Nokia Lumia 525 Pros Cons.
Price: Rs. 9084
Pros :
The Lumia 525 boasts a large 7.07 square inches display
Large display:
The display is quite big, with its 4-inch diagonal size and a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.
Memory can be expanded up to 64GB:
The Lumia 525 doesn't come with an included memory card but it
supports up to 64GB in memory expansion, which is convenient to store
pictures and video clips shot with the included 5-megapixel camera.
Spectacular talk time:
If Nokia's claim is accurate, the Lumia 525 and its
(1430mAh)
battery will provide 1014 minutes of conversation, a lot of talk time!
Quite thin:
Its 9.9 mm body makes it quite thinner than average for a bar phone.
In-box accessories:
It includes the following accessories: Nokia Stereo Headset WH-108, USB cable. It may come in handy.
Included games:
It comes with these pre-installed games: DirectX 11, Touch UI, XBox-Live Hub.
Cons :
Ostensibly no HDMI connector:
It's all well and good that the Nokia Lumia 525 can record fancy
1280 x 720 clips, but we're surprised we didn't find any sign of the
Lumia 525 sporting an HDMI port (which comes in handy to watch HD videos
on your shiny HDTV without having to move them first to your computer).
4.37/124 g ounces is kind of chubby.
Nokia decided to introduce an iterative update and address mainly this pain point. We try to find out if the Lumia 525 takes Nokia's best selling smartphone to the next level in our review.
Features :
Build and design
As we mentioned, the Lumia 525 is an incremental update over the Lumia 520. This also holds true for the build and design, and it is almost impossible to tell the difference between the two in terms of appearance for there is none. The only distinguishing attribute is the Lumia 525's glossy back panel, in contrast to the Lumia 520's back panel that sports a matte finish. However, the panels are inter changeable. We prefer the matte finish panels as they're less prone to smudges.
The phone weighs 124 gram and feels durable despite its polycarbonate chassis.
Just like the Lumia 520, the 525 sports a 4-inch screen with a resolution of 800x480p and pixel density of 233ppi. Although the display is nothing to talk home about and you'll notice text and images getting a bit pixelated, the phone is one of the better ones among similarly priced devices.
Just below the screen, you'll find the usual Windows Phone capacitive keys (back, home and search). Unfortunately, even Lumia 525's keys are not backlit, just like the Lumia 520's capacitive keys.
On the right edge of the phone, you'll find the volume rocker, lock/power and camera keys, whereas the left edge is bare. On top you'll find the earphone jack, while the microUSB port is located at the bottom. The 5MP camera and speaker outlet are located at the back.
Overall, just like its predecessor, the Lumia 525 is one of the best economy smartphones in terms of build quality and finish.
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Hardware
The device is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and features 1GB RAM, double than that of the Lumia 520. It comes with 8GB internal storage and you can also store data on a microSD card (up to 64GB supported) and on the cloud (7GB free SkyDrive storage).
Connectivity options include 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0.The phone is backed by a 1430mAh battery, which is removable.
Software
Nokia Lumia 525 comes with Windows Phone 8 topped with Nokia customizations, apps and services. These include apps like Cinemagraph, Here maps suite, Nokia Music and Smart Shoot, which do improve the user experience.
The phone runs the latest Black build of the OS, which is based on Windows Phone GDR 3 and offers new features such as the ability to lock the screen rotation and better multitasking. It offers 'double tap to wake up' but no Glance screen.You can read more about the Black update in our Lumia 1520 review.
The phone comes pre-loaded with apps such as the adidas miCoach, BigFlix, Flipkart eBooks, Your Movies and Zinio apps, and Rail Rush game. Nokia is also offering Gameloft games such as Modern Combat 4, Assassin's Creed, Shark Dash, Nova 3 and Asphalt 8 as free downloads.
More third party apps and games are now available for Windows Phone 8 and the Lumia 525 is capable of running most of them due to the bump in RAM. For someone who's buying his first smartphone, the app selection is pretty decent with most services covered, including India-specific ones. For instance, a number of major Indian banks offer their banking apps.
That said, the OS still pales in comparison to the app selection offered by Android and iOS.
We are looking forward to the Windows Phone 8.1 update that will fill more gaps and hopefully add a centralized notifications destination.
Performance
For a phone in this price segment, the Lumia 525 offers great performance. Windows Phone is not a very resource hungry operating system and we did not encounter any lag while navigating through the apps and menus, launching apps and games, and web browsing.
While the phone is now capable of running demanding apps and games thanks to the 1GB RAM, we experienced frame drops and stutters while playing games like Asphalt 8: Airborne. Strangely, the same game's 512MB optimized version was running better on the Lumia 520 though it missed out on detail. We did not encounter any issues while running other games including Temple Run 2 and Rail Rush.
Overall, it's safe to say that the despite not being given a newer processor, Lumia 525's performance is better than some of the Android smartphones available in the same price range.
Camera
The Lumia 525 retains the Lumia 520's 5MP camera unit that takes decent images outdoors in daylight conditions but doesn't do a good job in low-light conditions and indoors. Pictures shot indoors under artificial light look grainy, and lack sharpness and colour depth. The absence of an LED flash makes the camera unusable in dark and low-light conditions.
We also wish since it was upgrading, Nokia had included a front-facing camera for video chats over Skype.
In addition to the basic Windows Phone Camera app, the phone also offers the Smart Cam app that lets you capture a sequence of 10 photos and select the best one among them or combine all the pictures into one, choosing between different effects.
The effects offered include Motion Focus that creates an illusion of motion, Action Shot that lets you show action by adding a strobe effect. You can also select the best faces in-group photos and even remove moving objects.
Thanks to the phone coming with the new version of the OS, the new Nokia Camera app can also be installed. The app integrates the Nokia Pro Cam and Smart Cam apps. However, there's not much scope for going pro as the camera hardware is still pretty basic.
Verdict
Nokia's best selling entry-level smartphone gets even better with the Lumia 525. The phone is just an incremental update, but the boost in RAM opens up the window to more games and improves the overall performance to some extent.
Nokia ships the phone with the latest build of the Windows Phone OS, improving the software experience and the free bundled games make the deal sweeter.
At a price point of Rs 10,399, the Lumia 525 is a little more expensive than the Lumia 520 which is now available around Rs 7,500 online. But we'd recommend the Lumia 525 over its predecessor, especially if you want to play the latest games available on Windows Phone.
However, if you're not an avid gamer, Lumia 520 remains the best smartphone available at a very affordable price, with most commonly used apps and services being available on the platform and access to Nokia's exclusive music and mapping services.
