Lumia 635 vs 520/521

[midwestfisherman]

I'm looking at picking up a 635 for a backup phone. I had a 520 and was very pleased with it and recently gave it to my Mom.

Who has the 635 and how are you liking it?

 

[cronos]

I got one last week but I have absolutely zero WP experience for comparison, so I don't know how much useful my take is going to be for you.

I absolutely love it, though. I don't know if I'm just bored with Android and iOS, but the WP interface feels fresh and exciting. It's smooth, snappy, and pretty.

As far as I know, the 635 is simply just the 520 with better spec and LTE.

 

[Muse]

I don't know about the 635, but I'm very very happy with my 520, maybe ignorance is bliss, it's my first smartphone. It's $30 now at Amazon, it seemed like a steal at twice that price.

 

[Commodus]

I don't know about the 635, but I'm very very happy with my 520, maybe ignorance is bliss, it's my first smartphone. It's $30 now at Amazon, it seemed like a steal at twice that price.

I can only imagine how you'd feel if you had, say, an HTC One M8 for Windows... it'd be like living on another planet.

The Lumia 635 is a bit awkward: it's better than the 520/530, but it's not a "why get anything more" phone like the 620 was. The sweet spot to me is the Lumia 735... which you can't (yet) get in the US outside of an importer. I'd definitely consider the 635 if taking advantage of one of those holiday deals ($40 is a steal for that kind of phone), but it's a tougher call at regular price.

 

[RossMAN]

I can't remember why but I decided to stick with our older Nokia Lumia 520/521 compared to the newer 635.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Nokia-Lumia-521,Nokia-Lumia-635/phones/8785,8572

http://www.slashgear.com/nokia-lumia-635-review-20337565/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ziwMoC-WQ

 

[crashtestdummy]

I got a 635 to replace my 521 when I broke the screen. It's definitely a much nicer phone. Much faster and the screen is more pleasant to work with. The only real downsides are that there's no front facing camera and the rear one still isn't great. Also, internet explorer still isn't the best at rendering complex webpages. If you want to stay in Windows Phone, you won't really get drastically improved performance until you go to 930/Icon/HTC One territory.

 

[Zstream]

The 635 is fast, low-tier Windows 2014 phone. The SOC is ok in terms of raw specs but with Win OS, it's fairly fast. Compared with other $50-$150 dollar phones (purchased for $39), it's a steal.

It does lack the flash on the camera which can be a bummer. The battery life is pretty ok, it can get a whole day of good use (exchange, facebook, engadget, weather) all running in the background. It does have the software buttons on the bottom which is different but never gets in the way.

 

[gmaster456]

The phones are comparable. I like the 635 more because of the bigger screen and more rounded corners as opposed to the 520's sharp ones. Better CPU and micro SD up to 128gb (64gb previous) makes it a better phone. I wouldn't call it drastically better than the 520/521 but if you can get it for $75 or less I'd upgrade. Anything more and I don't know if it's worth it.

 

[midwestfisherman]

I went with the Microsoft $39 deal and bought one. Should be here in a couple of weeks. The camera really doesn't matter much to me and I can get by with minimal apps on it since I have my iPad Air2 LTE that I use for web and app use. The LTE on the 635 is a big plus to me and I liked the 521 so I figure for $39 what the heck.

I'm planning on going with Straight talk with an AT&T sim since AT&T has recently improved to be much better at home than T-Mobile.

 

[Strk]

oops misspost

 

[RossMAN]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/t-mobile...&skuId=8857103

 

[Muse]

As far as I know, the 635 is simply just the 520 with better spec and LTE.

Yeah, well, I really like my 520, my first smartphone. I have a 64GB card in it, it's far from cramped. 128GB would be nice, of course, I have a ton of huge MP3's I could load on it. The faster specs, well, I might appreciate that but am unaware of why specifically at this point. And the LTE, I use almost no data at this point, anyway. If something happened to my 520, I'd look to the 635... or better. My biggest beef with the 520 is AT&T, the coverage at my house sucks. T-Mobile would probably not be an improvement. Verizon's the carrier of choice in my region but AFAIK the Lumias don't support it.

 

[jaydee]

I can only imagine how you'd feel if you had, say, an HTC One M8 for Windows... it'd be like living on another planet.

The Lumia 635 is a bit awkward: it's better than the 520/530, but it's not a "why get anything more" phone like the 620 was. The sweet spot to me is the Lumia 735... which you can't (yet) get in the US outside of an importer. I'd definitely consider the 635 if taking advantage of one of those holiday deals ($40 is a steal for that kind of phone), but it's a tougher call at regular price.

You can get the Lumia 735 unlocked at B&H Photo for $300.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...039_phone.html

 

[bassoprofundo]

I did the same here (picked up the 635 for $39 as a backup & previously had a 520). The screen is light years better, LTE is nice, and I don't miss the capacitive buttons as much as I thought I would. The only thing I miss is the dedicated camera button on the 520. Having said that, I'm not taking many pics on either of these phones anyway, so I can live it with.

The 635 is now my new "going to be doing something that might be hazardous to my phone's health and don't want to risk a $500 smartphone breaking" device.

 

[midwestfisherman]

I received the 635 the other day and am quite pleased with it. The LTE is a huge plus in my book.