Lumia 630 performance benchmarks rival older Lumia 1020

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

The Nokia Lumia 630 is starting to hit markets worldwide, and one thing that's worth noting is its processor. We'll be doing a full review of the 630 shortly, but let's just say the bump in hardware does go a long way.

For our assessments we used the cross-platform Basemark OS II app ( Store link), which can evaluate the performance of system (CPU), memory, graphics, web browsing and even camera speed tests. We'll post the results below, with our discussion after.

Tests

Lumia 630 benchmarks

The Lumia 630 (above) features a Snapdragon 400 with a quad-core 1.2 GHz CPU

Lumia 1020 benchmarks

The Lumia 1020 (above) features a Snapdragon S4 with a dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU

Lumia 1520 benchmarks

The Lumia 1520 (above) features a Snapdragon 800 with a quad-core 2.2 GHz CPU

Results

The Lumia 1020 bested the Lumia 630 in just two areas: memory (+108) and graphics (+146), but fell short on System (-106) and web (-20). Likewise with camera, where the Lumia 630 trounced the 1020's much larger 41 MP camera, as would be expected (+266). Still, the Lumia 1020 technically comes out ahead in overall score over the Lumia 630 (+47).

When it comes to the Lumia 1520, the beefier Snapdragon 800 at 2.2 GHz clearly shines, outpacing everything as would be expected.

Lumia 1520 memory

However, installing the Basemark OS II app to the micro SD card on the Lumia 1520 – a new ability for Windows Phone 8.1 – and we can see there is a significant drop off in performance (-810). But due to the strength of the processor, any perceived lag in gaming is mostly attenuated. Still, it's worth noting as users can control where individual apps and games get stored on Windows Phone 8.1.

Lumia 630 results

Discussion

Although the Lumia 630 is lower-cost Windows Phone, the Snapdragon 400 hardware can still outpace the much older Snapdragon S4 series, even when clocked lower (1.2 GHz versus 1.5 GHz). It's an impressive result felt in real, everyday usage of the phone.

While the Lumia 630's camera is much faster than the Lumia 1020's in the Basemark OS II results, it's not a fair comparison as a 5 MP camera simply has less work to do than a huge 41 MP one. But when comparing to a Lumia 520, which also has a 5 MP camera, we can see the new Snapdragon 400 chipset helps the Lumia 630 edge out its older brethren (+104). Once again, you would predict that a newer and slightly faster chipset would result in improved performance, and that is exactly what we get.

Lumia 520 vs Lumia 630 camera

In the end, the Lumia 630 may be a premium entry-level Windows Phone, but its performance rivals – and sometimes surpasses - the older flagships of last year. That's important to consider when purchasing a new device, and at least for those waiting on a new high-end Lumia, you can take solace in knowing the Snapdragon 8xx series and beyond delivers a massive performance boost.

Are you surprised by the results or are they in line with that you expected? Let us know in comments.

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

130 Comments
  • How's the battery life for 630?
  • I've got one and it easily matches the battery life of the 625. I get a days worth out of it with battery to watch 2 hours of Netflix at the end of it.
  • Really? :o I have a 625 and recently bought a 630. My observation is that battery life of 630 is way lesser than 625.
  • Not bad for an entry phone at all...kinda surprised here cuz I didn't expect these results.
  • I've had mine a week now. I get 15 hours with gaming, 3g, WiFi, calling, texting on an average work day. Totally love it. Much better than my 620 battery which struggled to get 6 hours.
  • 3G? Where do you live? Since 3G we've had HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA, LTE, and LTE+. Or is the phone limited to 3G? I woukd have expected at least HSPA as the Lumia 520 has that.
  • L620 supports all those except LTE(+). HSPA, HSPA+ and DC-HSPA are IMHO generally understood as 3G.
  • How is this possible? I guess the phone doesn't just seems faster it's actually is faster! ************
    Edit: Sorry I just had to :P no but really how is this possible.....
  • Compare the results to the 1520 ones and you can see how unreliable they are, graphics is probably the only part which might be accurate.
  • This benchmark is totaly unreliable if you don't test properly. You need to test a fresh installed devices only and you should run several tests and get averages. There is no word in the article how actually they run the test. I tried on my phone with different conditions it gets stunning difference. After reset the memory score jumped from 220 to 1000!! Rest of the values also increased with 50% to 100%. Consiquent tests show difference sometimes by 100 points.
  • It simply cannot compete against the moto g,, as the price of moto g 16gb  is just like 20 dollars more than Lumia 630 . while Moto G Has 720p display and 1Gb ram ..Microsoft/Nokia really needs to look into this if it wants to succeed
  • How does it compare to the Moto E, which matches it in price?
  • Moto E is like 50$ cheaper.
  • The Moto E Is a lot cheaper here its 50 dollars cheaper than Lumia 630..Moto G 8GB matches the price of  Lumia 630 ... whereas the moto g has 1gbram + 720p display ..i'm using windows phone myself,, it's just that microsoft needs to work on their pricing or add more features to compete with these android phones
  • You have two smartphones; one has to run an extremely CPU heavy OS, and the other has to run a very CPU light OS... Does it make sense to compare? Yes, but only if you compare everyday performance!
  • i know windows phone doesnt need a lot of hardware to run but people look at specs these days..
  • You are right. It's not about daily use. It's the comparison of specs that matter these days
  • Although generally speaking Android is a CPU heavy OS, Google have made it better for low end hardware with the latest updates to Android, which the Moto g has. Not only that Motorola actually throw in optimized drivers and dalvik runtime that make the Moto g fluent and smooth. The Moto g isn't your average poorly put together budget Android device like most. So it most certainly makes sense to compare.
  • Yes, WP can be light, but apps and games not. Also, the way WP handles memory leaves us with a lot of resuming screens and poor performance apps. You have to be objective, with kkitkat android become light, and on the Moto g, with no customized layer it is very fast. Including it's HD display, the 630 is not a rival.
  • Haha, i downgraded STOCK Kitkat into Jelly Bean 4 times. Apps force closed a lot (even on phone memory), phone call bug, earphone bug, on 1 GB RAM and 1.5 GHz dual core.
    520 with 8.1 Preview OS is much better, even with 11 GB apps/games on SD card.
  • Moto E is cheaper by almost $40 and that depends on region, for example in u.k. moto e and 630 are of same price. Moto E has shitty camera, can't even record 720p videos (HD), 630 can do. Moto E is dual core snapdagon 200, 630 is quad core snapdragon 400. Moto E has 4 GB inbuilt, 630 has 8 GB. Moto E handle upto 32 GB card, 630 can handle upto 128 GB. Moto E is 4.3 inch, 630 is 4.5 inch IPS Gorilla GLASS. Moto E has 1 GB ram, 630 has 512 MB. Moto E has lower graphics unit, 630 has better. Hence, 630 fetches more price because it has more features and better built quality than sucky Moto E.
  • Make the RAM 1GB(don't say WP is memory efficient and 512MB is enough because a ton of games require minimum of 1GB) and a FFC (hate to say it but we live in a selfie society and kids and hipsters don't want phones without FFC) and this is an excellent budget phone. Bring the dual SIM version to US and it becomes a killer budget phone.
  • Yes ..i agree RAM should be 1gb ..even the moto E (118 Dollars) has 1GB ram.. dont know why microsoft/nokia cudnt put 512mb more ram on the phone and 1 ffc.. which the 620 already had.. cutting down feature at this point of time when they need to increase sales
  • Because 630 has more feature h/w wise. If you want to use Moto E, use Moto E, don't troll here. And Moto E sucks hard. For 1 GB ram, ffc and more goddies, there will be another windows phone. Why you want all features in 630 itself.
  • By the way, have you seen any new games announced since WP8.1 developer review came out that require 1GB? Honest question, not being sarcastic this time. :)
  • if you wana play games and take selfies buy mid level or high end phones. don't expect that from an entry level device.
  • I'm looking to upgrade my 12 year old daughters 520 but I cant see a Windows Phone in the UK market that fits her needs, low end or mid end. She wants a FFC and I want it to have 1gb RAM to ensure she can play all the games in the future. Closest thing I found was a Lumia 925 but it just hasnt got the right image, massive short fall on Nokias behalf. A 630 with a FFC and 1gb Ram would be perfect.
  • 820 is the bare minimum if you want FFC+1GB RAM - all the phones below (save the 525, but that doensn't have the FFC) are 512MB. Only other alternative is wait until the new mid range x30 series are released and see how they stack up.
  • What do you mean "hasn't got the right image"? The way the phone itself looks, as in design?
  • Lumia 820, certainly fits the bill, but its ffc is only vga. So quality of image is low, but the phone is durable, has interchangeable covers, wireless charging and is good value.
  • The Moto g is cheaper than the 720, a supposedly mid-range. Phone (and I say supposedly because it is almost like a 520 but bigger), and Moto g beats 720. That should tell you how stupid Nokia low mid levels are.
  • Moto G came months after 720. It has to be better. Why you even comparing.
  • http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/nokia-glam-me/40b6a721-15d2-4843-a746-774bd7b9bda9   This is even better than FFC for selfies. Use the main camera for selfies.
  • Or how does it compare to a stack of club sandwiches of equal value?
  • This is a wp section....dont know what a droid phone had to do with this benchmark
  • we're just comparing.. why can't microsoft/nokia put 720p display and 1gb more ram.. so that it can actually compete with these devices... nobody can recomment 630 when the moto g has 720p display and 1gb ram while the latter has 480p display + 512mb ram.. its all about no's these days
  • Perhaps 1) the OS REALLY does not need as much RAM (other than for those games - and I suspect the number of those is quickly reducing, actually) 2) MS is not willing to subsidize (as much Google clearly is, in order to a) get ex-Nokia D&S slowly back to being a sound business b) to piss of other OEMs finally starting to get into the WP game, primarily in these same price points 3) they prefer to e.g. spend the money on a bettter camera instead.    
  • +1, As a fan I would prefer a 630, but for the average consumer there's really no advantage to choosing this phone. And before anyone says the average consumer doesn't care about hardware, they do care about games, which will be lacking in a 630 due to only having 512mb of ram.
  • Will it? I.e. Just wonder whether there will still be many new games requiring 1GB after all the work MS has put into resource optimization (including memory like they have stated)?
  • An average consumer buying an entry level device wont worry about heavy gaming, 630 is more than enough for casual gaming. Asphalt 8,Temple Run 2, and lots of other casual games works. If you want to play highend games, go get the flagship device, you'll get enough RAM on that. So what's your point?
  • The point? Low-end Androids aren't as restricted. There's no reason for this phone over an equivalent Android.
  • I'm not big on phone games myself. I have an XBone console for games and timesinks, and I have a few casual games in my phone to kill 5-15 minute spans of time, note that most non-committal games aren't going to be heavy hitters on graphics and RAM. So for a power user like myself, who loves his Lumia 1020, uses it for the Camera, Smartglass, Voicewake, Cortana, Metrotube, Music/Mixradio, and Navigation, what phone do i have to forward to? I feel quite satisfied with my current phone honestly, and I couldn't think of anything I would want except maybe a snappier resume on apps. Any phones I should keep an eye on?
  • I would suggest you should keep your eye on Lumia 930... :)
  • Once I got to WP I started to see those fan boys wars from kilometers away with a smile. I was honestly tired of "my Galaxy has one more Mhz than you HTC phone so mine is better" or "my screen has so many pixels so my phone is the best phone in the universe". That doesn't mean that android guys can't come here and say that "my phone is the best in the universe because has 512.1 MB of RAM and yours only has 512 MB". The next big thing is people arguing a phone is better because the frequency that the RAM is running.
  • Does your Moto G have a user replaceable battery and an SD card slot? I do agree having 1GB ram and 720p display would've been great, but preferences vary. I'd pick a smartphone with expandable memory and replaceable battery over 1GB ram and 720p considering this to be an entry level device.     "nobody can recomment 630 when the moto g has 720p display and 1gb ram"  Why would you even think of an Android device when you're planning to buy a Windows Phone. Are you nuts? 
  • i already own a windows phone..i have a 720 and 920 :P ... i'm saying that its hard to recommend the 630 over moto g to other people since it clearly has the better spec and people look at the specs these days
  • Who are the people that you want to recommend? Can you educate them? For example, I told my friend and my brother all the advantage and disadvantage of WP over Android, after that they know that spec isn't everything. What is so hard to tell them? The one that ask for your recommendation clearly not a stranger, and people that ask your recommendation certainly know you have better understanding in this phone thing then there are. So no need to actually say it's hard to recommend due to 1gb of ram and 720p screen.
  • Moto G is not better than 630. Bumping the spec 1GB ram and 720p screen won't help in long run because it is limited by inbuilt memory of 8 GB for Moto G. 630 is any day better, has better camera, support apps install over card storage, can record hours of videos and photos without being run to a PC. You don't want to recommend, don't do. Why you are trolling here.
  • I'm very sure it will be much better in the future, without Nokia. Until now all phones are from Nokia, and Nokia was still sleeping about the way to understands a modern smartphone, I think it's visual clear for everyone. Microsoft will change these things in the future, but it will take one year before the new line and understanding can be ready. Nokia could make great phones, but never modern and updated things, high quality is not enough in 2014, and this way they slowly was digging there own grave.
  • why not? how many high end games you can install on Moto G, how many HD videos you can record on Moto G before you run out of shitty 8 GB inbuilt memory? Nokia 630 has SD card and you can install apps on it, hence it is any day better than Moto G, and most high end games are 512 MB compatible. And not all Moto G or Lumia 630 buyer has a PC where he can offload videos every week. For a lot, the phone itself is the only computing device.
  • Most buyers at this price point arent going to ask how much RAM the phone has. They are going to look at the experience. I do think the Moto G will be a solid competitor though. 
  • Well .. here i guess people r smart .. they do ask.. dual-core..512mb,,1 gb ram?
  • Well, most of them don't ask these questions at all.
  • Your reply proves people don't ask.
  • It IS better than Moto G because my Moto G did not work at all. What is the use of a front camera and the 720p display and so on when it simply rejects all sim cards. This is a known bug that is affecting many units, Motorola has accepted that this is a bug. Its a phone first, I need to make calls.
    I returned the unit and the online retailer (Flipkart) had to freeze all sales of Moto E/G because of they were getting too many returns.
  • Yes, true. There are android trolls who troll here boasting Moto G/E/shit.
  • You pay for reliablity.
  • Excellent! Only if it has slightly bigger ram. Even 768 will be better
  • I don't see the point of 768MB ram, even if it had it, still would not be able to run games that require 1GB RAM. I have a 630 and it does day to day tasks very well even though it 'only' has 512MB team RAM
  • In addition to this the GPU on the Lumia 630, despite being less powerful, supports OpenGLES 3.0 vs the 2.0 on older Snapdragon S4 processors.
    But benchmarks aren't something you should completely rely on, try out some real world tests as well. Edit 1: There are a few Snapdragon S4 processors that support OpenGLES 3.0 such as the ones being used in Nexus 4 and Xperia SP.
  • Benchmark is what the world revolves around. It's critical mass Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • PhoneBuff on YouTube do some real world comparisons between a speed, I really love them.
  • I was being sarcastic Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • Seems faster...
  • Stahp, just stahp
  • Lol yeah. It was good and fun for a while but it didn't last because it was way overused.
  • well.. actually it was never fun
  • Meh, I never found humor in it. So, it seems faster? Interesting. It's good to not have a life, specially when it is faster.
  • Seems faster to not have a life? Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • Currently using a 620. Don't appreciate speed of flagship phones (my 920 broke, hence 620 now) until you use these entry devices. Doing normal operations is painful sometimes.
  • That's odd -- maybe you got a lemon. I have a 520 as a backup to my 920 and it feels very nearly as fluid as its big bro.
  • Technology is awesome. It's crazy how a 'low-end' phone today can be better than some of the best phones just 6 months ago. Now gimme that Microsoft McLaren ;)
  • If the F1 team trickles down technology to the road car that's not looking good for them ;)
  • Who would be surprised by this result?  The 1020 was built on relatively slow and dated hardware right out of the gate, at least compared to the non-WP competition.  It should be easy for even low end stuff to top it by using parts that are a generation or two newer.
  • I certainly wasn't, WP flagships really need to catch up to the competition. I mean look at what Android handsets you could get for the price of a 930. It doesn't matter too much in terms of performance, but it does in regards to perception of the device.
  • The 1520 result is pretty bad. I got a overall 1030, system 1118, memory 1464, graphics 1229, web 559 with 8.0 Have you used 8.1 for the test in the article?
  • 8.1
  • I'm curious if having the Cyan update would have helped the 1020 any, considering the 630 already has it.
  • I'm almost certain Cyan will improve things, all around, including the camera speed. That's what firmware does: optimize the OS for that specific hardware. How much it improves, remains to be seen, but you always want the firmware made for the OS.
  • Weird.. My 1520 received a 1098 with 8.1
  • How about a 520/521 vs 630 benchmark?
  • There are lot of Lumia 630 TV ads here in Spain in at the end they say where you can buy it: 149€ Mediamarkt VAT incluided. It's a official Microsoft ad
  • 512 mb ram only? -_- seriously 1gb should be the standard now. What is the point of putting Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 and Adreno 305 gpu in Lumia 630 if it has only 512mb ram?
  • this is not android
  • Yes, it does not only seem faster, it IS faster. We definitely need 1GB!    /s
  • Business phone
  • Overall it seems like a pretty nice device, but the 1020 was something special.
  • Weird, My 1520 was awarded the Bronze Medal in this benchmark with an overall of 1069.87, bested only by the Sony Xperia Z2 D6503 and the Asus PadPhone Infinity 2 A86. My 1520 was faster than the iPad Air LTE, which is now in 4th place :-D
  • Oh... and I also topped the Gaming Charts with 25467 on standard medium quality (basemark x1.1) :-D
  • I hope these aren't lies
  • We used a widely available, cross-platform free app so that others can replicate ;) No need to lie.
  • What the results tell me is that the 1020 needs to be replaced! A flagship getting bested by entry level devices is no way to help sell devices or operating system over the competition!
  • I don't think you should be worried to much about benchmarks. If the phone functions properly then that's all that should master. Heck of your main concern is benchmarking, then you should be on Android
  • Older Lumia 1020? I just bought it!!
  • Not surprising -- ignoring geeky specs and benchmarks, it still has undeniably the best camera around and a fantastic screen. Plus it looks great.
  • Chill man you got a great phone, I have a 1020 that is 8 months old. I can say that every component in the phone is great, display produces better brightness, call quality is great, battery life is excellent and I could go on. I am comparing this to my friends 925 that has similar hardware except the additional 1 gb RAM that 1020 has. You also have the best camera phone in the market
  • Article can be summed up as: Newer and better is newer and better.
  • Kind of. But there is confusion. For instance, it's not obvious that a dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU would be worse than a 1.2 GHz quad-core. Plausible, certainly, but the distinction between cores and actual advantage when using different clock speeds is a big variable. This at least puts some solid numbers on the table.
  • Looking at Rightwares own website, the WP8 device that is closest in performance to the Lumia 630 is the 1320: http://results.rightware.com/devices/stock_model/nokia/lumia_1320 Once the 1320 gets the Cyan update and WP8.1, I'd expect it to pull a little bit ahead of the 630. 4 cores at 1.2GHz in the 630 is really similar in performance to 2 cores at 1.7 GHz in the 1320. Clock speed isn't everything!
  • 630 is a awesome :)
    The only think I cannot understand is how can a 520 be so faster in MM elaborating video transitions :|...
  • I'm impressed. The 630 is a hell of a device. Of I manage to destroy my 925 before I can upgrade I'll probably pick that guy up.
  • That's what I like about WP, regardless of whether they are premium or entry level they work seamlessly. Now it's time to get them to the carriers so that they are no longer our best kept secret!
  • My 1520 got 1100 and something once (getting the silver medal and only being bested by the Xperia Z2), but then straight after than I only got 1050. So I guess these test are very unreliable at best. My 1020 got 700 and something. There seems to be a huge disparity between scores by the same device, so I would take these results with a grain of salt.  
  • Three things affect the score that Basemark OS reports: - Load from other processes - Fix level of the OS - Is the phone plugged into a charger while you run the test.
  • Good points. For the record, Phone was rebooted, though 1520 had a few processes running Running 8.1 with latest dev preview, so not optimized due to lack of firmware Phone was not plugged in
  • My 1520 received a score of 1098...
  • Benchmark makes It clear Nokia cyan imoroves system performance a bit, but still snapdragon s4 has 75% better graphic performance than snapdrsgon 400
  • A agree with "kenzibit". This doesn't make sense.
  • Can you compare it to the Lumia 920, 925?
  • I would expect them to be very similar to the 1020, although probably with a slower memory rating.
  • Now can you finish up and post the review please Daniel?
  • Very cool. Any idea if MS will continue the 1020 lineage?
  • Thanks, I was looking for a benchmark app :-)
  • Benchmarks, shmenchmarks. Real world the 1020 is still doing just fine for me. Just as happy with this phone now as the day I got it.
  • The 630 is awesome. What an upgrade it was from my 620 and W1.
  • I presume the 630 was running 8.1 and the 1020 8.0; why the 630 would get a better score for web otherwise? So I'm not sure they can be compared without having the same OS/FW.
  • 630 is a dud comapred to a 1020 Poor graphics drags it down. No one in their right mind would choose a 630 over a 1020 for its cpu performance. Have fun playin Halo or any decent game on that lightweight  
  • All say 512mb ram is enough.can this enough decrease >80% sales of android & make others change platform..MS need some extra-ordinary for that..we need 1gb ram..>5mp rear..at least 1 mp FFC..1.2ghz snapdragon 800 in entry level..& a massive update on 1020,920,820& a brand new flagship phone....coz now its time to get smarter & bigger so that other could match us on hardware specs also...
  • Lumia 920 (8.1) overall 523 (system 482; memory 973; graphics 370; web 431), camera performance 357, with flash 335(bright light)
  • Anybody know if a unlocked Lumia 1020 will work for tmobile 4g lte and all?
  • No, it does not. You might only get the HSPA + 4G or just 3G.
  • I was thinking to buy Lumia 630(Dual SIm) as my first windows phone. But after some reading i just found out i need too many accounts and logins to use windows OS. 1.Microsoft account 2.Outlook account. 3.Office account 4.Nokia account Is this true? Or am i missing something?? If it's true, MS should get these things together. You only need a gmail account for android. People will be pissed off for these many sign-ins. And Now there is news from all over the world regarding a speaker issue in lumia630.(They can't hear other person's voice when in a call) They have to soft reset the phone again and again to solve this issue. Now i'm confused whether i should consider windows or not??!!   Please advice.
  • You can use your Microsoft account for all four of those, you don't need separate accounts.
  • LOL! Where did you find this 'info'? :D Microsoft a/c = Outlook a/c = Office a/c = same. Enabling the Nokia a/c is optional IMO. It's just a single account to be added when you do the initial onetime setup of a new WP. Someone wanted to give you a new reason to not get a WP, I guess. No idea about the speaker/earpiece issue. If it's a known one, Nokia might put out an update to fix it (if it's not a hardware level issue).
  • Impressive.
  • Lovely Article but why 1520 is behind in SYSTEM?!!! and also web?
  • Probably because they had it running 8.1 which doesn't have optimized drivers or firmware available for the 1520 yet.
  • HI, MY LUMIA 822 GOT A RESULT OF OVERALL - 510 SYSTEM -- 498 MEMORY - 783 GRAPHICS - 370 WEB - 471
  • Daniel, I think you need to redo those tests for 1520 They are way off mine comes in second (according to app)  1070 overall (OSII) benchmark x (graphics ) its still the fastest  beats itself... old was 25290 mine is 25833 I think you posted the wrong stuff?   (wp8.1)  
  • I was surprised by the results, and at the same time, excited for what this means for Windows Phone/ WP8.1! Just think of the ways we/ Microsoft can market/ leverage WP8.1 to make it more appealing for the Masses/Businesses!