Overview

Best Entry-level Windows Phone

Overview of Nokia Lumia 510

Nokia Lumia 510 opens a whole new window for the Windows Phone OS- the affordable window. Coming from the wide-stretching Lumia series, Nokia Lumia 510 is a device which brings high-end smartphone features into your hands at an affordable price. Of course, Nokia had to cut the corners to make Nokia Lumia 510 a budget friendly phone. So, are there any compromises which you would have to make when you buy the phone or is it a charismatic gadget? Let’s find out.

Nokia Lumia 510 Design and Build Quality

Nokia Lumia 510 has nearly the same design as Nokia Lumia 610 and 710. It comes in five vibrant colours- Yellow, Red, White, Red, and Classic Black. Though we appreciate the inclusion of funky colours as they give the smartphone a very contemporary, stylish look, but if you’re looking for a more professional prototype, Black is the way to go. The phone comes covered by a soft and rubbery back cover, which prevents the phone from dripping off your hands. Also Lumia 510’s soft curved edges make it an easy fit into your hands and your pocket. Compared to other Nokia Lumia Phones, Nokia Lumia 510 might not catch your attention at the very first glance, but it’s the features of the phone, and the not the looks, that you would ultimately admire.

Display

The 4” TFT capacitive touchscreen, with multi-touch is pretty impressive by budget-smartphone standards. Lumia 510’s touch is soft and amazing. Colours look more vibrant, the text looks crisper, and it renders visuals at an inspiring resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The only complaint, however, is that the TFT display is not as bright as we expected. The phone has really poor outdoor visibility which means reading texts, watching videos, or browsing web on a sunny day on Nokia Lumia 510 could be nothing short of an ordeal. Besides, the screen also seems to have a slight yellow twinge to it, which is noticeable only under minimal lighting. However, considering the fact that Nokia Lumia 510 is an under 10-K smartphone, the 4” display is perhaps the best Nokia could have offered.

Nokia Lumia 510 Performance

Nokia Lumia 510 comes with a pre-historic 800 MHz Processor and only 256 MB RAM. Though Windows Phone 7.5’s intuitive interface does not give you a chance to complain about when it comes to performance, citing the competition in the market, 1 GHz looks like a bare-minimum now. Also, you cannot run a lot of apps with just 256 MB of RAM. So, if you love switching between lots of apps concurrently, we suggest staying far away from this gadget.

Windows Phone 7.5 - upgradable to 7.8

Nokia Lumia 510 comes with the beautiful Windows 7.5 interface. The tiled Windows interface is extremely fast and easy to navigate. The tiles are apps-cum-widgets which showcase real-time-date and also provide access to different applications on the phone. For instance, Messaging and Mail tile reads the unread messages; the Gallery tile flips some random snapshots of stored pictures; the People tile reads your contact list and populates updates from social-media networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Though Nokia Lumia 510 ships with Windows Phone 7.5 as of now, it is upgradable to Windows Phone 7.8. The update is expected to release anywhere around January 2013. Windows Phone 7.8, apparently, comes with more themes and an increased set of accent colours. The new OS is set to have some new lock-screen features and an all-new Start screen. It’s believed that the inclusion of new Start screen would completely change the user experience with the phone.

Nokia Lumia 510 Apps and Maps

Windows Phone Store currently boasts 120,000 apps, a tiny number when compared to 700,000-plus apps available on iOS and Android. Though 60% of the most popular iOS and Android apps have been ported to Windows Market Place, the lesser number of apps on Windows OS would definitely haunt tech-geeks and app-lovers. Nokia, however, compensates for the limited number of apps on Market Place by offering some high utility apps like Nokia City Lens, Nokia Drive, and Nokia Music. Nokia City Lens is an augmented reality app, which overlays the name of the nearby restaurants, landmarks, and other locations, when you point the screen towards it. Nokia Drive on the other hand is a navigation which gives accurate turn-by-turn directions, using 2D or 3D maps. It can also be configured to provide voice directions, display points of interests and provide audio alerts. With Nokia Music, you can purchase and download songs from Nokia’s extensive catalogue of over 15 million tracks, and also stream music from popular radio channels.

Nokia Lumia 510 Camera and Video Quality

Nokia Lumia 510 comes equipped with a 5 MP camera with no LED Flash, which means you won’t be able to snap photos in the dark. The camera does take some pretty decent photos, but the camera struggles in dealing with low lighting conditions. Apparently, the captured images appear little noisy and less-detailed. However, if the lighting is good, Lumia 510 captures some really amazing shots. The phone does not come with any front camera, which means you cannot make/ receive video calls. Well, Nokia just cut the wrong corner here. Nokia Lumia 510 is also capable of recording VGA videos at 30 fps. It comes stocked with lots of features, which allow you to tweak the white-balance, scene-mode, effects, and much more. Unlike its bigger brothers, Lumia 510 does not support HD recording. However, considering the fact that Lumia 510 is a budget phone, expecting a HD camera would be slightly over-optimistic.

Connectivity and Storage

When it comes to connectivity, Nokia Lumia 510 has everything a smartphone needs to have- Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, and 3G. The only department where Nokia severely disappoints is memory storage. Lumia 510 comes with internal storage of 4 GB with no option for expandable memory. Though 4 GB is enough to hold your photos, music and documents, the lack of space on Lumia 510 has all the makings of a potential deal-breaker. Although, Microsoft does offer its cloud services through SkyDrive, we do not know if it’s convenient enough.

Nokia Lumia 510 Battery

Nokia Lumia 510 is empowered by a 1300 mAh battery, and Nokia promises a standby time of 739 hours on 3G. However, in reality, the phone struggles to last even a day long on normal usage. The phone churns up the battery quickly, especially when you’re browsing the web or streaming videos. Hence, you’ll need to charge your phone daily to keep a check on that battery meter.

Value for Money

At 10.5 K (approx., may vary), Nokia Lumia 510 is the cheapest Windows smartphone in the market. Considering its hardware specifications and features, Nokia Lumia 510 is an absolute catch at the offered price.

Verdict

The stylish design, eloquent display panel, a sublime Windows Phone 7.8 interface, and a sophisticated camera are some clear indicators of the fact that Nokia didn’t want to spoil the broth in making the two ends meet. Instead, it wants to cook a mouth-watering dish, which everyone can afford to eat. Yes, the colours may seem loud, the processor is not nimble enough, the storage capacity is meagre, the battery life is average, and the number of apps on Windows platform is limited, but at 10.5 K, Nokia Lumia 510 seals the deal as an entry-level Windows phone. Buy Nokia Lumia 510 for its build quality, large 4” display, and the amazing Windows 7.8 experience.