[rwp-review id=”0″]
I’ve only ever owned one Microsoft phone and that was a couple of years ago. Memories of my tenure with the then Nokia branded phone were off frustration, anger and resentment. So when I was given the Microsoft Lumia 535, I took it with a pinch of salt, expecting it’s problems to have multiplied and evolved.
On booting it up and taking it for a test spin, I was pleasantly surprised. At around AED 500 the Lumia 535 is in that perfect sweet spot that most budget phones miss out on.
Design
A 1.2 GHz Qualcomm snapdragon processor runs the device with the help of one GB of RAM. While not formidable, it was sufficient for everyday tasks I used it for, such as checking mails, social profiles and the odd dozen minutes of gaming. However problems were noted, which I’ll go into detail further down.
One of the first things I noticed was the logo “Microsoft” sitting proudly, where a once iconic Finnish company’s name was displayed. While it may no longer be branded with the Nokia logo, a Lumia is still a Lumia; the overall design and feel are still the same as its predecessors with of course a few differences here and there.
One of the more apparent new features is the removable back cover, harkening back to the days before internal batteries became an unfortunate trend amongst smartphone monoliths and giving users the ability to customise their 535 with any of the six coloured covers available. The one I’m testing is a vibrant green, which is rather nice compared to other depressingly dull monochromatic phones out there. However, while it seems like a great idea to give users a sense of freedom when it comes to deciding what coloured smartphone they’re going to sport, the fact that the back cover also encompasses the sides of the phones (and thus the volume and power buttons), makes it feel more like a cheap attempt to both combine a phone cover and battery/sim/micro SD compartment cover into a single piece of plastic.
Also at the back is the camera, which sits squarely in the middle (width-wise) of the phone, as opposed to one of the sides, as is the case in many phones. This should at least make sure you don’t accidentally get photobombed by your fleshy fingers.
The body of the phone itself is rather large, measuring at 140mm long, 72mm wide and 8.8 mm thick, necessitating me to use both my hands to type, or risk contracting RSI by balancing it on the palm of one hand and stretching my thumb across the surface in an effort to use the left part of the keyboard. At the bottom of the phone sits the micro-USB port while the 3.5 mm headphone jack rests at the top. The power and volume rocker buttons as mentioned above, sit on the right hand side of the phone, leaving the left side of the phone smooth and resulting in you making sure you don’t grip your phone too hard with your thumb for fear of altering the volume or booting the phone.
Screen
At the front, there’s a distinct lack of placeholder navigation touch pieces at the bottom and this can be attributed to Windows Phone 8.1 following Android’s lead and integrating the navigation buttons into the interface itself. The screen itself, though an impressively large 5 inch display for a budget phone, only boasts a resolution of 960×360, which is depressingly menial in this time and era. As a result, images, text or anything else viewed on the device is neither crisp nor vivid but rather dull. Text often appears fuzzy and can strain the eyes and the clarity of high quality pictures is missed on this phone. Tilting the phone even slightly results in the screen disappearing and you viewing the reflection of whatever happens to be in the field of view, which unfortunately for me was the image of a man ferociously picking his nose on the metro. However for the price it’s available for, this is more than adequate.
Camera
The front camera boasts 5 megapixels, making this phone an instant favourite amongst selfie takers. Packaged with it is the “Lumia Selfie”, a standalone app to the main “Lumia Camera”. It sports a number of handy features selfiers would love, such as the auto selfie. This feature uses the rear camera instead of the front facing one. While this may seem peculiar to normal selfie takers (“how on earth am I going to know if I’m in the picture with the screen facing away from me?!”), the feature compensates by uttering a number of beeps when your face is sitting squarely in the centre of the image. Much like sensors on a car, the closer you are to the centre of the image, the louder and more frequent do the beeps get. This feature is great when you need to take selfies in the dark since you’ll then be able to use the rear facing flash.
Speaking of the rear camera, it too sports 5 megapixels, which for a rear camera, is not too impressive. However the “Lumia Camera” app more than makes up for the lack of pixels. For the amateur smartphone photographer, you could switch between the 3 modes (Auto, Night and Sports) and decide if you wanted to turn on the flash or not. However, selecting the diminutive little arrow below the mode selector opens up the “pro” menu. You are then also presented with the options to change the White-Balance, manually select the focus, select from range of different ISOs and even change the shutter speed so that even you could capture those iconic blurred pictures of highways where the car lights meld into each other. For the price of the phone, these two cameras are more than adequate however I wish that the rear camera has a few more megapixels to it’s name to better utilise the wonderful features of the “Lumia Camera”.
Battery, External Storage and Dual Sims
Popping open the back cover reveals the removable 1,905 mAh battery which powers the device. Though not as substantial as, for instance, the 2608 mAh battery supplying the Huawei P8 with power, the low power-processor and the low-res screen barely take up any juice. After a full day of moderately using the 535 with data turned on (H+ since 3G was absent) as well as internet sharing to my Nexus 5, I was down to just 40% battery life, which was absolutely delightful since I hadn’t even utilised the battery saver. However this was all with moderate usage. Microsoft themselves state that you can get 13 hours of talk time over 3G out of the battery.
Also available is a microSD slot which will definitely come in handy since the 8GB internal storage would easily run out. Despite my Lumia 535 being as pure as a virgin, about 4GB had already been eaten up, with nearly 3 GB being taken up by system files and the remaining from pre-installed apps. As a result, expect to spend some money on a decent sized microSD card.
While lacking an extra sim to properly test out the Dual Sims, the interface relating to both was clean and tidy. When replying to a friend from the messaging app dedicated to the primary sim (which was signified by a minuscule “1” on the app’s tile”), I could at the touch of a button, instead decide to send the message from my other non-existent sim by tapping the slider, saving me the effort of opening the messaging app for the secondary sim. Similarly, you can decide which sim to use when dialling contacts, from the address book it self. Suffice to say, for people who wish to use a single phone instead of having two separate phones for work and personal reasons, it’s perfect. It also comes in handy when juggling between being a barista at Starbuck’s and cleaning up the streets of Dubai as a vigilante.
Software
Migrating from Stock Android to the Windows Phone 8.1 was surprisingly easy. Yes there was the initial hassle of getting used to only a single home screen as opposed to multiple home screens as is the case on most other smartphones but other than that the transition was smooth. The main interface sports a number of colourful tiles. In my case the dominant colour was green though that can be changed in the display settings. It was pleasant seeing the live tiles swish through images and text, with the Facebook tile flipping over to show me unread notifications and the like while the photo gallery tile displayed a slideshow of pictures on my phone.
The notification panel which you can pull down from the top of the screen displays the usual notifications from Twitter and your email as well as giving you access to critical settings such as WiFi, Bluetooth or brightness levels (which come in 4 modes, as opposed to a slider you can manually adjust). Also available in the notification panel is the camera since there is no dedicated physical camera button.
Unfortunately absent was Cortana, the Siri-like personal assistant, since it is only available in select regions and countries though you can get Cortana Alpha by heading over to Microsoft’s website.
Another lacking feature is 4G, the 535 can only use 3G networks, which may be enough for the base user but might be a sore point for people who like streaming on the go.
I also noted performance issues during my tenure with the 535: taxing games would not play properly as the Lumia desperately tried to keep up with it’s Snapdragon processor and one GB of RAM. Navigating around the interface at times proved to be a challenge as screen taps were not registered. This proved incredibly frustrating when trying to compose messages, resulting in an unnecessary number of typos. Switching between open apps caused the Lumia to stutter at times. This clearly wasn’t a phone for heavy usage.
However the major drawback when it comes to the Lumia 535 is perhaps not the phone itself but the app store. Despite having been around for a number of years, it still only garners a small amount of attention from app developers. Prepare to wait months before a popular app on Android or iOS devices makes it’s way to Microsoft phones.
Final Verdict
The at times sluggish performance, unresponsive screen, deserted app store and lack of 4G relegate the phone to everyday basics. Though you may try to attempt to try some intensive gaming or watch YouTube videos on the move with it, these would be tasks better left for a more powerful phone.
However the Lumia 535 is worth its price. With a large screen, great front camera, funky colours and the ability to expand its storage to however you see fit, it makes 500 Dirhams an easy investment to make, especially if you use two sims.
