Nokia Lumia 735: Battery Life

The Lumia 735’s 2,200mAh battery is a decent size. A normal day, combining music, some light gaming, web browsing and general use led us to around 15 to 20% of spare capacity after a 12-hour day. You’ll get a little more from it if you don’t play games often, but probably not enough to forgo charging it every night.

This is good enough for most people, though the Lumia 735 isn’t the fastest charger. It typically charges at around 30% per hour, which means it takes a little over three hours to charge fully. Again, this is standard for a phone this size and price, though the Moto G 2 manages a brisk 30% every half an hour.

Nokia Lumia 735: Call and Sound Quality

Call quality is fine. The Lumia 735 has active noise-cancelling and the earpiece is loud and clear, if a little muddy. We didn’t suffer any dropped calls or poor connections, even when calling from a moving train in an average signal area.

Sound from the built-in speaker is less impressive. It’s at the back and while it reaches reasonable volumes, it tends to distort and reverberate in the case slightly. This is most noticeable when using the phone as a sat-nav, where instructions sometimes sound slightly garbled and clipped. It didn’t cause us to miss any crucial instructions, but you need to pay attention more to hear the instructions.

Unsurprisingly, this means music sounds tinny, muffled and generally unfit for even very casual listening.

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Should I buy the Nokia Lumia 735?

There are plenty of good reasons to consider it, particularly at its sub-£200 SIM-free price. It has two good cameras, it looks smart and there lots of things to like about Windows Phone if you spend a little time with it. We prefer it to its most immediate Android alternatives, such as the Sony Xperia M2.

Its problems lie in sluggish performance in games and the fact we’d be tempted by cheaper Android alternatives, such as Moto G 2. The Moto G 2 might lack 4G, but it’s cheaper, faster and has a better screen. Its camera isn’t as good in low light, but it’s decent all the same.

That said, if this alternative doesn’t interest you then the Lumia 735 is a very good buy. It takes great selfies, good-looking photos and only let’s itself down when playing more demanding games.

Verdict

A very good phone for sharing photos, but less so for games. But if you don’t play games there are few reasons not to buy one.

Note: We updated this review after Microsoft listed the phone for £190 SIM-free, less than the £230 at third-party stockists.

Next, read our Mobile Phone Buyer’s Guide for more advice or try our best smartphones round-up

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