Nokia has been striving hard to get their Lumia series bang on target but somehow seemed to fail until now. The newly launched Lumia 520 hopes to set right the wrong that Nokia was said to have done to its loyal customers. Nokia that was known for its Series 60/Symbian series was cursed and abused for jumping the bandwagon and joining hands with Microsoft for the software. It had been termed as the Dell of the mobile industry. In fact, rumours were rife that Nokia may be bought over by Microsoft as an investment opportunity.
We were privy to the launch of the Nokia’s Lumia 520 in Bangalore a few days back and had an opportunity to touch and feel the device. Available in flashy colours that are no less than a rainbow themselves, the handset is aimed at the masses or to be precise, College crowd. People who have a limited budget available to themselves yet want the best. Priced at a range of Rs. 10,000/- to 10,499/- the phone is now available for sale at all leading outlets both online as well as offline.
The phone made entirely of plastic, though may appear cheap at the first look makes up for the impression when taken in hand. A texture of velvety finish makes the phone a pleasure to hold. This velvety feel also ensures the phone is anti slip when in grip. The raised plastic buttons allow for easy access as well as give an assuring feeling when being touched and depressed. I am slightly from the old school of thought where buttons attract me. Specifically when there is a button for the camera. I prefer the half press for focus and full press to click. Also I love it when depressing the camera key allows me to bring up the camera app.
With a specification having a Dual Core Snapdragon S4 CPU clocked at 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM and an Adreno 302 GPU, the Windows Phone 8 OS complements the hardware well. The phone feels snappy to use and also offers a wide array of customisation options. I particularly liked the red colour on the handset and a matching red theme for the tiles. Available from Nokia as a standard accessory, Nokia Drive and Multiple lenses in the Camera App are sure to be picked up as a favourite among the crowds.
The phone offers Nokia music subscription with 80 Lakh DRM free songs available for download. In addition also available is Nokia’s primary offering of 150 Ad free streaming music channels. Nokia has also partnered with BigFlix to offer 3 months of subscription consisting of unlimited movie streaming.
The phone is available in five eye catching colours – Yellow, Red, Cyan, Black and White.
The entire list of specifications can be found here.
Rahul says:
If you are running tight on a budget and 10k is the maximum you can stretch there are hardly any options under Android form MNCs, hardly because the one's in this price range do not provide a very good experience. And I am not too sure about other Indian brands which are out there. Considering these constraints the Nokia Lumia 520 comes as a fresh breath of air and a very strong option in the 10k bracket.
Build Quality: The phone quality is surprisingly very good, the build quality was the first thing which grabbed my attention when I took it out of the box. The back plastic is matt finish which gives it a good grip and the curved sides sink into your hands perfectly. The volume, power, camera buttons are also quite sturdy and not flimsy.
Display: The display is 4" IPS LCD it has very good viewing angles and colors look good, but not punchy like its costlier siblings. But by far better than other phones in this price range.
Hardware: Lumia shares same dual core S4 Processor, Graphics Processor & 512 MB ram as its siblings like 620 & 720 so in terms of performance its same. YOu get in build memory of 8GB out of which around 2 GB is taken by OS, so you still have 6 GB. In case this is not enough for you there is expandable memory upto 64GB supported.
Software: 520 is powered by the latest Windows OS, WP8. The interface is very fluid and smooth with no lag whatsoever. You can pin anything on the homescreen in the form of tile even contacts. If you are moving from other OS it migh take some time to get used to the interface otherwise it grows on you quickly.
Few Cons, Software: Having said this there are some infty things which will annoy you. There is no audio equalizer in the audio settings as if now, a software update might fix this. The audio bar even when the song is not playing reflects in the locked screen which is disturbing, so you need to download an app to remove it.
Camera: 520 has 5MP Auto Focus camera minus the flash. The day time pictures are good with fine details and color reproduction. which is a boon at this price range. The macro shots capture even the minute details effortlessly. And then you have the Nokia apps like Smart shoot, Cinemagraph, etc. which are specific to Lumia phones. Indoor, Evening/night shots are a serious no because of lack of Flash
Battery: Battery life is pretty good. With modest usage of 2 hrs of calls, 2hrs of web browsing little bit of gaming and few activities here and there it will last you for a entire day and still have some juice left.
Other Benefits: Other key point is that you get apps like Nokia Here & Nokia Drive apps, you can download maps for India and get offline navigation which is great. Plus Nokia music with free subscription for limited period. You can download music free of cost during this time. Big Flix app you can watch free movies on your phone. Inter changeable cover help you keep your phone new.
Against 620 & 720: The older siblings although have same hardware differ in terms of Camera, Display & Build. Which is obvious considering the price point to which they cater to. But you will still get the same software experience across.
Wrap up: All in all when compared to other phones 520 does its job perfectly. As the day passes you will like it even more. Although the lack of apps in comparison to Android will be detrimental, common apps like Watsapp, Twitter, FB, etc are all up there (No Instagram yet). So if you want to try out WP8 OS this can workout as a good phone to begin with.