Why the Nokia Lumia 530 is a disappointing upgrade

The bestselling smartphone in the Windows line has gone through two iterations, with the second one about to launch quite soon. Yes, we’re talking about the Nokia Lumia 520, which runs on the Windows Phone 8.1 Black edition and has been the bestselling Windows Phone till date. The upgrade of sorts to the Lumia 520 was the Lumia 525, while the next version, Nokia Lumia 530, is to come soon. But, while the Nokia Lumia 520 and Lumia 525 were both very good smartphones, Nokia (or Microsoft, depending on who's calling the shots) seems to have lost its way a little with the next variant mainly because of:

– Fixed focus camera

– Lesser RAM

– Lesser storage space

Camera

All the three devices mentioned above have 5 MP rear cameras, which is fine for budget smartphones. The Lumia 530 though has a fixed focus camera. Are you asking why? Well, so are we. From a company like Nokia, you would always expect a good camera, even when the phone is priced in the budget range. The Nokia Lumia 520 and Nokia Lumia 525 both have pretty good cameras for proper light conditions, but can we say the same of the Lumia 530?

A good example here would be the Moto E, which is amongst two of Motorola’s best selling smartphones. While everything else about the Moto E is well above satisfactory, the 5 MP fixed focus camera at the back causes big problems in imaging. Pictures often come out to be out of focus and blurry with the Moto E, as can also be expected from the Lumia 530. So, while its predecessors may have had problems in low light imaging only, the 530 could very well have a dismal camera performance. Something you would not expect from Nokia.

Storage

Both the phones preceding the Lumia 530 have 8 GB storage, which is acceptable in a budget phone. This is not just because you’re paying less, but because 8 GB is the amount of space than many users can do with, meaning they won’t necessarily need a microSD card. These are of course users who put their phone through the most basic usage.

The Nokia Lumia 530 though offers 4 GB of storage space, which again is a baffling choice from Nokia. In a phone that has 4 GB of storage space, even the most basic users will need a microSD card. The OS takes up a major portion of the storage space, leaving you with barely 2 GB to use. So, if you’re going to buy a Nokia Lumia 530, you’re also going to need a microSD card.

RAM

The Lumia 530 has a more powerful Snapdragon 200 quad core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. This is ahead of the dual-core Snapdragon S4 processors in its predecessors. We appreciate this, we really do, but why did Microsoft choose a 512 MB RAM for this phone?

The company of course has explained that the Windows Phone 8.1 OS has been further optimised to suit phones with lower RAM. We understand that, but if you’re giving the user a more powerful processor, why wouldn't you give him/her some more RAM? Especially because you’ve proved with the Lumia 525 that 1 GB RAM is possible at the price range (and there are an array of other devices now proving that). Theoritically, this shouldn’t be a problem, but looking at it from a consumer’s point of view, more is always better. A lot of users may be swayed towards Android offerings, which have similar specs, but with double the RAM.

Overall

The phone hasn’t been launched yet and it’s too early to say whether it will be a good or a bad buy. However, Nokia has made a few very baffling choices with the Nokia Lumia 530, which could very well make it not worth waiting for. Of course, we can only know this once the phone is actually out, but let’s just say, we’re sceptical about this phone for now.

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Prasid Banerjee

Trying to explain technology to my parents. Failing miserably. View Full Profile