The Nokia Lumia 720 announcement today marks a welcome new addition to the Nokia Lumia family of smartphones. It is also a milestone in Nokia’s strategy to bring innovative technologies usually found in flagship devices to a wider audience.

This sleek and stylish Windows Phone 8 smartphone is sure to appeal to a young and design-savvy crowd with busy social lives.

It has the best camera experience of any midrange smartphone, has a slim profile, great battery life, and weighting just 128 grams, it’s the perfect accessory for a night out with friends.

With Nokia Music, HERE location services, NFC and the option of adding snap on wireless charging covers, it’s a lot of phone for this price.

The Lumia 720 also features innovations that debuted on the Lumia 920 such as enhanced sunlight readability and super sensitive touch.

Smile, you’re on camera!

The Lumia 720 is packed with surprises, but its biggest area of innovation is in one of Nokia’s key strengths – the camera.

The main camera has an incredible f/1.9 aperture – that’s bigger than almost any high-end smartphone out there. A big aperture means more light getting into the camera and when this is combined with the same exclusive Carl Zeiss optics normally reserved for flagship smartphones, it packs quite a punch. The pictures it takes are clear and bright in lowlight, and dazzling in daylight.

The Lumia 720 also packs Nokia’s best front-facing camera, which is sure to be popular for the growing phenomenon of self-portraits, or the ‘selfy’. Its wide-angle lens means there’s even room for your friends to fit in the picture. Fans of video calling will also be delighted with its Skype capabilities.

With the awesome camera you’ll want to take advantage of Nokia’s exclusive digital camera lenses, like Cinemagraph and Smart Shoot.

Even better, we’ve got some new apps too. Glam Me lets you edit and play with the images taken with the fantastic front-facing camera, while Place Tag adds location, date and time to the great pictures you’ll take with the main camera.

Lumia by design

As well as being the sleekest Lumia yet, the Lumia 720 is also the first to have curved glass at this price point and its polycarbonate unibody feels smooth and almost completely seamless.

Fingerprints should be less of a problem too, as the 4.3” ClearBlack Gorilla Glass 2.0 display has easy to clean technology that also boosts visibility from different and wider angles.

Unlimited discovery and entertainment included, for free

The Nokia Lumia 720 excels in the essentials with free global HERE Maps and LiveSight ensuring you will never get lost. HERE Drive for your home country is also included.

Nokia Music brings unrivaled music discovery straight out of the box, with music streaming free of adverts or sign ups and the ability to upgrade to Nokia Music + for unlimited downloads and lyric streaming for only €3.99 a month.

NFC means it’s just one tap to connect and listen to your favourite tunes using Nokia wireless accessories including the JBL PlayUp Speaker and Purity by Monster Headphones.

A Lumia for everyone

The Nokia Lumia 720 slots nicely between the compact Lumia 620 and versatile Lumia 820, and underlines Nokia’s commitment to creating a broad portfolio of smartphones to suit every need.

They are affordable devices that offer the unique features that everyone loves about Lumia – beautiful design, extraordinary imaging, great tools for location and navigation, stellar accessoriesand wonderful apps.

The Lumia 720 will be available from about €249 before VAT, rolling out from March 2013 and is available in red, white, cyan, black and yellow. The Lumia 720 will be introduced to China in a TD SCDMA variant – bringing this smartphone to the world’s biggest market with the world’s biggest mobile operator.

Technical profile

Networks:

• GSM/EDGE: 850 (5)/900 (8)/1800 (3)/1900 (2) MHz
• WCDMA: 850 (5)/900 (8)/1900 (2)/2100 (1) MHz
• HSPA+: 21 Mbps, (Cat 14)

OS:  Windows Phone 8, GDR1

CPU: MSM8227, 1.0 GHz

RAM: 512 MB

Storage: 8 GB + microSD Card Slot

Display: 4.3” ClearBlack WVGA LCD, 2.25 D Glass, Super Sensitive Touch

Camera:

• Back: 6.7 MPIX, BSI, Auto-Focus, Carl Zeiss, LED flash, HD 720p @ at 30 fps
• Front: Skype HD wide angle (1.3Mpix)

Connectivity: NFC, A-GPS+GLONASS, WLAN (2.4/5Ghz) a/b/g/n, µUSB, BT 3.0, 3D Accelerometer, Proximity, Magnetometer, Automatic Light Sensor. (No Gyroscope).

Battery: 2000 mAh battery + Wireless Charging Cover Accessory; standby 520hrs, talk time 13.5hrs

Audio: 2 HAAC (high-amplitude audio capture) mics, HD Voice (wideband audio, noise cancellation)

Size: 127.9 x 67.5 x 9mm

Weight: 128g

Colours:

• Gloss: White
• Matte: Red, Yellow, Cyan & Black