The first time I heard about the Lumia 530 I had a fair amount of expectations. My aunt had a Lumia 520 for a year or so before she chose to “upgrade” and I liked the phone so when I finally got my hand on the Lumia 530, it was time to either be impressed or be forced to lower my expectations.
The first thing you notice of course is the color. I happen to be using a bright green one and from initial appearance I would say it looks good. The size is also just right and you can easily use it with one hand. There isn’t much change from the Lumia 520 with the 530 retaining the 4-inch screen with a slight change in screen resolution. It doesn’t give me the same feel as with the 620 ( or other higher end Lumias). You can almost see the limited brightness and poor contrast but for a phone in its price range it is doing quite well.
Once I power up a new phone I love to try out the camera first. The Lumia 530 comes with a 5MP camera, same as the 520, but unfortunately there is no front end camera. I also dont like the fact that there is no camera button on the side of the case or a flash. The fixed focus photography also keeps you from getting close-up but that doesn’t mean it takes bad photos. The Nokia Camera app takes its time processing photos and shooting modes are at a minimum.
Navigation is through on-screen controls; the phone’s only buttons being the volume rocker and power/lock button on the right spine. The touch isn’t as smooth as I expected and seemed to hang a bit while unlocking the phone. I did like the navigation bar at the top making it easier to get to settings and with controls for wifi, bluetooth, camera and brightness. It’s easy to customize, the tile system is neat, and the fact you can use a background photo enables you to create a unique look.
If you like your entertainment you’re likely going to need a a microSD card since there’s less than 2GB free internally out of the box, but you do get 15GB of free cloud storage with OneDrive. There are no earphones included so you’ll need to buy those but it was nice to find an FM radio app pre-installed.
[Read: Lumia 530 Specification and Price in Kenya]
The Lumia 530 has an improved 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor so the performance is good. It can run various apps and games; most of them without hanging.
The 530 comes with a 1430mAh battery similar to the 520. If you’re going to play games, browse the web, and watch videos, then the battery might need a charging at the end of the day but for those using it only to call and message then it might go longer.
In conclusion, I would say that for the price (Ksh. 10,999) it is being sold at the Lumia 530 delivers value for money and if it falls within your budget then you should give it a go.