NEW DELHI: The Microsoft Lumia 535 is a very crucial device for the Redmond giant. Fans could very well call it Microsoft’s poster child.
Love it or loath it, the Lumia 535 is the first handset of the Microsoft-Nokia era, and is a first of many to come.
At Rs.8, 999, the Microsoft Lumia 535 takes a path no other Lumia handset has dared tread upon with respect to specifications on-board. All this while its design aesthetics will keep users well within familiar territory that Lumia devices have been known for. Sadly, as a product the Lumia 535 has several shortcomings that stop it from challenging other top budget phones in the market.
Design & build
The Microsoft Lumia 535 retains the original design aesthetics of the Lumia line-up. A no-nonsense design is therefore a given trait here.
In our opinion the Lumia 535 is a mixed bag with respect to design and build. While the front panel is rather dull and pale looking, the back is cheery and youthful (in our case a hearty green) consisting of a removable plastic panel that gently curves to wrap around the display screen. The Microsoft logo on the front panel is way too pale to notice at first glance; in fact it appears washed out. Adjacent to it is a 5MP snapper, also hard to notice at first. There is no LED notification light, which is frustrating to say the least.
The back is where the Microsoft logo stands out, along with another 5MP camera with LED flash. The plastic build of the Lumia 535 doesn’t disappoint and offers good grip. However, both the front and rear seem like haven to fingerprints and smudges.
The Lumia 535 has a 5-inch display; however, it somehow feels smaller in hand. At 140.2 x 72.4 x 8.8 mm, the Lumia 535 is smaller than the Moto G and Asus ZenFone 5. At 146g, it is also less bulky than the Moto G.
The power button and the volume rocker occupy the right edge of the device and offer good tactile feedback. These appear firm and well put together.
The back houses the dual micro-SIM card slots along with a micro-SD card slot. The Lumia 535 comes with a removable battery, a rare sight these days.
Display
The Microsoft Lumia 535 features a 5-inch IPS LCD display with a 540×960 pixels resolution and 220 ppi pixel density. Although the Lumia 535 has a decently large display for its price bracket, the pixel count is disappointing here.
Colour reproduction, saturation and peak brightness are average on the device. The device is able to provide fairly accurate colours on most occasions and is able to maintain a consistent display output even in outdoor conditions.
Sadly, viewing angles are well below average with colour distortion clearly visible upon tilting. The display surface is very reflective; hence it is almost impossible to read text/watch videos when light is reflecting directly at the device.
The fact that the Lumia 535 is a dust and fingerprint magnet adds to its outdoor visibility woes.
Software
The Lumia 535 comes with Windows Phone 8.1 OS out-of-the-box. Fans also get the new Lumia Denim update when they start using the phone.
A lot has been said and done about the Windows Phone OS, if at all it is as functional and effective as Android or iOS. Also, unlike Android, fans can’t view their complete messages right from the panel and decide which ones to choose/ignore.
Quick word about the settings menu: Microsoft needs a better arrangement of its sub-menus, as most of them are rather oddly placed and often difficult to find.
Performance
The Microsoft Lumia 535 is powered by a very humble 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with Adreno 302.
While the Lumia 535 is way far off from setting benchmarks, the 1GB RAM on-board ensures. Beyond that, it’s certainly a lost cause. The underpowered CPU disappoints when challenged.
Although the device metes out a lag-free experience on most occasions, opening and closing of apps seems to be quite a challenge for the device as fans were subjected to frequent hang ups during both.
Upon launch, the Lumia 535 was in news for its low-responsive touch display. Microsoft did bring out a fix for the same; sadly, fans found the problem persisting in their review unit even post the update.
The Microsoft Lumia 535 comes with 8GB of internal storage of which about 5GB is available for use. The device supports expandable storage of up to 128GB via micro-SD card.
The speaker vent on the Lumia 535 is located on the lower back end of the device. The speaker is not really all that loud and punchy, but it is certainly not very quiet either. For example, we found it as loud as the Moto G. That said the sound output is slightly muffled when the device is placed back facing down.
Camera
The Microsoft Lumia 535 sports a 5-megapixel rear autofocus camera with LED flash and another 5-megapixel front-facing wide angle snapper.
The camera UI again is a mixed bag. Lumia devices are known to give users better control over their photos and the trend continues with the Lumia 535. While the UI is fairly simple and clutter-free, it gives fans enough manual control over their ISO, Exposure, Shutter time and Flash settings. On the downside, users don’t get a preview of their click as well as thumbnails of their recent clicks directly within the camera app.
Images captured in outdoor ambient lighting conditions are of acceptable quality and retain their colour and details on most counts. However, owing to the low pixel count on the device, photos viewed on it tend to look little dull and underexposed.
The rear camera can shoot 848 x 480 pixel videos at roughly 30 FPS. Videos shot with the Lumia 535 are prone to noise even in well-lit conditions.
Check the following image samples to get an idea of Microsoft Lumia 535 Camera performance: Sample 1, Sample 2, Sample 3, Sample 4, Sample 5, Sample 6, Sample 7, Sample 8, Sample 9, and Sample 10.
Battery
The Microsoft Lumia 535 decks in a removable battery with a capacity of 1,905mAh which is rated to deliver up to 13 hours of 3G talk time and 23 days on stand-by.
Don’t let the low battery capacity fool you though. The Lumia 535 has been designed to be a low resource hogging device, and it has the Windows Phone 8.1 OS to thank for it to an extent.
Heavy usage, particularly playing videos and browsing the internet and gaming does drain the battery quickly. However, the device has a very capable battery saving mode that could help churn out an additional hour or two off the device.
