520 or 525 but also it has Gorilla Glass 3 which makes it much more scratch resistant compared to Lumia 520 which is practically a magnet for fingerprints and comparatively is more on the rough side. In addition to Gorilla Glass, what makes the display of Lumia 630 much better is the presence of ClearBlack technology. It is a dual layer polarizer technology with Nokia introduced with the 6xx series and is present on all higher series too. It adds much more vibrancy to your display, improves reading in sunlight and makes the screen less reflective.


Winner: Lumia 630

2. Processors

 Lumia 630 has a Snapdragon 400 Quad-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz whereas Lumia 520 has an outdated S4 dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz. While in performance I wouldn't say there to be much difference but when you have Windows 8.1 on board, Lumia 630 does perform faster than 520. Snapdragon 400 Quad-processor is a new processor which is handling Nokia's SensorCore and is also enabling the Bing's Health and Fitness app's pedometer.

Winner: Lumia 630

3. Camera

Both Lumia 630 and Lumia 520 have a 5MP camera. Both has 0.25 inches sensors with f/2.4 apertures and the same focal lengths. Going by the hardware both the smartphones make a clear draw. However, it is the firmware and softwares where the differences lies. The Cyan firmware which Nokia Lumia 520 is also soon going to get makes the images taken by Lumia 630 much sharper and with much less noise. Also, the sensor might be a newer make than on Lumia 520 which might give it better abilities.

Also noteworthy is that Lumia 630 does not have a camera button. I like the convenience of the camera button in my Lumia 520 and it is a serious drawback to not have a dedicated button for camera in a phone so famously promoted for its camera qualities.

Winner: Lumia 520 (Lumia 520 is soon going to get the Cyan update and any difference in image quality can be confirmed only then)

4. Battery

Lumia 630 has a 400 mAh higher battery capacity compared to the 1430 mAh battery capacity of Lumia 520.This means that Lumia 630 will give a talk time of 13.1 hours whereas Lumia 520 will give a battery life of 9.7 hours.

It that holds up practically is a completely different matter however and we will have to wait and see after a few days of usage. Anyhow, with the Qualcomm chipset present on Lumia 630 it would not come as surprise if the battery backup of Lumia 630 is greater than that of Lumia 520 and that too with a good margin. We have already seen the proof of this in Nokia's Lumia Icon and Lumia 1520 where they used the 800 chipset version.

Winner: Lumia 630 (by wide margin!)

5. Form factor

The dimensions of both the smartphones are:

Lumia 630 – 129.5 mm x 66.7 mm x 9.2 mm; 134 g

Lumia 520 – 119.9 mm x 64.0 mm x 9.9 mm; 124 g

As you can see. the only difference in their form factor is that Lumia 630 is taller. The difference in width and depth can be ignored though it must be highlighted that Lumia 630 is thinner though heavier. Lumia 630 is 10gms heavier than Lumia 520 but practically that is not any difference. Lumia 520 has a bar form factor whereas Lumia 630 has a touchscreen form factor with curved edges.

Winner: None (Lumia 630 is around 10mm taller if that matters to you).

6. Sim

Yes, the biggest attraction to users who have multiple numbers. Lumia 630 is a dual SIM mobile whereas Lumia 520 is only single SIM. This again is an advantage depending on your needs. I personally don't like to carry dual SIM phone to avoid too much radiation in my pockets. Both accept micro-SIM GSM based.

7. Sensors

Nokia Lumia 630 does not have Ambient light sensor nor the Proximity sensor. Ambient light sensor can play a sizable role in saving your battery life as well as keeping the display at comfortable brightness.

As for the proximity sensor, Nokia has made a innovative replacement here by making the touchscreen the sensor to touch of the display during the call. So when making a call your ear or your cheeks touch the touchscreen the display will switch off. It is no doubt that this method is more of a 'fix' rather than an alternative because some people like to keep the phone a little away from their skin especially during summers when the sweat from prolong talks can get on your phone. In such cases a Proximity sensor would work perfectly but this 'fix' not. 

Winner: Lumia 520

8. Price

There is no arguing that the price difference is considerable in both the smartphones especially since Lumia 520 being a earlier release has seen its price fall from the original price. If you don't see Lumia 630 as a successor to Lumia 520 but rather the phone of a new series with dual-SIM, a new processor and etter display qualities the price might not seem too high for you. Of course there are those two types of buyers which see for a smartphone below Rs.10,000 and the other one above that and it would definitely lose out on the buyers of the former type. Right now you can get both the smartphones around the range:

Lumia 630: Rs.11,000 

Lumia 520: Rs.7,500 

Winner: Lumia 520.

I would suggest my readers to wait for the launch of Lumia 530 and then only it would be fair to do a comparison between Lumia 630 and Lumia 530. Lumia 630 was not made as an upgrade to Lumia 520 but I have to say so that it is difficult to go for Lumia 630 after comparing it with Lumia 520.