Nokia launched the mid-range Windows Phone 8 (WP8)-powered Lumia 720 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February 2013 and now the Finnish company has confirmed that the smartphone will be available in Australia beginning April 4.

The Nokia Lumia 720 will be available from Vodafone, Virgin Mobile and leading retailers at a price tag of AUD 429. Virgin will start selling the smartphone April 4. Vodafone will confirm availability of the handset soon and other retailers will start stocking the handset April 10. 

"With smartphone adoption continuing to grow in Australia, consumers want more choice at different price-points.  Smartphones like the Lumia 720 are critical to Nokia's strategy as they allow us to bring familiar features such as high-end design, quality hardware, unparalleled imaging capabilities and a rich navigation experience to a wider audience," states Nokia's press release.

The Lumia 720 sports a 4.3-inch IPC LCD display with 800 x 480 pixels resolution and 217 pixels per inch (ppi). A 1GHz dual-core processor with 512 MB of RAM powers the smartphone. The Lumia 720 comes with 8GB of on-board space, with expandable memory of up to an additional 64GB. The smartphone has a 6.7-megapixel Carl Zeiss optics rear-facing camera with autofocus and LED flash. The device has a 2000mAh battery, which offers up to 520 hours of standby time and up to 13 hours 20 minutes of talk time on 3G.

At first glance, the smartphone looks sleek and attractive and from a distance, the Lumia 720 resembles the Lumia 920. Both the smartphones are nearly similar in size, with the Lumia 720 measuring at 5.04 x 2.66 x 0.35 inches. The Lumia 920 is slightly larger and measures 5.13 x 2.79 x 0.42 inches. At 4.52 ounces, the Lumia 720 is lighter when compared to the 6.53 ounces of the Lumia 920, which makes the former more comfortable in the hand.

We will have to wait and see if Australian smartphone customers are attracted to the Lumia 720 and if the handset is able to find a place for itself in the smartphone space.