Can the Nokia Lumia 520 stand its ground?

The Lumia 520 shows that Nokia is still a pro at manufacturing phones. Apart from the glass touchscreen,it’s made almost entirely of plastic,but the soft matte finish of the back panel,makes sure the phone doesn’t look cheap. It has a good build and is easy to customise. Should you grow tired of its colour,you can buy a different back panel and snap it on. Costlier Lumia phones support its wireless charging accessories,but sadly,the Lumia 520 does not. At 124 grams,the phone is quite light and has a camera button on the right.

Display

The four-inch display incorporates Nokia’s super-sensitive touch technology. The touchscreen is very responsive and so are the three standard touch buttons (back,home,and search) at the bottom. Every firm has to cut a few corners to keep a phone’s price low and it seems that Nokia sacrificed a bit on the display. The colours seem faded,washed out and less crisp than the 520’s costlier cousins. It isn’t easy to read in bright outdoor environments. The screen is reflective,so make sure that the light source is not behind you.

Software

In our review of Windows Phone 8,we had mentioned that the WP8 marketplace doesn’t have enough good apps. Almost four months on,the situation has improved considerably. Several new apps are now available on Windows Phone and existing apps have improved quite a bit. WhatsApp still has bugs on this platform,but the developer will soon release version 3.0 to resolve them. Other than that,WP8 runs smoothly on the Lumia 520. Most Android phones in this range start freezing if you install more than a few apps,but that’s not the case with Windows Phone devices. Since this phone has 512 MB RAM,some games will not run on it,but that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker if you’re hunting for a phone in this price range. The phone comes with excellent Nokia apps such as Here,Drive+,Music and Cinemagraph. Lumia 520 buyers can also get Microsoft Office pre-installed on the device and can watch free movies for three months on the BigFlix app.

Camera,performance and battery

The Lumia 520 has a five-megapixel auto-focus camera at the back,but there is no front camera or flash. Low-light photography is not good at all since this phone doesn’t have Nokia’s PureView technology. In bright light,the camera performs well and colour reproduction is fairly accurate.

Overall,the Lumia 520 is a solid performer. The phone didn’t lag while playing games,but it does heat up a bit. It has 8 GB of internal memory,expandable to 72 GB using a microSD card,which should be sufficient for most users. Music lovers will appreciate the phone’s audio playback,especially with a good pair of earphones. There’s a tiny speaker at the back. Although it performs well,your fingers might often be on the speaker,cutting off audio,while using the phone. There were no problems with reception or call clarity. Nokia Lumia 520’s battery life gives good service. On moderate to heavy usage,the phone should last a day. The battery saver mode helps it last longer when the charge is low.

SPOTLIGHT

Swype Android

Earlier available only on the Swype website,this keyboard app is now available on Google Play Store.

Its excellent predictive text feature lets users swipe over keys to type,instead of tapping each letter. Check it out at http://is.gd/lrtGLh.