Microsoft Lumia 530: Should you pick this over the Lumia 520?

Update: The post has been edited to include the India release price of the smartphone. 

Microsoft Devices have announced a new budget smartphone, the Lumia 530. The Lumia 530 is the successor to the Nokia Lumia 520 smartphone, but where the specs and features are concerned, this one looks like it will have a tough time convincing buyers.

We take a look at the key specs and compare them to the Lumia 520 , and other budget smartphones in India to see if the latest offering from Microsoft is worth its money. Currently the smartphone is priced at 85 euros (around Rs 6,869) before taxes and subsidies, and the phone will roll out in August 2014. The smartphone has been launched in India with a pricing of Rs 7,349. ~With taxes and other duties in India, we’re looking at a realistic price of around Rs 8,000 or above when the smartphone does hit markets. So yes, there’s a good chance that the Lumia 530 won’t exactly be the budget phone of everyone’s dreams.~

Display

The Lumia 530 has a 4-inch TFT screen 854 x 480 pixels, which is only slightly higher than the Lumia 520. Add to that, the Lumia 520 had an IPS display, while the 530 has TFT display, which means the viewing angles aren’t going to be quite so good as the Lumia 520. As an example rival, Moto E has 4.3-inch display with a 960 x 540 resolution. Also India will soon be getting Xiaomi’s Redmi 1S which sports a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display. And the price for this device is Rs 6,999.

Microsoft hasn’t bumped up the screen resolution and the viewing angles are likely to be worse in the 530.  So yeah, where screen is concerned, this Lumia 530 won’t be the first choice for a lot of users.

Processor, RAM and Memory

The Lumia 530 comes with 512 MB RAM and 4GB memory space. Microsoft has gone ahead and reduced the actual space on the smartphone from 8 GB for Lumia 520 to 4GB in the 530. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, clocked at 1.2GHz.  However as this post on TrustedReviews points out, that quad-core processor is not necessarily good news. The post says that “Lumia 520 uses a pair of Cortex-A9 cores where the Lumia 530 has four Cortex-A5 cores. The older phone has the more powerful cores.”

Again rival  Motorola E comes with 1GB RAM however their processor is the dual-core version and is clocked at 1.2GHz as well. The Motorola E also only comes 4GB memory with a microSD slot up to 32GB. In comparison, the Lumia 530 does better as it has 128GB micro SD card support along with another 15 GB of free cloud storage on Microsoft OneDrive.

Microsoft’s decision to reduce the actual space on the Lumia 530 is a little disappointing since you’ll need to shell out extra for a microSD slot to boost storage. Also in an age where 1GB RAM has become standard, 512 MB RAM seems very low.

Camera

The camera remains the same as in the Lumia 520, five megapixels with no front camera. This is the same as Moto E which has a 5 megapixel camera with no front camera. Also as the detailed specs on the Nokia page show the camera has fixed focus and not auto-focus like the 520, which will affect video recording and result in inconsistent images.

The camera disappointment is made worse when you realise that the number of budget devices in the market that are launching with 8 megapixel camera and a front camera. Micromax’s Canvas 2 has a 8 megapixel back camera and 2 megapixel front camera (priced at Rs 8,340), Lava Iris X1 has a 8 megapixel back camera and 2 megapixel front camera (priced at Rs 7999), or Asus Zenfone 4 A450CG which has an 8 mp rear camera and is priced at Rs 6999.

The Lumia 530 won’t appeal to those budget buyers who don’t want to be left behind in the selfie race and want a decent camera on their smartphone as well.

Battery and Connectivity

Microsoft is promising the battery has up to 22 days standby, and 13 hours of 2G talk time. The battery capacity is 1430mAh. Connectivity options include HSPA+ 21Mbps/5.76Mbps, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, micro-USB. Since Microsoft hasn’t specified how long the battery will last on 3G.

In comparison the Moto E has a bigger 1,920mAh battery. According to our review , it easily gives a full day’s worth of usage. This is with a mix of calls, music, gaming and surfing the web over Wi-Fi. Of course, how the Lumia 530 does on the battery front can only be discussed, once we get our hands on the smartphone.

OS and features

The Lumia 530 will run the latest version of Windows Phone 8.1. It should be noted that the Lumia 520 hasn’t yet got the update. New features in Windows Phone 8.1 include, one-swipe notification from Action Center, fast Word Flow keyboard, Microsoft’s new voice assistant Cortana (which is still in beta mode). Windows Phone 8.1 has managed to get apps like Shazam, Vine, Facebook and Instagram (beta) to name a few. Where Lumia 530 is concerned, the trouble isn’t the Windows bit, but rather the unexciting specs.