Microsoft Lumia 535 Dual SIM: First Impressions
December 1, 2014
Microsoft, on Wednesday, pulled the wraps off its first Lumia device sans 'Nokia' branding, the Microsoft Lumia 535 Dual SIM,
thus signalling the end of the Nokia era. The phone will be available
from November 28 and has a price tag of Rs. 9,199. We got to play with
it for some time at the launch event in Mumbai. Here are our first
impressions of its various features for you. The Lumia 535 Dual SIM feels slim at 8.8mm, which is a refreshing change from the stocky 11.7mm girth of its sibling, the Lumia 530 Dual SIM.
The unit we used was the glossy orange version, which was too bright
for our liking. The phone is also available in cyan, bright green, white
and black - all of which have matte finishes. The power button and
volume rocker are on the right of the phone. The Micro-USB port for
charging the device and transferring data is on the bottom while the
3.5mm jack is bang in the centre on the top. Microsoft has decided to
use on-screen buttons for navigation. The rear shell is easy to pry
open, and under it lie the 1905mAh battery, two Micro-SIM card slots
(GSM/WCDMA) and a microSD card slot.
Microsoft
is calling this phone a '5x5x5' device because it has a 5-inch screen
and dual 5-megapixel cameras. The front camera has a 24mm wide-angle
lens, just like what we saw on the Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM. It can
shoot FWVGA (848x480) videos. The rear camera has a small 1/4-inch
sensor, auto-focus lens and LED flash. This camera can also capture 30
fps FWVGA videos. In our limited time testing this phone we noticed that
the front camera captured warm images with a distinctive yellow tone.
The rear camera, on the other hand, handled white balance slightly
better. We will be able to test this thoroughly in our full review.
The phone runs Windows Phone 8.1 with the latest Denim update, which means that it will come with special camera apps including Lumia Cinemagraph, Lumia Selfie and others. The Lumia ReFocus app is missing on this one as well.
Compared
to the Lumia 530's 480x800 screen, the Lumia 535 Dual SIM has a
slightly better qHD (540x960) IPS LCD panel with Corning Gorilla Glass
3. We found the screen to be slightly dull when compared to the bright
AMOLED panels of the Lumia 730 Dual SIM and Lumia 830 but it definitely
looked much crisper than the one on the Lumia 530 Dual SIM.
Under
the hood of the phone is a Snapdragon 200 SoC with a quad-core CPU
clocked at 1.2GHz. Along with this, Microsoft provides 1GB of RAM. We
noticed that scrolling vertically through the list of apps wasn't as
smooth as what we've come to expect of Lumia devices. We will be able to
take a look at this in more detail in our review. Microsoft also
provides 8GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to a
whopping 128GB using a microSD card. This should be more than sufficient
for most users. If this isn't enough Microsoft provides 15GB of free
cloud storage on OneDrive for life.
For
the moment the Lumia 535 Dual SIM is an interesting proposition for
buyers who are looking at a Windows device under Rs. 10,000, considering
how the Lumia 530 Dual SIM was a disappointment. Additionally,
Microsoft bundles a few interesting offers witih this phone as well.
Stay tuned for our full review to find out if the Lumia 535 Dual SIM is
the budget Windows Phone 8.1 device you should be buying.
Microsoft
is calling this phone a '5x5x5' device because it has a 5-inch screen
and dual 5-megapixel cameras. The front camera has a 24mm wide-angle
lens, just like what we saw on the Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM. It can
shoot FWVGA (848x480) videos. The rear camera has a small 1/4-inch
sensor, auto-focus lens and LED flash. This camera can also capture 30
fps FWVGA videos. In our limited time testing this phone we noticed that
the front camera captured warm images with a distinctive yellow tone.
The rear camera, on the other hand, handled white balance slightly
better. We will be able to test this thoroughly in our full review. The phone runs Windows Phone 8.1 with the latest Denim update, which means that it will come with special camera apps including Lumia Cinemagraph, Lumia Selfie and others. The Lumia ReFocus app is missing on this one as well.
Compared
to the Lumia 530's 480x800 screen, the Lumia 535 Dual SIM has a
slightly better qHD (540x960) IPS LCD panel with Corning Gorilla Glass
3. We found the screen to be slightly dull when compared to the bright
AMOLED panels of the Lumia 730 Dual SIM and Lumia 830 but it definitely
looked much crisper than the one on the Lumia 530 Dual SIM. Under
the hood of the phone is a Snapdragon 200 SoC with a quad-core CPU
clocked at 1.2GHz. Along with this, Microsoft provides 1GB of RAM. We
noticed that scrolling vertically through the list of apps wasn't as
smooth as what we've come to expect of Lumia devices. We will be able to
take a look at this in more detail in our review. Microsoft also
provides 8GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to a
whopping 128GB using a microSD card. This should be more than sufficient
for most users. If this isn't enough Microsoft provides 15GB of free
cloud storage on OneDrive for life.For
the moment the Lumia 535 Dual SIM is an interesting proposition for
buyers who are looking at a Windows device under Rs. 10,000, considering
how the Lumia 530 Dual SIM was a disappointment. Additionally,
Microsoft bundles a few interesting offers witih this phone as well.
Stay tuned for our full review to find out if the Lumia 535 Dual SIM is
the budget Windows Phone 8.1 device you should be buying.
