The Microsoft Lumia 540, which was officially launched last month at $150, is now available in the Indian market for Rs. 10,199. The phone was launched yesterday at events in Delhi and Bangalore simultaneously. The smartphone is trying to enter a very competitive budget smartphone market and we believe it is underpowered for the job. We had the chance to spend some time with the device, and from the looks of it, the phone doesn't bring anything new to the table.
The Lumia 540 from Microsoft comes equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 SoC with 1GB RAM. In our short time spent with the phone, we didn't felt any lag or stuttering on the device. Even though the phone is underpowered than most of its Android rivals, the device ran smoothly in the short time we used it. However, this all comes down to the Windows Phone UI which ran smooth as ever.
The 5-inch ClearBlack display features a 720p HD resolution. We can report that the viewing experience is good and the display will do just fine under varied lighting conditions. As for the build quality, Microsoft (Nokia) phones have always been considered to be one of the best built phones and that doesn't change with the Lumia 540. The button layout is good, button press is tactile and the overall build quality is just better than what the competition has to offer.
The smartphone features an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front-facing wide angle camera. I shot a couple of photos during the indoor event and the photos showed accurate colours while letting in a little bit of noise. As on previous phones, the Lumia Photography app on the Lumia 540 does give you a lot of options to fiddle around with. The phone runs the latest Windows 8.1 operating system with the Denim update.
From the looks of it, the Lumia 540 feels like a mixture of last year’s 535 and the Lumia 640. While the internal specs are pretty similar to what the Lumia 535 offered, the exterior features are somewhat similar to that of the Lumia 640. The pricing of the device is also right in the middle of the Lumia 535 and Lumia 640. This will make it a much more difficult task for buyers to distinguish between what to buy and what features maysuffice their requirements. However, we will not pass any judgement on how the smartphone performs in day to day tasks until we get it for review.