Nokia ’s latest phone in the Lumia range is the Nokia Lumia 525 smart phone. This newest model is the successor of the most popular and economical Nokia Lumia phone, the Lumia 520, which in fact is Nokia’s best selling smart phone on Windows 8 platform to date. After the Lumia 525 was unveiled on November 27, 2013, it was thought that like the Lumia 520 it will help in pushing up sales for the Windows operated smart phone in the US but instead the Finnish smart phone manufacturer opted not to launch Lumia 525 initially in this region and chose to introduce the new smart phone throughout Africa, Asia Pacific and the Middle East region in the first phase. The Nokia Lumia 525 looks identical to its predecessor; with not much internal changes either. It has carried the same competitive specs and a great user interface all at a very affordable price. We will look at all the aspects and features of the latest Nokia Lumia smart phone in detail which has just hit the market.
Design & Display
The new Nokia Lumia 525 holds the same aesthetical features of design and display that were very prominent in the 520 smart phone. The 525 is looked upon as the smaller version of the Lumia 1020, but unlike the 1020 model, this one has a swappable bright yellow rear and a 1,430Mah battery that is replaceable too. If you don’t like the yellow color there are four other color choices to choose from; blue, red, black and white. The phone runs on the latest Windows 8 Operating System, has a dimension of 4.52 x 2.52 x 0.39 inches and weighs about 4.37 oz (124g).
The 4.0 inches IPS LCD screen display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels is Lumia’s benchmark which is not compromised in the 525 model. The volume key, power and the camera button all are situated on the left side of the phone, whereas the Micro-USB jack is situated at the bottom. The impressive Nokia Lumia 525 gives a fantastic display and with its sleek design it has already captured the imagination of many.
Hardware Features
Now let’s discuss about the most important aspect of the phone, the hardware features. The 525 includes the same hardware features as the 520, with the only major difference being a boost in the system memory from a 512MB RAM to a more powerful 1GB RAM. The increase in the memory points out to efforts that Nokia has made in making this particular phone’s performance much faster and reliable than its predecessor. Lumia 525 retains all the other major hardware specs of the Lumia 520 like the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus dual-core 1Ghz CPU along with the 8GB built-in storage memory. The phone also has the same GPU of Adreno 305 and a micro SD card slot, up to 64GB. Packed with all the smart phone features like Wifi, 3G, 4.0 Bluetooth, Edge and GPRS, this phone has got the right hardware which all comes in a very low price
Camera
Nokia has always been considered as a market leader in manufacturing phones with the best camera and no one can deny the fact the Nokia’s popularity has largely been due to the quality of its camera. This phone again has the same camera features as the Lumia 520 and still lacks the flashlight which can harm the overall appearance of this phone performance wise. A solid 5 megapixel, autofocus camera with a spectacular video recording ability of 720p@30fps is the best you can get in a Lumia phone. You can improve the performance of the camera by installing the new Nokia Camera Beta. It is an application that will bring advanced and enhanced camera features to provide you a better image capturing and video recording functions. With this app you can fine tune settings such as ISO sensitivity, shutter speed, exposure and you will also be able to use the manual focus while shooting with the Lumia 525 camera.
Performance and Battery
Performance wise, Nokia Lumia 525 is not much different to Lumia 520, with almost the same specs and features, the performance of this phone is slightly better as it is equipped with 1GB RAM. It has an acceptable and satisfactory user experience despite its moderate internals. There is an occasional lag that we found while browsing the web, but that does not take away the smooth and classy browsing that it provides. Although this phone is considered as an entry-level device, we still rate it good for the advanced users as they will enjoy the everyday experience and high performance that this cheap phone has to offer. On the gaming side, the 525 lacks the visionary and pure graphical effects that create a new gaming zone. In particularly high graphics demanding games this phone will not perform the best and it sometimes won’t offer quality effects like reflections and shadows etc, so all the gamers might want to avoid this one.
Battery life of Nokia Lumia 525 is also something to be concerned of as you may end up with 0% battery life till mid-day afternoon, if you charge it overnight and use it expansively. But for light users, this phone can last the whole day from morning to evening. Overall, the battery performance is somewhat a mixed bag as heavy usage will quickly drain the battery and leave you stranded with empty power.
Pros
On the positive side, certainly the price tag that comes with this device is very cheap. Initially offered at US$ 180, this phone with all the features that it has is affordable. And for those who love Windows 8 platform, they are sure to get something different this time round.
Cons
A lot of negatives have affected the overall outlook of the phone. Firstly, for users who want brightness, we are sorry to say that there is no flashlight in 525. A generally low performing battery coupled with some ordinary camera and display features have halted the image of Nokia Lumia 525, which is why the phone has not reached its targeted sales mark yet.