Earlier this month, Microsoft unveiled the Lumia 830 and Lumia 735 at IFA 2014 in Berlin and a few days ago, Microsoft Mobile Malaysia launched both devices here in Malaysia. The duo of devices are centered towards two different markets, one for the relatively new ‘selfie’ market and the other is to bridge the gap between the flagship and midrange market. Alongside the launch of these new Windows Phone 8.1 devices, GSC is also taking this opportunity to introduce the GSC Mobile app for Windows Phone (finally).
I'll start off with the Lumia 830 since it's what Microsoft calls as an affordable flagship smartphone which in a lot of ways is a toned down version of the Lumia 930 (and that's a good thing). From the aluminum band to the pureview camera, the Lumia 830 definitely looks and feels like a high end Lumia device. On the front is a 5" 720P IPS LCD display with Nokia's ClearBlack technology and powering the device is the quad core snapdragon 400 processor combined with 1GB of RAM. As I said earlier, the Lumia 830 features a 10MP pureview camera and it's the thinnest OIS module they've ever produced. Additionally, the Lumia 830 is also the thinnest Lumia to date and to top things up wireless charging is built right into the device (yeah no more seeing 'accessories sold separately', well technically you still need a qi compatible wireless charging plate). Despite the name, Lumia 830 which in theory is the successor to the Lumia 820. I still believe that the Lumia 830 is like the spiritual successor to the Lumia 925, both of them have a lot in common. They're both thin, has a premium feel in the hand and for the price it's going for, it's definitely not going to empty your wallets. Somehow you could also call it a Lumia 930 for the poor because the front of both the Lumia 930 and Lumia 830 is identical.

Unlike the Lumia 930, the Lumia 830 does support Nokia's Glance screen because of it's LCD display

Like the Lumia 925, the Lumia 830 also has it's microUSB port on the top of the device

The 10MP Pureview camera with ZEISS optics gets paired up with an LED flash all placed on a glassy-cicular dish which reminds me of the camera plate on the Lumia 1020

Just like the Lumia 1520, the Lumia 830's camera hole is slightly protruding but unlike on the iPhone 6, the camera itself is not protruding out

Next up is the Lumia 735 which is the long rumored selfie phone from Nokia. The model being sold in Malaysia is the LTE cat4 version which has a glossier finish to the body and not the dual SIM version. Microsoft said for the Malaysian market, the 4G LTE version will be more appropriate and there's no plan to introduce the dual SIM variant. I can see why they made this decision because sony's Xperia C3 selfie phone is also LTE capable and yeah giving the user less things to consider between the two devices.

Trying out the Lumia Selfie app on the Lumia 830, as you can see the field of vision is quite wide

Other than that, the Lumia 735 has near identical specifications, the both have 720P display and are of course different in size and the Lumia 735 does feature an AMOLED screen which can produce more deeper blacks. The focus on this phone is indefinitely the 5MP wide angle front facing camera, the sensor itself isn't complete without the new Lumia Selfie app which is also available for other WP8 Lumia devices. I did have a chance to try out it out and yes the field of vision is pretty wide but one thing I noticed is that the white balance seems to be off and indoor shots will garner some noise in the picture, this could be because I was using a pre-release device and both the hardware and software might not be optimized to its fullest yet. The Lumia Selfie app in the other hand has a ton of editing options and one thing I found a bit of a problem is taking a selfie. Sounds ironic right, but the fact is that taking a selfie on this phone is not as simple, because this device does not feature a physical camera button, you'll have to do it the old fashioned way by pressing the on screen shutter button or use the time. I think this is not an intuitive way to take a selfie, they do have a auto trigger function on the selfie app but that however is triggered only for the rear facing camera. Unlike the Lumia 830, the rear facing camera on this device is not pureview branded but the shots being taken are pretty solid, good color and surprisingly photos are good indoors.

Just like the Lumia 530 and Lumia 630, the Lumia 830 also features virtual buttons

Both the Lumia 830 and Lumia 735 uses a nano SIM card and features a microSD card slot which can take cards up to 128GB

Just like the Lumia 830, the Lumia 735 also supports wireless charging out of the box.

Performance on both devices are as smooth as expected, they are running Windows Phone… These two devices are the first to be running the latest Lumia Denim release which is based off the Windows Phone 8.1 update. One thing I noticed is that compared to the Preview for Developers that I'm currently on my Lumia 630, the Lumia Denim on the Lumia 830 and 735 didn't face any problems loading apps. If you're unfamiliar with the problem being faced is that the application will show 'resuming…' for a split second or two before the app actually launches. Anyways, the Denim update will be coming to all Lumia Windows Phone 8 device in the coming weeks/months and new features like Live Folders will be introduced to users. Both the Lumia 830 and Lumia 735 will be available in Nokia stores nationwide on October 3 and is priced in a MYR 1399 and MYR 999 respectively. Personally, I feel the price seems a little bit overpriced and somehow customers will have to divulge deeper to consider buying one of these devices compared to the android counterparts which are similarly priced. Additionally, the GSC Mobile app for Windows Phone will be available in October (no definitive date given), but Microsoft says that they are working with GSC to do final optimizations before being released to the market.