Lumia 535 Reviews

It might be just another entry-level smartphone, but the Lumia 535 will hold a little place in the history books; not because of a mind-blowing new configuration, but because it's the first smartphone to be branded "Microsoft" instead of "Nokia".

As Lumia fans may have gathered from its number, the 535 comes to swell the already-considerable ranks of the Lumia range's entry-level. It's aimed at those who want a bigger screen than the 4" offered by the Lumia 530; the 535's IPS LCD display measures 5" and has a qHD resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. Inside, there's a Qualcom Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor (1.2 GHz), 1 GB of RAM and a modest Adreno 302 graphics chip. The main camera has a 5 Mpx sensor and can film in 800 x 480 pixel resolution. Surprisingly, the front camera is also 5 Mpx. The Lumia 535 is dual-SIM and compatible with DC-HSDPA networks (H+).

The smartphone isn't yet available in the UK but looks set for an early-2015 release. We'd expect the RRP to be just under £100, and some websites are already offering it for around the £100 mark. As for the US, there's no sign of an official release, but it can be found online for around $160.

Design

Previous entry-level Lumia phones might have had a fully-plastic case, but their small size and choice of jolly colours gave them a certain appeal. Although Microsoft still offers a choice of coloured cases for the 535, the phone's larger dimensions emphasise the cheapness of the plastic used. Or, at least, that's what we found with the orange version we tested. The glossy finish doesn't really do it any favours, either. The overall finish, though, isn't bad at all, and the phone still feels robust. But you'll need to get used to seeing the Microsoft logo on the back, and that could be heartbreaking for dedicated Nokia fans.

The 140.2 x 72.4 x 8.8 mm (5.5" x 2.9" x 0.3") dimensions and 146 g (5.15 oz) weight are pretty reasonable nowadays for a smartphone, especially one with a 5" screen. Despite the screen size, Lumia 520 owners are likely to see this smartphone, and not the recent 530, as their handset's true successor. Some might struggle with the shift from 4" to 5", but we found the 535 pretty easy to handle. You can do most things with one hand; only the notifications bar at the top proved a bit difficult to reach, so if you have short fingers, you might struggle.
 
Display






                 
It's clear that the screen is the component that has most evolved since the previous generation of entry-level Lumia phones. The Lumia 520 had a 4" screen, and it's increased noticeably to 5" in the 535. It would've been nice if the resolution had seen an equivalent increase, perhaps becoming HD, but the 535 has to make do with a qHD resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. While it's much better than the 854 x 480 pixels of the Lumia 530, the 220 ppi pixel density is actually a bit down on the 530's 245 ppi. Having said that, the 535 is still slightly nicer to view, especially for web browsing, films and games.

The 535 performed amazingly well in all our tests, especially given its price. We measured Delta E at 3.6, contrast at 945:1, max brightness at 407 cd/m² and colour temperature at 6855 K.  The latter is very close to the ideal 6500 K. The colours are very good, and the screen will be easily readable outside. We also measured a very respectable response time of 60 ms. For comparison, the Nokia XL also has a 5" screen―but with a lower resolution of 900 x 480 pixels―and performs better in different areas: we measured contrast at 1258:1, Delta E at 3.1, max brightness at 339 cd/m², colour temperature at 8316 K and responsiveness at 90 ms.

Interface & navigation

As expected, the Lumia 535 runs Windows Phone 8.1. It's the latest Lumia Denim update, which adds a notifications centre, connectivity shortcuts, more active tiles etc. If you're already familiar with Windows mobile OS, you'll recognise most of the features. For those who have never used it, you might like to know that it's nice and easy to use—easier than Android, actually—thanks to a simple structure. Unfortunately, though, this also means that advanced and customisation options aren't as good as Android. Despite this, we were really impressed by the software features, Microsoft having included loads of useful apps; although the latter have been developed over the years by Nokia, Microsoft is already sifting through them and making them its own. For example, it's already got rid of Nokia Reading.
 

There are no buttons on the front of the phone, Microsoft having included the same navigation bar as on the 735. You can make the controls (Home, Back, Search) appear or disappear by doing a little swipe upwards at the bottom of the screen. You can do this wherever you are in the interface.

Microsoft has included Qualcomm's least powerful processor, the 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 200. Still, it powers this Windows Phone perfectly; we noticed no lags whatsoever, probably owing, at least in part, to the 1 GB of RAM. All the standard apps run fine, but the Lumia 535 sometimes struggles with the most-demanding 3D games.

Multimedia






  

The good size screen and reasonable resolution make the Lumia 535 a decent smartphone for watching films. If you're looking for really detailed pictures, then this phone won't be for you; but then, you shouldn't expect to find that kind of picture quality on an entry-level phone. The video playback may be completely unremarkable, but it's good enough. The only real negative is that the native media player doesn't support all the most common filetypes and codecs, so you'll probably want to download a third-party app, especially if you're hoping to view subtitles.

The audio is pretty accurate, the Lumia 535 providing decent volume without any distortion. The dynamic range is good too, and the stereo image is accurately reproduced. The speaker, found on the back of the device, does a decent job at reproducing vocals, but it's pretty shrill at max volume.

CAMERA 

Given its entry-level status, we weren't really expecting much from the 535's camera. But then it came out with two 5 Mpx cameras. The resolution of the main camera might not be that impressive, but no other entry-level models have such an impressive front camera resolution. We found the photos from the Lumia 535's cameras to be a little too yellow. It was the same on the Lumia 630, although a little less noticeable, and it means that whites are never really white. The level of detail, though, is pretty decent for a 5 Mpx sensor. We were also glad to see that Microsoft has at last added a flash to an entry-level phone.

Check out the Microsoft Lumia 535 in our Face-Off

BATTERY LIFE 

Glancing at the spec sheet, you might not be too impressed by the 1905 mAh battery. However, it's quite a step up from the Lumia 530's 1430 mAh cell. We initially thought that the bigger battery was to compensate for the larger screen, the slight increase in resolution and the increased RAM (doubled). We were very pleasantly surprised to find that the new battery more than compensates for these improvements. It lasted two full days on one charge (average use). You might also like to know that the Lumia 535 lasted just over 11 hours in our Netflix streaming test (constant video streaming via Wi-Fi).

 

Source by digitalversus.com