Gadget Review: Microsoft Lumia 535

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Clearly, Microsoft Lumia 535 is Microsoft’s attempt to bring up a budget phone for its entire loyal customer base. You’ll note quite wonderfully that all the problems that were faced in Lumia 530 have been changed and Microsoft Lumia 535 has all that we needed in 530.

Obviously, it comes with the familiar plastic body, with rounded replaceable covers. Its 5-inch display has a 960×540-pixel resolution; it has a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor. It also includes features no phone akin to it can match, such as a wide-angle, 5-megapixel front-facing camera aimed at the self-obsessed selfie takers out there.

With a dual-SIM version also available in some regions, Microsoft Lumia 535 appears to raise quite a significant number of thumbs-up for a cheap smartphone. One area that’s particularly lacking is its connectivity though seen the Lumia 535 does not support 4G data speeds, so you’ll only be able to use 3G networks, bummer, but usually enough for folk here in Kenya.

 Design

Microsoft Lumia 535 has 5-inch display shoved inside. This 5-inch display has to be one of the better things about the phone, especially since the Lumia 530 had a 4-inch screen. Given the price, the display is large and clear. Find the power and volume buttons around the edges, along with the 3.5 mm headphone jack and micro-USB port for charging and data transfer. Under the casing there is micro SD card slot and SIM tray.

Design is sleek and the changeable covers give you option to choose from a wide range. Now when it comes to the screen it is bigger than before but as soon as you tilt the phone the image is distorted badly. The pixel density of 220 ppi is not what everyone was expecting but with this much of price nothing more could be done.

Software

Of course it comes with Windows Phone 8.1, along with the latest software update, whose cryptonome is Denim, catchy, I’ll say. The Denim update also includes Microsoft’s new Siri-like voice assistant, Cortana. Like Siri, you can ask questions such as “how is the weather today?”

Running Windows 8.1 with Denim updates, Microsoft Lumia 535 runs the whole suite of productivity apps like OneNote, Office 365, Outlook, Skype, Cortana (beta) and OneDrive and this makes syncing, moving and saving documents quite the fantasy! The Windows App and Games Store is now brimming with options. With the Lumia 535 you get a few Lumia exclusive apps – Storyteller interactive diary, Creative Studio for advanced photo enhancements.

Windows Phone 8.1 introduced a couple of new apps: Storage Sense and Battery Saver. Storage Sense tracks your internal memory and allows you to configure which content will be saved where. Battery Saver now not only shows you the battery percentage and allows you to configure when the battery saver goes on, but it can now track battery usage too. You can also allow or restrict apps to run in the background while the battery saver is turned on.

Camera

Lumia 535 has 5-megapixel cameras front and rear, with a 24 mm wide-angle lens at the front. There are actually two camera apps: the standard Windows Phone one and Lumia Camera – previously known as Nokia Camera. It also has an LED flash and autofocus on the main camera. Microsoft Lumia 535 takes decent photos in good light, but doesn’t capture as much detail. High-resolution photos, too, lack the crisp clarity you’ll see on screens with more pixels. Although, the front-facing camera on the Lumia 535 is better than most at this price. Its 5-megapixel resolution and wide-angle lens make it easier to fit your mates into shots.

Performance

Lumia 535 has no NFC and 4G LTE, which extends that the processor, is the only aspect of the phone that lets it down- in a world where you can get quad-core Snapdragon 800 and 850 processors, the 1GB RAM and a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 200 brain makes it pale in comparison to the cool stuff out there! The phone uses up close to 5GB out of the 8GB storage. So you will need to buy a SD card along with the phone to use it well.

Specs

Display Size 5 inches
Resolution 540 by 960 pixes
OS Windows 8.1
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Network Signal GSM 900/1800,UMTS 900/2100
SM Micro Dual SIM
Weight 146g
Processor Quadcore 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 200
Memory I GB RAM
Storage 16 GB ROM, Micro USD up to 128 GB
Camera Rear & Front – 5 MP
Battery Li-Ion 1905 mAh
Data GPRS, Edge, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Colours Orange, White, Black, Gray, Blue

Microsoft Lumia 435 and Lumia 430

I should note that in February Microsoft released the budget Lumia 435 Dual SIM smartphone. Now just a month later the company has announced the Lumia 430 Dual SIM. Both of these are low-end 3G handsets that have some specs similarities and also some differences.

These phones have a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200 dual-core processor, Adreno 302 graphics, and 4-inch display with resolution of 800 x 480. They have 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage that can be expanded to 128 GB, 2-megapixel rear camera with 480p video capture, and VGA front-facing camera.

Both of the phones run the Windows Phone 8.1 Operating System that will be upgradable to Windows 10 at some point, and connectivity is catered for with 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and microUSB 2.0.

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TECHNOLOGY

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