Selfies are a really, really large thing. Walk around any major city or tourist attraction and you'll see loads of people holding their phones at arm's length to get themselves into a forepart-facing-photographic camera photo. You lot even sometimes see people with their phones on poles to get the about ballsy wide angle shot, looking silly at the same time.

The problem with selfies is that the front end facing cameras on nearly smartphones suck. A ii megapixel sensor with awful depression lite performance and weak optics is a hardware combination I would verbally annihilate if it were the main camera on a smartphone. Some manufacturers accept noticed this, promising to deliver significantly better sensors to facilitate higher quality selfies that we all beloved to have.

And then the Nokia Lumia 735 was born. Under the command of Microsoft, the company'southward devices team has produced a mid-range handset dubbed the "selfie phone," complete with a higher resolution and better quality five megapixel front facing camera. Although the 735's standout feature is the selfie cam, it also packs other things we've come to love from Lumias, such equally the solid build quality across the entire lineup.

Toll may be somewhat of a business organization, with the Lumia 735 ready at $300 while offering specs similar to Motorola'south more affordable Moto 1000. But a superior quality could piece of work in Microsoft'southward favor if they can execute well across the board to deliver a great mid-range handset.

Well-nigh of the handset's trunk is plastic, but the coating used on the 735 makes it feel peculiarly awesome for a material I often slam in reviews. With a hint of softness to it while remaining tough, Nokia knows how to arts and crafts plastic into a pleasing smartphone body.

The Lumia 735 uses a unibody pattern that is similar to what nosotros've seen from Nokia in the past. The left and right edges are curved to fit ameliorate in your easily, while the acme and bottom edges are flat, containing the 3.5mm audio jack and micro-USB port respectively.

The colorful polycarbonate wraps around to the edges of the Gorilla Glass 3 display, first meeting a small plastic rim that yous tin can barely experience as you swoosh your fingers across the essentially edgeless piece of drinking glass. Nokia has managed to requite the perfect amount of curvature to the Lumia 735's dorsum such that it appears to float when placed on a desk.

For all its similarities to the Nokia style we've come to love, there's one matter yous don't see: slots or hatches to insert the SIM card and microSD bill of fare. This is because the unabridged polycarbonate department tin be removed to reveal a removable battery and said card slots. It also allows you to swap out the back cover for i of a different color, merely in case you determine the vivid green you went for is too flamboyant for everyday employ.

The plastic instance is actually pretty interesting. You can clearly see the Qi induction coil for wireless charging on the back plate, something that will have to be included on every rear cover Nokia sells for the handset. Also, the material is pretty damn thick, giving good protection to the internal components but adding a pregnant amount of thickness to the handset.

With the cover removed, the Lumia 735 is a respectable eight.2mm thick. This balloons out to 10.1mm with the plastic cover on at its thickest point. I can't aid but feel this device could have been made slimmer equally most of the components are protected past a second layer of plastic backside the removable back cover.

The other main complaint I take is that the device'southward profile is as well large for a handset that but packs a 4.7-inch display. It'southward only marginally smaller (~10%) than the Galaxy S5 just packs a fifteen% smaller display, featuring screen coverage of just 66%. This can be put downwardly to the large bezels at the height and bottom of the display. Shrinking these areas would brand the Lumia 735 feel more like a portable device than the large-screened flagship that it isn't.

The typical Lumia button arrangement returns on the right border of the Lumia 735, which sees the volume rocker placed higher up the ability push button. The power button would be slightly easier to hitting if information technology were in the position currently occupied by the volume rocker, just at to the lowest degree it's not on the top edge. Too you'll note that 735 does not come with a dedicated camera button, different the bulk of Windows Phones released over the by few years.

Also not constitute on the Lumia 735 are capacitive navigation buttons, as Microsoft recently implemented on-screen buttons in Windows Phone.

The rest of the smartphone's features are a typical affair. The camera is centered on the minimalist back console, flanked by an LED wink and microphone. Further down the back is the handset's main speaker, which is unsurprisingly terrible in quality yet surprisingly loud for a single commuter. The front panel contains the in-call speaker, selfie photographic camera, some sensors and Nokia branding.

As is the case with most of Nokia's devices, the Lumia 735 comes in two vibrant color options – bright greenish or orange – as well as white or grey. I received a greyness review unit with a green trounce, and although in that location's zippo wrong with the subtle grey, I adopt the crazily vibrant green that Nokia uses.