Nokia Lumia 510 Review: The Windows Phone for the Budget-Conscious

In our country, not all people could afford a good smartphone. Actually, there are a lot of Android out there but there are only a few affordable Windows Phones out there in the market. This is probably the most affordable Windows Phone in the market, the Nokia Lumia 510.  Although Windows Phone 8 is already out in the market, Nokia stayed on the Windows Phone 7.8 for the Nokia Lumia 510 to make it more affordable. So how did the Nokia Lumia 510 fared in Jam’s dangerous hands? Check out the review after the break

Hardware

I reviewed a lot of Nokia devices before and I always write in my review that Nokia mostly have a decent and solid body. On the front, you got the 4-inch WVGA display along and a rubbery finish back cover. The phone feels affordable not cheap. Yeah, there’s a big difference between that. I’m not really a fan of rubbery feel back because it can still attract smudges but the rubber back certainly feels better than the plastic back of the Samsung Galaxy S3. But of course, that’s my view. Some people might feel that the plastic back is better than this. One of the things that I like in this phone is the curvy profile. It made the phone easy to hold and made it sleeker.

The 4 inch display isn’t one of its main strengths. The display might be big for its price but the colors wasn’t that vivid but you won’t notice that on the Nokia Lumia 510 since you’ll mostly see a plain colored live tiles. You’ll only notice that when you’re viewing pictures.  But hey, at least the 4-inch display is WVGA and it is not really that disappointing. 4-inch displays are like the minimum these days.

The Nokia Lumia 510 is only juiced with a 1300mAh. That’s quite small for a 4” device. The Nokia Lumia 510 can only last up to 18 hours on my average use.  So if you’re planning to get this, just be sure to bring your own power bank, extra battery, charger or whatever device that can charge your phone because I’m pretty sure that it will ran out of juice if you’re a heavy user.

It’s not a music device. The speaker isn’t the best either. I think the audio quality has an average quality. Yes, it’s not a music-centric phone but I liked it. Too bad if you’re planning to add a lot of media files on the phone, the 4 GB storage would not suffice your hunger for that. 4 GB is way too small. And no, there’s no Micro SD Card slot for you guys. The phone will require you a Micro-Sim. It’s not much of a hassle these days. Most smartphones require you a Micro-Sim already.

Camera

Compared to other Nokia Lumia phones, this one has a mediocre camera. It isn’t the worst camera that I’ve tried. I already expect that quality when I first saw the phone. It doesn’t have a LED camera so you’ll really have a problem when you’re in a low light environment. I took a lot of shots and I notice that the images are bit cooler and the noise are really noticeable even at an environment with a decent light. The Nokia Lumia 510 also doesn’t have front camera so don’t expect you can make a video call thru Skype or Tango. I’m not even sure if the Skype on WP 7.8 can handle video calls.  Anyway here are some of the sample shots that I took using the Nokia Lumia 510:

The Nokia Lumia 510 can record a video at VGA resolution only. Most mid-range and even some low-end smartphones could now record video at HD resolution. Anyway, here’s the video that I took using the Nokia Lumia 510. I could really notice the pink spot in the middle but there’s no frame drops, which is good. When recording, I notice that the camera had a hard time refocusing. Here is the video:

Software and Performance 

Nokia Lumia 510 running Windows Phone 7.8

The Nokia Lumia 510 is running on Windows Phone 7.5 when I got it. I just realize that I could update the phone after a few weeks. Yes, you could update the Nokia Lumia 510 to the latest version of Windows Phone 7.8. Too bad you can’t run Windows Phone 8 on this one and the Windows Phone 7.5 doesn’t have Temple Run which was just release recently. Actually there are only a few changes that I notice from it aside from the resizable live tiles.

The Nokia Lumia 510 is powered only by a Qualcomm 800 MHz Single Core processor but it still manage to have a smooth and fluid UI and transition just like the other Windows Phone. The built-in Windows Phone 8 apps are fast and it loads without a hitch. I was just disappointed when I tried some apps like the official Twitter app for Windows Phone, it took some time before it loads. Well not all apps are like that but it is really annoying to have that on some apps.

And just like the Nokia Lumia 610, not all apps would work on the device. The phone only has 256 MB of RAM but it is already capable enough for browsing the Internet using the Internet explorer without slowdowns.  Don’t expect a lot of 3D games to work on this device. But of course, you could check out Xbox extras to edit your avatar. The lack of apps on the Windows Phone Store plus the small amount of RAM made the phone harder to look for apps and decent games. But of course, the Nokia apps that you need like the Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive are preinstalled in the phone.

Verdict

So again, the Nokia Lumia 510 is the most affordable Windows Phone. Don’t expect  a lot from it. There are only a few Windows Phone out there with a price near to this. If you want a Windows phone but you don’t have the moolah then better get this but don’t expect too much from this. This might have a single core processor but this one has faster transitions that low-end to mid-range Androids. That makes me wonder why some Androids are so slow even at dual-core processors while the Windows Phone can have fast transitions and UI even at Single core.

The Nokia Lumia 510 is now available at Nokia stores for P6,990.

Disclaimer: The Nokia Lumia 510 was lend to me by Nokia Philippines