Nokia Lumia 520

Nokia Lumia 520 is one of the top-selling handsets with Windows Phone 8 Operating System. The reasons behind this popularity are no doubt the impressive specs and low-end prices. It is the fifth of the Windows Phone 8 handset and also the one which stands at the very bottom end of its series.

Read More : Brief review of Nokia Lumia 630

Nokia Lumia 520 is remarkably similar with its sister model the Lumia 620, both stands equal on spaces but the Lumia 620 remains slightly up in the range. Thus it has its first competitor form its own make. The two smartphones of Nokia face each other in the bottom end range. Lumia 520 also enjoys the extra functions and the new features of the Nokia Lumia Black system update.

It is low in price, display and few other specs but this doesn’t prove it to be bad in the customer’s choice. Being at low end it has scored more than what can be expected from it. The display of Nokia Lumia 520 is fairly generous with 4-inch size and 480 x 800 dimensions. This display is bigger than the 3.8-inch of the competing Lumia 620. The improvements in its display are not supported by enough processing power which may reduce its performance. It has 1GHz dual-core processor of Snapdragon S4 along with 512MB of RAM. This lower processing power also matches with the Lumia 620.

DESIGN

Nokia Lumia 520 has a nice look with its angular design while the closest models around it come with curved edges. It resembles in its design, with the high-end Lumia models. Nokia also sustains its sense of colors even with its low-end smartphones. Lumia 520 has the colors of Nokia in its colorful shells. With the smooth plastic covers you will have the choice to color your phone the way you like it. No matter if you are black and white or a colorful person, Nokia has something for you in your liked color.

It has a slim and light body. This feature again gives it an edge over its sister Model. It comes in a sleek 9.9mm body which is 124g in weight. It is also longer and wider with 119.9x64mm dimensions. In this regard it scores plus against the Lumia 620.

It will give you the feeling of comfort in your hand. The plastic case is not slippery, which seems warm and also nice to hold. Its jagged corners may give you a little bad feeling while holding the smartphone in certain positions but it can be ignored.

You will not find anything special on its back. The traditional Nokia logo is placed at the center and the min camera with 5MP on the same tope corner. The tiny loudspeaker is also there on the bottom. It has not made much change in the arrangement of buttons. The both sides of the phone are spaced with good arrangements to avoid any confusion.

All of the Physical Buttons are placed on the right edge. The volume rocker is there at the top, below this there is the power button and the dedicated camera button at the bottom. On the left side there are the ports. On the top of its left-hand side there is the 3.5mm headphone port. At the center of left-hand it has the micro USB port, which can be used for charging the smartphone and also as USB connecter to computer.

DISPLAY

Don’t compare it with the competing sister model or the HTC One. It has the display that almost covers the front screen. It is 4-inches in size which match the price tag it holds. On this display size it has the pixel density of 233 pixels per inch. It sounds less but remember it is not the HTC One but the many times cheaper Lumia 520.

Its touch is not just bound to the direct figure touch so you can also use it with gloves. Many of the smartphone have this feature which will specially support you in the cold days. Nokia has managed to have this feature on its low-end smartphone which sounds well.

There is a black border running around the screen separating its display from the body. Thus it doesn’t enjoy the feature of edge-to-edge look which might give it a premium gesture. Still with this black bordering it looks impressive. This line looks fairly narrow on the sides but it is made wider on the top and bottom. On top it covers the earpiece and the Nokia Logo while at bottom on the black area you will find its dedicated soft-keys of start, back and search.

The screen of Nokia Lumia 520 looks big and clear with its 4-inch display and enough pixel density. On this screen you can fairly have the clear and sharp images and texts. The sites you visit will look readable and interesting you might have to zoom the desktop sites for bitter viewing.

SPECS

Read More : Motorola Nexus 6 with Android 5.0

Nokia Lumia 520 comes with average specs which suits its range. If you don’t expect high end specs on the lower-end smartphone than it is also enough good. Its processing power is 1GHz that comes on a Qualcomm MSM8227 dual-core processor. This quit enough processor is backed by 512MB of RAM which sounds less but has the capacity to run its feature smoothly. It also has the Adreno 305 GPU on board. With this feature now you have the option to download the 3D games from the Xbox.

The Lumia 520 loads the Windows Phone 8 Operating System which can run smoothly with these specs during day-to-day usage. However, this also limits it under the usual use while heavy usage may create troubles in loading.

On the average specs and the low-end tag it still has the ability to facilitate you with bitter connectivity. You can use Wi-Fi and 3G services on Lumia 520. It will make this Windows Phone 8 handset the ultimate choice for your web surfing over the Internet Explorer and other third party browsers.

BATTERY

Using the Nokia you will not hesitate removing the back cover, as it mostly holds the battery along with the card slots underneath. The back cover of Nokia Lumia 520 is easily removable using the nail with no labor at all. You will have the 1430 mAh battery under the back cover. No doubt you will be surprise to have the more powerful battery on a lower-end Lumia. The Lumia 520 has more battery power than the Lumia 620 which holds a 1300 mAh battery.

With a higher battery you would probably have more time to run the features over Lumia 520. Its performance regarding power leads the Lumia 620. If charged once it can easily run throughout the day without asking for recharge. This battery performance seems to be brilliant with phone calls, messaging and playing music.

Nokia has rated its power usage in a good way. It claims the Lumia 520 can run up to 360 hours on standby and 14.8 hours for talk time over 3G connection. On 2G it runs up to 9.6 hours of talk time and 61 hours of music playback. These ratings given by Nokia sound fair though we don’t have the figures for video playback.

There are also alternatives which can be used if the battery proved to be less than your expectations. The operating system can assist in saving the battery with its effective battery saver. With this feature you can save power by preventing background synchronization of various app which are not in use. Its removable battery also gives you the option for a spare battery. This will not be a pleasant exercise to change battery each time but it can be helpful in critical times.

It supports the microSIM and also the expandable memory through microSD card. The slots for both of the cards are there under the battery. You will have to remove it to change the cards which again don’t sound will. Though it can be negotiated as changing cards is not a daily job.

CAMERA

Camera is also not the field of specialization for most of the low-end smartphones. The Nokia Lumia 520 follows the line with a pretty basic camera. There is a 5MP sensor on its back for the basic camera functions. Though for the trending selfies it is not the device. There is no front facing camera so you can’t make selfies and also the video calls using the front face. It also lacks flash which is expected with its specs. Being a Windows Phone 8 device the Skype will be among the leading features, but the lack of front camera will also affect this feature.

Its camera has the feature for taking shoots by focusing on specific objects. With this camera feature you can just top on a particular area of a picture to focus it for clearer results. You can do few more things with the smart shoot option. This option enables you to take rapid-fire pictures from which you can have the best of your shoots.

The camera of Nukia Lumia 520 is made more effective with upgraded features to work quicker. It has brought together the function of its Smart Camera app into the regular camera functions. With these initiatives now its camera has the access to ISO, White Balance and Scene Selection functions.

Like other Windows Phone handset it also has the dedicated button for camera. This gives you direct access to your camera without going for the home screen button. No mate if you are using another screen just press the camera button and it will quickly lead you to the camera. Being a budget phone its camera with its precise results looks interesting. There is also a basic video camera function on the Nokia Lumia 520 that shoots in 720p videos at 30fps. At also meet the higher model of Lumia in video camera specs and performance.

INTERFACE

Read More : Apple iPhone 6 – A new comer in Big Screen market

Nokia Lumia 520 comes with the Windows Phone 8 Operating System of Microsoft. It has proved to be a success of Window phone with its build quality and some of the impressive apps it provides. It has the basic apps of Microsoft like Microsoft Office and OneNote on board. These apps are truly going to add some value in the Lumia 520. Both of the apps are well used and feature rich. It will let you to do the tasks with these apps efficiently.

The People app in Windows Phone 8 is one among the many impressive tools. With this app Microsoft has tried to bring a bitter social media integration for the Windows Phone 8 users. This app gives you an alphabetical list of your contacts from all the integrated accounts at one place. You can easily access them with their thumbnails. You will also have all the conversation records and updates of your friends on the history screen available on right sweep. The left screen brings you to the new feeds from Facebook and twitter. Using this feature you don’t have to go for each social app separately.

You can also have the similar look of Windows Phone 8 in Lumia 520 which is there in other phones. Its look screen displays all the updates and notifications along with time and date. You will have an overview of your email and reminders in the first look.

PRICES

Prices are the field where it can prove it self with its interesting features. You can have the Nokia Lumia 520 at $185 SIM free which is equivalent to £115 and AUS $210. Its prices are lower than the similar model the Nokia Lumia 625.

As the review puts the Lumia 520 on a bitter position with its bitter specs, bigger screen and better battery as compared to its competing model, still it is counted at the lower-end. For this it has few reasons. The smartphone is lacking some of the key features which determine its range. There is no NFC communication option in the Lumia 520. The camera flash along with the front-facing camera is missing. It also has the same resolution of smaller screens on even a bigger screen which will result in lower ppi. Though these are enough to put the Lumia 520 among the low-end smartphone but they are not going to be the deal breakers for it.