Nokia Lumia 520 where is Glonass. Information about the make, model, and alternative names of the specific device, if available.

Finally the new product has arrived to us! In this review, I will talk in detail about the Nokia Lumia 520 - the second generation of the previous Nokia Lumia 510 smartphone. The 520 model is the most affordable smartphone on Windows Phone 8. Is it worth the money? Should I buy it? Who will like it and who won't?

Let's start with the most enjoyable part. Outside the window, April 2013 is the height of spring. The Nokia Lumia 520 just hit store shelves (about two weeks ago). Naturally, at the start of sales, the price of a smartphone will be slightly inflated. Now stores are asking 8,000 rubles (2,000 hryvnia or $250) for the device. Not bad, considering that the closest competitor, the HTC 8S, costs $75 more.

As always, my reviews start with me looking into the box and evaluating its contents. The box of Nokia Lumia 520 is no different from the boxes of top-end Nokia Lumia smartphones. It is just as pleasant to the touch, small (personally I don’t like it, I miss the suitcase box from my Nokia N73) and bright. On the outside of the box, on the bottom there are brief specifications and features of the smartphone, and on the edges there is the production date, stickers with the IMEI code, RM type and model. Nothing new. Open the box. Inside we find the smartphone itself (we have a bright yellow one - it’s lovely, it’s worth noting), a USB cable, a charger (separately, and not together with the USB cable, although the smartphone is charged via the USB port. What motivated this decision is unknown) , the headset is the simplest. If you like to listen to music with headphones, I advise you to carefully put the standard headphones in a box, put the box on a shelf and go to the store for normal headphones. In addition, the smartphone comes with “on-board documentation” - brief instructions and a warranty card.

Let's move on to the smartphone and its appearance. Taking the phone in my hands, I immediately noticed the construction of the back panel. The completely straight angles combined with the smooth lines of the back panel left me with the best impression. The phone is very comfortable in the hand, the ergonomics are not satisfactory.

The back panel is made similar to my Nokia Lumia 620. The only difference is that there is no camera bezel - just a round hole for the camera eye. There is no flash here either, which is very sad news for photography enthusiasts. The hole for the speaker is also located on the bottom right. The smartphone is not the thinnest - it's almost a centimeter (9.9 millimeters). This is not a minus, but rather a plus - a golden mean, thanks to which representatives of both large and bulky male hands and small, delicate female palms will comfortably work with the phone.

As always, in Nokia Lumia smartphones the left side is freed from any controls, all physical keys are moved to the right side - the volume rocker, the screen lock/smartphone power button, the camera shutter button. At the bottom there is only a micro-USB port, and at the top there is a 3.5 mm output for listening to your favorite music through headphones and connecting a headset.

Let's turn the phone upside down and look at the top panel. On top is the earpiece, Nokia inscription and proximity sensor. There is no front camera in the Nokia Lumia 520, so forget about Skype - except for voice calls or chatting. The entire front panel is occupied by a large 4-inch screen, the resolution of which is classic - 800x480. Pixel density is 233 per inch. Quite good performance, although in this case I prefer a smaller diagonal screen (Lumia 620 - 3.7 inches), which provides better detail and density.

The screen is made using TFT technology - this is the most ordinary matrix, without the use of various bells and whistles. But stop! I forgot about one extremely useful and nice feature! This is support for high sensitivity mode. This means that the screen can be controlled by your favorite objects. But still, I advise you to refrain from playing Fruit Ninja with a knife or keys, because the smartphone screen is covered with ordinary glass, not Gorilla Glass, so handle the smartphone with care and precision. But high sensitivity will allow you to use your smartphone with any gloves in the most severe frost. Due to the use of a standard matrix, the screen cannot boast of strong color saturation and brightness. The picture quality was also affected by the lack of an oleophobic coating (a la ClearBlack). But nevertheless, in the sun (if high brightness or automatic settings are turned on), the image remains fully readable and no discomfort occurs. If you still don’t like something, switch your smartphone to high contrast mode (Settings - Accessibility) and turn on the white theme.

Nokia Lumia 520 runs on Windows Phone 8 OS and has a dual-core, modern Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with a frequency of 1 GHz. This ensures ideal and completely bug-free operation of the system. Paired with Internet Explorer 10, surfing the Internet will be as convenient and comfortable as possible. The amount of RAM is 512 MB, which is enough to run all applications from the market, including Asphalt 7. The only exceptions are extremely heavy games, of which there are few - Amazing Spider Man, Dark Knight Rises and Modern Combat - Zero Hour, Temple Run and more some. The smartphone can operate in 2G and 3G networks. There is no 4G/LTE support here. To do this, buy a 720 model or 820/920. There is no NFC chip here either. To transfer data, you are provided only with a USB port and bluetooth of the third generation, which, thank God, can transfer files without any programs. Thanks to Windows Phone 8, synchronization with a computer is also carried out without the use of additional applications (the hated Zune is a thing of the past). Just connect your smartphone to your computer and download content.

The phone's standard memory allows the user to store up to 8 GB of content. Let us subtract from these 8 GB about 1.5 GB, which the system takes, and it turns out that no more than 5 GB will be available to you. This is not critical, since the Nokia Lumia 520 supports work with micro-SD cards, the volume of which can be as much as 64GB. If this doesn’t seem enough to you, Microsoft will kindly provide you with free 7GB of cloud storage. Please note that applications can only be installed in the phone's memory, so when purchasing a device, immediately buy yourself a memory card to save content (videos, pictures, music, documents).

Remove the back cover (this is not easy to do). To access the battery compartment and the ports for the memory card and SIM card (note that micro-sim is used here), you need to press the camera lens and pull the cover towards you (exactly like on the Nokia Lumia 620). If you have big fingers, you will have to suffer a little. Under the lid there is a 1430 mAh battery (a point in favor of the Nokia Lumia 520 versus the Nokia Lumia 620), and under it there are slots for a SIM card and micro-sim. A slightly increased battery capacity will allow your pet to work in moderate use mode for up to 3 days. This is a very good result. The smartphone is charged by simply connecting to a power outlet - there is no wireless charging.

If you love photography, think twice before purchasing this model. Let's give it its due - the camera in the Nokia Lumia 520 is not the worst. A 5MP resolution with autofocus in good lighting can allow you to take good pictures in a resolution of 2592x1944 pixels. This is enough for comfortable printing in 10:15 format. The detailing, of course, is not great, but I think that for a smartphone for $250 it’s not bad.

The situation gets worse when you have to take pictures in low light conditions. You will only have to use hardware capabilities to brighten the picture (by increasing the ISO parameters - don’t be afraid of noise, at ISO 800 - the maximum value - noise is not noticeable on the smartphone screen, or by adjusting the exposure), since this smartphone does not have a flash. The photo below is a night shot. The photo speaks for itself. But the camera can shoot HD 720p video at a frame rate of 30 fps.

The phone is equipped with an A-GPS and GLONASS sensor. If you love a variety of trips and travel, you will certainly appreciate the navigation capabilities of this smartphone. By first downloading maps to your smartphone (for example, Ukrainian maps weigh about 350 MB), you can use them without connecting to the network in both the HERE Drive application and the HERE Maps application. Please note that you can only download maps for one country (limited by HERE Drive, unlimited available in HERE Drive+ - Nokia Lumia 620, 820 and 920). Also, due to the lack of a built-in compass, the HERE City Lens app will not work.

Results. With the release of Nokia Lumia 520, its closest competitors - HTC 8S and Huawei Ascend W1 - began to have problems. After all, for 8,000 rubles you will get a smartphone with (advantages):

dual-core Qualcomm S4 1Ghz processor;
support for memory cards up to 64GB + 8GB built-in;
exclusive applications and navigation services;
beautiful body and bright performance
super sensitive screen

Since this is a budget model, we need to remind you about the limitations of the Nokia Lumia 520:

512MB RAM
lack of ClearBlack and Gorilla Glass
lack of compass
no wireless charging
relatively small battery
no flash
no front camera

wp-seven's opinion: Nokia Lumia 520 will be a great choice for those who are switching from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8 or are just starting to get acquainted with the OS. This device will also be useful for those who do not particularly pay attention to the camera and bells and whistles like NFC or wireless charging. For other needs - listening to music, surfing the Internet, playing games and watching videos, the Nokia Lumia 520 provides all the necessary capabilities. I liked the smartphone, but I won’t say that I fell in love with it like I fell in love with the Nokia Lumia 822.

Finally, we have the most affordable smartphone running Windows 8. Nokia Lumia 520 in Ukraine can be bought for about 1,600 hryvnia, and you get the same platform and chipset as in the more expensive Nokia Lumia 720.

Technical characteristics of Nokia Lumia 520

Nokia Lumia 520
operating system	Microsoft Windows Phone 8
Display	4 inches, 480x800 pixels (pixel density ~235 ppi), multi-touch, 16 million colors
CPU	dual-core Qualcomm MSM8227 1 GHz, video Adreno 305
RAM	512 MB
Flash memory	8 GB + microSD card slot
Camera	5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, geotagging
Wireless technologies	Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+A2DP
Interfaces	micro-USB, 3.5 mm headphone output
Connection	2G 850/900/1800/1900, 3G 850/900/1900/2100
Navigation	GPS, GLONASS
Battery	lithium-ion, 1430 mAh, removable
Dimensions and weight	120x64x10 mm, 128 grams

Contents of delivery

Smartphone, removable battery, USB cable, charger, headset, user manual.

Appearance and design

Small, neat, with rather sharp corners and a slightly rounded back, Nokia Lumia 520 is a typical Windows smartphone of the new generation. Devices on this platform have acquired their own style: both of the most popular manufacturers of such smartphones prefer this particular shape, as well as bright colors. Lumia 520 is no exception. It is available in yellow, red, black and white variants with interchangeable rear panels. We got a “girly” white one for testing, but earlier we were holding a red one, also mostly intended for a female audience.

The smartphone is somewhat shorter and narrower than its older neighbor in the line, Lumia 720, a review of which you may have read. At the same time, the Lumia 520 is about a millimeter thicker, which is why it does not seem as sleek as its older brother.

But unlike the latter, it has a removable back and battery, and, in addition, to change the SIM card you do not need to use a special paperclip-like key, which personally got me. Here the communication card is securely hidden under a removable cover, not far from the microSD slot. To insert the card, you will have to remove the battery.

The replacement socket, by the way, is not very easy to detach; this requires a strong fingernail. The back itself is thin and easily bendable. However, it fits well in its grooves. In general, the assembly is quite decent for a “state employee”; there were no noticeable gaps or inappropriate creaks.

Together with iPhone 4s

On the right side there is a volume rocker, then a power button and, finally, at the very bottom - a camera button. In my opinion, reaching for it with the thumb of your right hand is not very convenient, but when gripping it with your left it is somewhat more natural.

At the bottom there is a microUSB connector, at the top there is a minijack for a headset. The whiteness (in our case) of the back surface of the smartphone is diluted only by the camera eye without a flash, the company logo, and also a small speaker, which nevertheless closes when placed on a plane. Three touch buttons are highlighted in white on the dark body. They are not illuminated, but this does not create a problem.

Display

Nokia Lumia 720 and 520

The screen of the Nokia Lumia 720 smartphone is undoubtedly worthy of respect. It is unlikely that I would be very mistaken in calling it the best among all smartphones in the price category up to 3,000 hryvnia (12,000 rubles). With the youngest Lumia 520, everything is not so rosy, but this is quite natural. Still, a smartphone costs much less. However, despite the price of 1,600 hryvnia, the manufacturer gave the smartphone an IPS matrix (for example, the Lumia 620 does not have such a luxury).

The viewing angles here are wide, but if you look at the display from the side, the image is readable, but the main color still darkens. In addition, on bright days there is especially a change in glare. The resolution of a four-inch screen is 800x480 pixels, the same as 620 or 720. Some will say that this is not enough, I will say that it is enough. The picture is quite pleasant, although not as bright and saturated as the Lumia 720; there is no Gorilla Glass 2 protection glass here, as well as True Black, that is, black is somewhat gray. But the contrast level here is high (910:1). And also an excellent ultra-sensitive sensor that allows you to operate your smartphone with gloves. The display understands up to 5 simultaneous touches - more than enough for 4 inches diagonally.

Together with iPhone 4s

Camera

The results from the five-megapixel camera module cannot be called “stellar”: the colors are pale, the detailing in low light is weak, and there is no flash. But still, I will not be lazy again to focus on the price of the device. For a budget smartphone the camera is quite good. As in the older model, the “Smart Photo” functions are implemented here (several frames are taken in a row, then you can select a face for each participant in a group photo from any of the frames and combine them), “Live Photo” (the selected part of the photo “moves”) and "Panorama".

And the camera also records this video

System and performance

In fact, the processor and memory here are the same as in the other closest Nokia Lumia - 620 and 720. This is a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 with an MSM8227 chipset and an Adreno 305 graphics accelerator with a frequency of 1 GHz. But the amount of RAM is only 512 MB, which, however, was much more surprising in the Lumia 720 and was its most significant drawback. Low RAM means that some 3D games on your smartphone will not run. For example, the well-known Temple Run. For everything else - social media, FullHD movies and the vast majority of games, the performance is enough. Not to mention the free-floating interface of Windows 8. Since the hardware characteristics are the same, the results in synthetic tests of the Lumia 520 are similar to the 720 model. The package of pre-installed applications here is approximately the same as in other models. I would like to once again note the successful navigation programs, but for details refer to the review of Nokia Lumia 720. Here I will also note the excellent synchronization of calendars, mail and other things: the tasks entered into the calendar during testing of the Lumia 720, thanks to the common Microsoft identifier, also appeared on the Lumia 520: the calendar joyfully reminded me that I had the intention of jogging on Fridays. The sound in the smartphone is average, but under no circumstances use the included headset, it is more than disgusting.

Autonomy

The Lumia 520 has a removable battery with a capacity of 1430 mAh. This is less than the Lumia 720 (2000 mAh), but the bright screen there “eats” more energy. However, the older model slightly outperforms the younger one in terms of battery life. In normal smartphone mode (camera, calls, SMS, player, mail, surfing), the device works for 1.5 days, plays video for a little less than 6 hours.

Bottom line

In my opinion, the Nokia Lumia 520 is an excellent smartphone, in its price category - one of the best in terms of implementation quality and capabilities. On the hardware side, these capabilities are somewhat limited by 512 MB of RAM: some 3D games are simply not available for this smartphone and even its colleagues with the same problem. On the other hand, the smartphone is limited by a small number of useful programs in the Windows Market. I was offended, for example, by the lack of a normal video player in which I could connect subtitles or switch the audio track. The shortcomings are compensated by the fast, balanced operation of the smartphone, an ultra-sensitive screen sensor, an excellent navigation system and simply high ergonomics for very little money.

4 reasons to buy Nokia Lumia 520:

The most affordable smartphone on Windows 8;
Well-functioning navigation system;
Nice case with good assembly and replaceable panels;
Sensitive screen with IPS matrix.

3 reasons not to buy Nokia Lumia 520:

Windows Phone 8: not all the necessary applications are available, some are paid;
Lack of front camera;
512 MB of RAM, not all toys will work.

Windows Phone is the latest mobile operating system in use today. However, in just two and a half years it has undergone a number of important changes. First of all, this concerns not functionality, but the positioning of the platform. At first, devices of medium and high price categories were produced on its basis. Then Microsoft made a nod towards the budget segment - Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh appeared with reduced hardware requirements for smartphones.

Due to the small amount of memory on such devices, it was not possible to run all applications. And although the “stripped-down” models looked good in their price segment, users mainly preferred “state employees” based on Android. With the release of Nokia Lumia 520, everything can change. At first glance, for the price of the phone, users get a full-fledged smartphone based on the current OS, with a good IPS screen and without restrictions such as reduced memory. There's even a microSD slot! Is the Lumia 520 so good and is it capable of becoming a landmark device for Nokia? We'll look into it in a detailed review.

Design

The design of the Lumia 520 follows the Lumia 510 model - in this case, the lid is also something like a pelvis, covering not only the back of the smartphone, but also its ends. But the design has become stricter: the new product uses sharp corners instead of rounded ones, which makes the device similar to the older models of the Lumia line from 2013.

Sharp corners and rounded ends are reminiscent of a chocolate bar, especially if you place the smartphone face down. This design fits well in the hand. Perhaps some discomfort would be felt in the case of larger dimensions, coupled with a clearly defined rectangular shape.

The youth orientation of the smartphone is indicated by multi-colored interchangeable panels, like the Lumia 510. We tested the Lumia 520 in a white case. The plastic is matte, a little rough. This texture is resistant to fingerprints, but susceptible to dirt, which will be difficult to remove.

Unfortunately, Nokia again skimped on the oleophobic coating of the glass protecting the screen. The front panel instantly gets dirty and looks completely unpresentable. At first, you try to wipe the screen after each use of the phone. Then it gets boring, and you have to put up with a constantly dirty display. It’s a pity, because it’s unlikely that the oleophobic coating is so expensive that it can significantly affect the final price of the device.

The smartphone is well-assembled, the body does not creak, the battery fits tightly, all the parts fit well together. However, we had concerns that over time the lid might become loose - it can be removed too easily. All three hardware buttons, traditionally located on the right side, do not raise any questions: they are pressed clearly, they protrude from the body by a millimeter and a half, which makes them convenient for working blindly. The camera key is raised even more clearly, which is very good considering its two-position travel.

Despite the same screen size on the Lumia 520 and Lumia 510, the developers managed to make the new product slightly smaller. The smartphone has lost almost a millimeter in length and width. The thickness is 9.9 mm, which is one and a half millimeters less than its predecessor. The device weighs 130 g, so it does not weigh down your hand and does not weigh down your shirt pocket, like, for example, the Lumia 920.

The appearance of the Lumia 520 leaves a positive impression. Yes, there are no frills or unexpected solutions in the design of the smartphone, and it does not claim to be the most beautiful phone. But the model is suitable for different categories of users, not only young people, and is distinguished by high-quality assembly and a pleasant appearance. This is very important for a budget smartphone.

Display

It was the screen that caused us the most complaints while getting to know the Lumia 510. The use of a matrix displaying only 65 thousand colors evoked associations with smartphones running Windows Mobile that had sunk into oblivion.

The IPS display installed in the Lumia 520 behaves much better and does not shock with a gradient with clearly defined boundaries between shades, as was the case with its predecessor. The rest of the specifications remained the same: 4-inch diagonal and resolution 480x800 pixels (about 235 ppi).

When talking about image quality, the main thing to remember is that we are not dealing with a flagship model. There is no ClearBlack layer here, and the IPS matrix is not a top-end one - the white color becomes dirty gray when you change the viewing angle other than direct, and the black tints purple. Still, the screen is good for a smartphone in this price category. It does not distort saturation and contrast, and there are no such problems with color inversion as with TN matrices.

The behavior of the display in the sun is not all smooth sailing. Firstly, the screen glares, and the lack of an oleophobic coating and, as a result, permanent stains make it even more difficult to see the image, although it remains readable. Secondly, the automatic display brightness adjustment doesn't work very well. If you trust it, the backlight will operate at a low or medium level in most cases. This will have a good effect on the battery life of the device, but will spoil the impression of the dim screen. We recommend setting the display backlight to the maximum level in the settings.

This is not relevant yet, but in the fall and winter, owners of the Lumia 520 will appreciate the ability to work with the touchscreen with “clothed” hands. Tested with leather and wool gloves, the controls are as responsive as the flagship Lumia 920.

If we compare it with the recently visited Huawei Ascend W1, which costs a little more than the Lumia 520, the screen of the Finnish device looks more advantageous. It does better with white balance, and as a bonus it has “glove” control.

Camera

The photo module of the Lumia 520 left an unexpectedly pleasant impression. Given the terrible camera in the Lumia 610, we were afraid to see something similar or, at best, expected quality comparable to the optics of the Lumia 510.

All three models use 5-megapixel cameras, but they differ from each other like heaven and earth. The “sky” in this case is the Lumia 520. There is no ugly “soapy mess” like the Lumia 610, and noise is processed much better compared to the Lumia 510. Perhaps, we have one of the best photo modules among budget-level smartphones.

Photos taken in daylight are especially good. The macro mode proved itself worthy. In dim light or indoors, noise appears. There's not much to shoot in the dark - Nokia left the smartphone without a flash.

Functionality

The software capabilities of the Lumia 520 are almost completely consistent with what we wrote about in the Lumia 920. Among the differences, it is worth mentioning that there is no equalizer in the settings. By the way, even without it, in good headphones, the smartphone sounds decent, and, as it seemed to us, no worse than the flagship model.

Games, videos, interface, switching between applications, web surfing - everything works clearly, quickly, smoothly. This is a big advantage of the Lumia 520 over budget models running Android. The latter have similar technical characteristics, but they slow down when flipping through desktops and scrolling pages in the browser.

The smartphone has 8 GB of internal memory, of which less than 5 GB is available to the user. Fortunately, multimedia content can be transferred to a memory card. Let us remind you that the Lumia 510 does not have a microSD slot, and the installed storage capacity is limited to 4 GB. The Huawei Ascend W1 also received only 4 GB, but supports memory cards, so we will consider it equal to the Lumia 520.

Battery life

It’s a pity to admit it, but in terms of battery life, WP devices are starting to fail. The number of cores and processor clock speed are increasing, the diagonal and screen resolution are increasing. Surely Windows Phone 8 has become more appetizing in consuming energy, while the battery capacity remains the same.

The Lumia 520's 1,430 mAh battery only lasted through a workday of intensive use. The Skype application, notifications turned on, about half an hour of games, some music, an hour and a half of browsing the Internet, several calls with a total duration of up to 20 minutes - in this mode, the smartphone, charged in the morning, turned off in the evening of the same day.

With less active use, the battery will last a day. If you still trust the auto-adjustment of the display backlight and turn on the battery saving mode, then you will probably be able to squeeze out a day and a half of battery life from the Lumia 520. The Huawei Ascend W1 smartphone showed itself to be almost twice as durable; the low-power Lumia 510 also holds up more vigorously than its older brother.

Pricing

The success or failure of any phone depends not least on the price. This statement is especially true for the Lumia 520, which is positioned as the cheapest WP8 smartphone.

In the US, the model can be purchased for just $150 without any obligations. This is an unprecedentedly low price that can revolutionize the entire market of inexpensive smartphones and finish off the still living segment of regular phones costing $100-200.

For us, as often happens with mobile devices, the pricing of the Lumia 520 is different. As soon as the model went on sale, it could be purchased for $210. This is, of course, more expensive than in the United States, but not critical.

However, after a few days the cost of the device jumped to $270 and is steadily approaching $300. This actually takes the Lumia 520 out of the budget model category and into the low-cost mid-range segment. In this situation, the smartphone has to compete with HTC 8S, Huawei Ascend W1 and even Lumia 620.

Another option is to buy a Lumia 520 from the velcom operator. Subject to the conclusion of an additional agreement to use the company’s services for six months, the device will cost approximately $230 in equivalent. The American price is still far away, but in Belarusian reality such an offer looks tempting - there are still no competitors. Unless you count last year's models, which from a technical point of view are hopelessly behind, running Android.

The series of phones developed by Nokia has been failing day after day in recent years. The Microsoft Windows Phone platform did not become popular; all investments from Redmond, alas, went bust. The picture is sad, but, oddly enough, in the post-Soviet space there were many ardent Nokia fans who remained loyal to the Finns, as well as those for whom the presence of Windows on all gadgets they used became a key factor when choosing a device. Thanks to them, the budget segment of Nokia phones still survived; we will consider one of the representatives of the “genre” in this material. So, let's start the review of the Lumiya 520 smartphone: characteristics, main features and reviews from owners.

Equipment

In addition to the phone in the box you can find:

Charger for connecting to the mains.
Rechargeable battery.
Cable for charging from the mains and connecting to a computer for data synchronization.
Branded stereo headset.
Guide for setting up and using the phone.

Housing, controls

Dimensions: 119 by 64 by 10 millimeters.

Weight: 124 grams.

The entire line of smartphones developed under the auspices of the updated Nokia is produced in similar cases. One can feel a single design vision and careful attention to the exterior of gadgets. The classic “sandwich”, consisting of a black front panel and colored polycarbonate, is also used in this model. The smartphone case is collapsible, under the cover there is a battery, a slot for a memory card and a SIM card.

On the front panel of the phone you can only find a display, touch control keys (buttons: back, menu and search) and a speaker, neatly fitted into the very top part of the body, at the junction with the lid. On the back of the smartphone there is a cutout of the main speaker, the manufacturer’s logo and the camera. On the right side of the smartphone there are traditional Lumiya controls (camera shutter, power button and volume rocker). The left half is empty. At the bottom there is a micro-USB input for charging and connecting to a computer. On the top there is a standard 3.5 mm headphone input.

Thanks to its compact size, the phone will easily fit into any hand, and the matte plastic will not allow it to slip out on the go. Ergonomics at the highest level. The phone comes in five colors: red, white, black, blue and yellow. There are almost no marks or minor damage left on the back cover, so a case for the Lumiya 520 is unlikely to become necessary; in this regard, the design is quite practical.

Display

It’s worth mentioning right away that we are talking about a budget smartphone, so you shouldn’t expect any revelations regarding the screen. The Lumiya 520 phone is equipped with a compact display with a diagonal of only 4 inches and a resolution of 800 by 480 pixels. Even with small sizes, attentive (picky) users undoubtedly You will notice individual pixels and the overall graininess of the picture. In everyday use, this drawback does not cause discomfort. Many will also be disappointed by the lack of exclusive ClearBlack technology, which is used in other, more expensive gadgets from the company. It is pointless to hope for high-quality color rendition when exposed to sunlight; the screen will go blind. On the other hand, the screen has an IPS matrix, which means that potential owners of the gadget will be able to enjoy the widest possible viewing angles. Residents of cold regions will be pleased with the ultra-sensitive display, which is able to recognize touches even when wearing gloves.

Processor, memory, performance

“Lumiya 520” is far from a flagship gadget, and primarily it is aimed at people whose needs are below average, so there is no need to talk about serious “hardware” equipment, which, in general, is not a problem, given the level of system optimization , but it will affect gamers. The smartphone, like most Windows Phone devices, uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip. The clock speed of this beast reaches 1000 megahertz in each of the cores. Even with this chip, the phone works very quickly, smoothly, and the system always remains responsive. The main performance limiter is the small amount of RAM, it reached only 512 megabytes, which automatically makes a number of complex programs inaccessible to this baby.

Among other things, the device has room for 8 gigabytes of main memory, of which only 5 are available to the user. Fortunately, the situation can be corrected with the help of an additional physical array (microSD memory cards are supported).

Camera

One of Nokia's main strengths has always been its special photography capabilities, which are head and shoulders above the competition. In budget solutions, alas, everything is standard. The gadget under review has a single 5-megapixel lens, without flash. The pictures turn out very mediocre even in good lighting, not to mention photographs taken indoors. In principle, the camera performs a rather utilitarian function.

To brighten up the life of the owners of the Lumiya 520 smartphone, Nokia decided to leave all the camera software features available, including all kinds of filters, processing tools and exclusive functions such as creating “come to life” photos.

There is no front camera at all, so selfie lovers will have to either come to terms with it or develop the skill of shooting “themselves” with the main camera.

Autonomy

Today, the operating time of any smartphone on a single charge is no more than a day (with regular use), the same truth is true for the Lumiya 520 smartphone. The characteristics of the device are not the most promising anyway, and then the autonomy also lets us down. This is due to a battery with a capacity of only 1430 milliamps. According to the manufacturer, the smartphone is capable of:

Live more than 10 hours of talk time on third generation networks.
Play music in the background for about 60 hours.
Play video with HD resolution for about 6 hours.

Of course, some of these indicators are just skillfully conducted, gentle tests that are very different from real life. Even fine-tuning the system will not help to significantly increase the operating time, so you will have to put up with the fact that before the end of the working day the phone will ask to be plugged in.

Communications

The smartphone, unfortunately, cannot boast of modern wireless interfaces and contactless data exchange technology.

The only wired connection on the phone is a micro-USB port. The list of wireless interfaces includes: Wi-Fi supporting 802.11 frequency and Bluetooth third generation. The vaunted NFC could not be detected. The phone has a GPS module. An extensive list of supported cellular networks is also an important feature of the Lumiya 520.

Characteristics of the software platform

Many users, upon the release of Lumiya smartphones, identified a lot of common features connecting them with the iPhone, including a unique operating system that follows similar principles and ideas.

The Lumiya 520 does not require complex preliminary setup; all you need to do is create an account, after which you can immediately start working with the phone.

First of all, the user is greeted by an ascetic lock screen, which displays notifications, as well as information about the date and time. Immediately following it is a minimalistic, innovative interface developed in the depths of Microsoft, called “Live Tiles”. Actually, the entire interface is built on blocks of information, which are also shortcuts for applications. Its main idea is that a person can get the maximum necessary information without opening programs.

The system is quite fast and does not irritate with minor errors and visual artifacts. Rarely do more serious problems arise related to errors in third-party software that permanently “hang” the gadget. In such situations, there is nothing left but to restart Lumiya; this is done by holding down all three control keys (physical, located on the right side of the phone).

The most important problem of the system is the shortage of third-party “software”, because the manufacturer has not been able to force developers to release applications for the newly created platform.

"Lumiya 520": reviews

At first glance, the Nokia device is significantly inferior in many respects and does not look very attractive compared to its closest competitors. However, it has found a whole army of fans who scour the market for something affordable and as practical as possible. The practicality of the phone is highlighted by the majority of users, saying that the smartphone is easy to connect to a computer, that it is possible to hot-swap the SIM card, as well as access to the battery. Repairing the Lumiya also costs pennies, which will please those who buy a phone for a schoolchild. Many note high performance and battery life compared to budget phones running Android. All these and many other factors noted by ordinary users create a completely new image of the Lumiya 520 smartphone, the characteristics of which are rarely replete with positive statements from professionals. The image of a strong budget employee in the best traditions of Nokia. The only question remains: how much does Lumiya 520 cost? The recommended price for the device in Russia varies within 8,000 rubles.

The fate of the former leaders of the smartphone market - Nokia and Microsoft - remains the subject of numerous online battles and speculation. Despite various prophecies about the imminent death and futility of their modern mobile products (we are, of course, talking about Lumia smartphones and Windows Phone OS), both one and the other company continue to develop and demonstrate new developments. Of course, there is an opinion that Microsoft with its resources is capable of keeping even deeply unprofitable technologies and products afloat for a long time, but as a counter-argument it is worth noting that even the resources of such a huge corporation are not unlimited, and it can admit its mistakes, as was the case with devices Zune and Kin. Staying afloat, Windows Phone primarily supports Microsoft’s desire to create its own ecosystem in the likeness of Apple, with a “triad” smartphone-tablet-laptop (desktop computer), which, in addition to the obvious benefits from selling applications, music and other content, will attract and retain in its user boundaries. This example, again, was set by Apple when iPhone buyers then purchased iPads and eventually migrated from PCs to Mac OS X devices.

Nokia's benefit from using Windows Phone exclusively in its top-end devices is not so obvious. Almost immediately after the news of concluding a strategic partnership with Microsoft, the company began to hear statements about short-sightedness and requests or even demands to release devices on Android. It is difficult to say what exactly made Nokia refuse to join the community of Android smartphone manufacturers: perhaps close ties between the management of Nokia and Microsoft, perhaps some special conditions of the licensing agreement and access to OS development, perhaps the desire to “not be like everyone else” , and perhaps all together at once. How correct this strategy turned out to be can only be answered by time, but now the Finnish company’s position is very unstable: if Nokia took second place in the regular mobile phone market in 2012 in terms of the number of devices sold, then in the increasingly popular and more profitable smartphone segment the company continues lose positions after the release of devices with Symbian is discontinued. If you go by the Gartner report, the share of Windows Phone in the mobile OS market is increasing, but at a too slow pace to have a positive impact on the fate of such a “mono-system” manufacturer, which Nokia has become of its own free will.

Another mistake of Nokia, according to many fans of this company, was its focus on producing premium devices and smartphones in the mid-price segment. For a long time, almost two years, if you wanted to buy a Lumia device and get acquainted with the new Microsoft/Nokia platform, you had to part with a significant amount of money, purchasing a powerful device with excellent hardware, but limited in terms of software. It is clear that there were few people willing to experiment for a decent amount of money. Having finally realized that the Nokia Asha platform in the budget segment is not a replacement for Lumia smartphones, the Finnish company announced several mid-budget devices at once. One of them was the Nokia Lumia 520 smartphone, whose price—135 euros at the time of announcement—at the same time made it the cheapest smartphone in the entire Lumia line and spurred public attention. Finally, a worthy rival to numerous budget Android devices and a worthy candidate for a financially easy acquaintance with Windows Phone 8 was about to appear on the market.

In reality, when the communicator appeared on store shelves, its price, naturally, turned out to be not as attractive as in the announcement. However, the smartphone still remains the most affordable device in the Lumia family.

Contents of delivery

The Nokia Lumia 520 mobile computer comes in the company's traditional small box made of extremely thick cardboard. In addition to the image of the smartphone in various colors, the packaging provides only licensing information and data on the configuration. You won’t be able to find out anything about the characteristics of a smartphone by picking up its packaging in a store - apparently, the developers decided that if you paid attention to the Lumia device, then you already know the details about its filling or you don’t need this information.

In general, the Nokia Lumia 520 package is standard for a budget smartphone - nothing extra, just the essentials: charger, Micro-USB cable, wired stereo headset, battery and documentation.

Characteristics

Since the Nokia Lumia 520 is the cheapest smartphone in the Lumia line, the developers removed everything from it that, in their opinion, was unnecessary. In addition, they were faced with the task of separating the 520 and 620 models as noticeably as possible, the implementation of which, obviously, also had a negative impact on the characteristics of the hero of the review.

So, what features does the Nokia Lumia 520 have?

SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8227, 1.0 GHz, 2 Krait cores
GPU Adreno 305
Operating system Microsoft Windows Phone 8
Touch display 4″, IPS, 800×480, capacitive (high sensitivity), multi-touch
Random access memory (RAM) 512 MB
Internal memory 8 GB, microSDHC memory card slot
Communication 2G GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, 3G WCDMA 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
Data transfer GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA (up to 21.1 Mbit/s)
Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
A-GPS, Glonass, gyroscope, orientation sensor, accelerometer, proximity sensor
Cameras: 5 MP (autofocus)
Battery 1430 mAh
Dimensions 119.9x64x9.9 mm
Weight 124 g

In terms of platform, the Lumia 520, 620 and 720 are almost identical. They are built on the same SoC Qualcomm MSM8227, which includes two Krait computing cores, the maximum operating frequency of which is 1 GHz, and a core for working with Adreno 305 graphics. You can find out more about Qualcomm processors in general and about this single-chip system in particular from our special material.

The amount of RAM in these smartphones is also the same - 512 MB, modest by today's standards. Modest, of course, if you compare head-on devices based on different operating systems, which is fundamentally wrong. Apparently, the Windows Phone 8 OS itself and its applications consume less memory than Android and its programs, because according to independent utilities, the Nokia Lumia 520 has 395 MB of RAM available.

There are also no differences in the amount of built-in flash memory for the Lumia 520, 620 and 720. All smartphones have exactly 8 GB of it; in the case of the Nokia Lumia 520, 5.2 GB are available to the user, a significant part of which will be occupied by built-in applications. Expand your storage space for music, photos and videos with removable microSDXC memory cards up to 64GB. The smartphone owner is also provided with 7 GB of data in the Microsoft SkyDrive cloud service.

Actually, the similarities between the 520 Lumia and its older sisters end with the hardware; in other key parameters, the Lumia 520 is significantly inferior to them.

The Lumia 520 has an IPS matrix with a resolution of 800x480 pixels, like most Lumias, but the display itself does not have a polarizing filter, it does not support ClearBlack technology, there is no Gorilla Glass protection glass and there is no oleophobic coating. Thank you for supporting screen touch recognition while wearing gloves.

The developers of the Lumia 520 left only one camera, depriving it of any flash. In terms of basic photo and video capabilities, it is practically not inferior to cameras of more expensive smartphones.

The battery of the review hero does not have a large capacity or size; the amount of stored energy is 1430 mAh. But, unlike the batteries of other Nokia mobile devices, it is removable.

A comparison of the basic specifications of various Nokia smartphones is given in the following table.

	Nokia Lumia 520	Nokia Lumia 720	Nokia Lumia 920	Nokia Lumia 820	Nokia Lumia 620	Huawei Ascend W1
Screen	4″, IPS	4.3″, IPS	4.5″, IPS	4.3″, AMOLED	3.8″, IPS	4.0″, IPS
Permission	800×480, 233 ppi	800×480, 217 ppi	1280×768, 332 ppi	800×480, 217 ppi	800×480, 246 ppi	800×480, 233 ppi
SoC		Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 @1 GHz (2 cores, ARMv7 Krait)		Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 @1.5 GHz (2 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 @1 GHz (2 cores, ARMv7 Krait)	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 @1.2 GHz (2 cores, ARMv7 Krait)
RAM	512 MB	512 MB	1 GB	1 GB	512 MB	512 MB
Flash memory	8 GB	8 GB	32 GB	8 GB	8 GB	4 GB
Memory card support	microSD	microSD	No	microSD	microSD	microSD
operating system	Windows Phone 8	Windows Phone 8	Windows Phone 8	Windows Phone 8	Windows Phone 8	Windows Phone 8
SIM format*	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Micro-SIM	Mini-SIM
Communications	2G/3G, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth	2G/3G, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, NFC		2G/3G/4G, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, NFC	2G/3G, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, NFC	2G/3G, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth
Battery	removable, 1430 mAh	non-removable, 2000 mAh	non-removable, 2000 mAh	removable, 1650 mAh	removable, 1300 mAh	removable, 1950 mAh
Cameras	rear (5 MP; video - 720p)	rear (6.7 MP; video - 720p), front (1.2 MP)		rear (8.7 MP; video - 1080p), front (1.2 MP)		rear (5 MP; video - 720p), front (0.3 MP)
Dimensions	120×64×9.9 mm, 124 g	128×68×9 mm, 128 g	130×71×10.7 mm, 185 g	124×69×9.9 mm, 160 g	115×61×11 mm, 127 g	125×64×10.2 mm, 130 g
Price**	7990 rub.	RUB 13,990	RUB 19,990	RUB 15,990	9990 rub.	9990 rub.

* the most common SIM card formats are described in a separate material
** the price is given at the time of writing, for Nokia models - recommended price, for Huawei - average

Design and appearance

In my subjective opinion, the Nokia Lumia 520 is a very nice smartphone. Perhaps it’s my personal preference for an angular-rectangular design or the optimal, again in my opinion, proportions and dimensions of the device and the cute multi-colored back covers made of soft-touch plastic (you can purchase several colors). The 520th model looks more advantageous even than the “washed up” 620th. All these are personal impressions, now let's move on to the facts.

Neither in size, nor in thickness, nor in weight, Nokia Lumia 520 does not fall into the category of ultra-thin and ultra-light communicators. However, you don’t expect this from a budget device. On the other hand, the communicator is comfortable to hold and operate with one hand - the thumb easily covers the area of the screen, which is small by today’s standards, and the thick rounded “rubberized” edges of the boat-shaped back cover provide a reliable grip. In general, the design of the body of the review hero is one of the most optimal in terms of the reliability of the smartphone’s position in the hand and its control; only the sharp corners sometimes dig into the palm if you take it incorrectly.

There are no serious complaints about the design and build quality of the Nokia Lumia 520. The smartphone itself fits securely into the cover shell; the creaking is observed only if you press hard on its center; There are no backlashes or large gaps between parts. There are also several minor design flaws: dust collects in the hole for the telephone speaker, the hardware buttons are a little loose in the grooves, the touch keys are not backlit and are often triggered by false touches when working with the smartphone carelessly.

On the front panel of the smartphone, in addition to the display, touch keys and speaker, there is a microphone, light and proximity sensors.

It is difficult to remove the communicator body from the cover without long fingernails: you have to contrive and press on the camera lens to move the body. If you pick up its edge in the area of the telephone speaker with your fingernail, then detaching the cover is quick and painless. Reinstalling the smartphone case into the shell cover does not cause any particular problems.

Only by removing the battery cover can you access the battery, as well as Micro-SIM and microSD cards. You cannot replace them without turning off the power to the device and disconnecting the battery. It's funny, but on the back of the cover there is a rectangular piece of rubber glued to it, which should ensure the strength of the smartphone's structure and prevent the back panel from sagging. Judging by the presence of the mentioned small squeaks, it copes with its task only with a C grade. The role of the second stop for the cover is played by the rubber frame around the main speaker of the smartphone.

There are technological holes in the battery compartment cover for all connectors, the main speaker and the camera lens. Hardware keys are presented in the form of plastic repeaters attached to it. There is no protection for the camera lens, but it itself is slightly recessed relative to the level of the back panel - so, unlike many other smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 520 does not rest on it when lying “on its back”.

The left side of the Nokia Lumia 520 is empty, on the right there are three hardware keys: double for volume control, power and camera controls. They all have a raised, comfortable shape and a clear press, but the last parameter is greatly influenced by the correct installation of the cover: with a slight displacement and distortion, the buttons stop being pressed clearly.

At the top end of the body of the review hero there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack. On the bottom there is a Micro-USB connector.

Overall, the appearance and design of the Nokia Lumia 520 is not bad. Of course, they cannot be compared with the outstanding technological solutions made of glass and aluminum from devices in the highest price range, but for a budget smartphone, the hero of the review looks and is put together quite well.

Software

The Nokia Lumia 520 smartphone runs the Windows Phone 8 operating system. Since Microsoft still prohibits any interference with the appearance of the system, all the few devices running this OS have a standard graphical interface. Changes made by the manufacturer of a specific smartphone model are limited to adding third-party software and disabling certain hardware-related functions and settings.

In addition to the famous manufacturer, Nokia devices are also attractive due to the abundance of proprietary software developed by this company. We are primarily talking about navigation services, united under the general name Here: Drive, Maps and Transit. Here Maps allows you to view maps in online and offline modes, search for a specific address and organization, get directions - in general, everything that Google Maps and Yandex.Maps can do. Here Transit, as the name implies, allows you to plot your travel route on public transport. Here Drive is a convenient car navigator. These programs, naturally, have their advantages and disadvantages: the first is the ability to download maps of almost all countries on Earth for free, the second is a slightly confusing interface. Previously, they also lacked support for a traffic monitoring service, but in the latest versions of the applications, traffic jams have appeared. It should also be noted that free maps of any region can be used only in Here Maps and Here Transit, and in Here Drive there is a restriction on maps only of the region where the SIM card inserted into the smartphone is from. The full version of the program, Here Drive+, does not have such a limitation; the update costs 664 rubles.

Music Nokia+ is a multimedia combine of free streaming radio (with the ability to offline listen to your favorite tracks for a monthly subscription) and a regular digital music store. The approach, in general, is clear; more and more such applications and services are now appearing, but the Nokia application combines two approaches at once: one from iTunes, the other from Yandex.Music.

Nokia Care— a program-collection of tips on using the capabilities of a smartphone and its maintenance. Nokia Live Photos- a kind of application for “revitalizing” photos and showing them to friends on social networks. Nokia Panorama allows you to create panoramic images using the camera built into your smartphone.

Nokia Ringtones Maker can create and set any non-DRM protected music track from the device memory as a ringtone. Nokia Top Applications it simply provides a list of programs from the Windows Phone Store that are interesting, from the point of view of service developers. Nokia Smart Photo helps you choose the most successful frame from a series of pictures that the program itself takes.

This completes the list of additional Nokia software. In the smartphone settings there are several more tabs dedicated to accounts in the company’s services, pairing with branded accessories and contacting support with reviews, but it doesn’t make much sense to dwell on all of them. It also makes no sense to pay attention to the MTS programs and services that are installed in the memory of this particular Nokia Lumia 520. The smartphone was purchased in the store of this operator, since it was originally sold only there, and most of the mentioned functions are tied to the SIM card of this company.

Display and sound

The screen is exactly what the developers of the Nokia Lumia 520 seriously saved on. On paper, everything looks great: IPS matrix, 4-inch diagonal, resolution 800×480 pixels, density 233 pixels per inch, 16 million colors. But in practice, the display of the review hero is mediocre, nothing more.

The black color on the Nokia Lumia 520 screen looks gray, all owners of the smartphone noticed this, and nothing can be done about it. The display of the review hero is not able to show true black color. The lack of polarizing and anti-glare filters, as well as ClearBlack technology, also has a negative effect when working with a smartphone in bright external lighting conditions - it becomes difficult to see anything on the Nokia Lumia 520 screen. It’s good at least that there is practically no color inversion observed.

The touch sensor recognizes up to five simultaneous signals, but the quality of its work is not very good - after the third touch it begins to get confused.

The protective glass of the display, not Gorilla Glass, gets very dirty when working with a smartphone, due to the lack of an oleophobic coating. If you don't wipe it, fingerprints quickly cover the entire screen.

The operating system controls the brightness of the display backlight based on the readings of the ambient light sensor. The backlight power level can also be indirectly set manually; there are three brightness settings in total.

A detailed examination of the screen using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections, Alexey Kudryavtsev.

The smartphone screen is covered with a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface and, judging by the reflection of objects in it, it does not have an anti-glare filter (or it is very weak). The reflection in the screen triples, which suggests the presence of an air gap between the surface of the matrix and the outer glass. On the outer surface of the screen, apparently, there is still a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating, but in this case it is not very effective - the finger glides over the surface of the screen poorly. And yet, fingerprints are easier to remove from such a screen, and appear on it at a lower speed than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control (three fixed levels available) and when the white field was displayed on the entire screen, the maximum brightness value was about 310 cd/m², the average was 200, and the minimum was 80. These three levels are more or less suitable for comfortable daytime work on the street, in a well-lit room and in the dark. Although, of course, the maximum brightness value is not very high. Note that in the screen settings there is a checkbox that turns on a special mode for increasing readability in the sun, but we did not find any visible or detectable effect from turning on this mode (neither in the dark, nor in a lit room, nor in the sun) - exactly the same , as in the case of previous Nokia smartphones with the same option. Either the company introduced this option so that the user is aware of the supposedly improved readability in the sun and can even “turn it on,” or the effect is so minor that there is no real improvement (or there is always one).

There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the right of the logo on the front panel). In automatic mode, as external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. You can make adjustments to the operation of this function by first selecting the brightness level. Next, we present the screen brightness values (when the white field is displayed in full screen) for three values of the selected brightness (for levels short, average And high). In complete darkness, in automatic mode, the brightness is reduced to 10, 12 and 15 cd/m², respectively (a little dim, but you can read), in an office illuminated by artificial light, it is set to 125, 160 and 190 cd/m² (acceptable), in a brightly lit environment (corresponding to daytime outdoor lighting, but without direct sunlight) increases to 270, 380 and 380 cd/m² (the last two values are even higher than with the manual high brightness setting). As a result, this function works more or less adequately. Brightness adjustment is carried out using pulse width modulation (rectangular pulses with 100% amplitude) with a frequency of 326 Hz. This is a fairly high frequency, so when working with a smartphone, the flickering of the backlight at low brightness is not visible, but if desired, this flickering can be detected, for example, by quickly waving a pencil in front of the white field on the screen.

This screen has an IPS type matrix. The micrograph shows a typical IPS subpixel structure:

The screen has very good viewing angles without inverting shades and without significant color shifts even with large viewing deviations from perpendicular to the screen. True, it seemed to us that the brightness of the white field decreases more when deviated, and the shift in the shade of gray colors is greater than in the case of a typical screen of a modern smartphone with an IPS matrix. When deviated diagonally, the black field becomes very bright and acquires a purple tint. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is good. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 30 ms (17 ms on + 13 ms off). The transition between halftones of gray 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 42 ms. The contrast ratio is typical for IPS - 666:1. The gamma curve constructed using 32 points did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the index of the approximating power function is 2.38, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve deviates little from the power dependence:

There may be dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image. This is confirmed by the fact that the ratio of the brightness of the white field to the brightness of the black field is 800:1, which is greater than the contrast value given above. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) may not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on the entire screen.

The color gamut is slightly narrower than sRGB. However, important reference points - green color and skin tones (between the green and red vertices of the coverage triangle) - are close to the boundaries of sRGB, so in general, images on the screen have a saturation close to natural.

Apparently, the matrix’s light filters mix the components with each other. The spectra confirm this:

This technique allows you to increase the brightness of the screen with the same energy consumption for backlighting. The balance of shades on the gray scale is good, since the color temperature is not much higher than the standard 6500 K, and the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (delta E) is less than 10, which is considered an acceptable indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, the variation in color temperature and delta E is small, which also has a positive effect on the visual perception of color balance. (Dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

The color balance and automatic adjustment of screen brightness do not cause any complaints - unlike other screen characteristics, which are typical for a budget solution, that is, not outstanding. Well, at least the IPS matrix.

The main speaker of the Nokia Lumia 520 has high volume and good sound quality, but it is very easy to muffle it by covering the corresponding hole on the back of the smartphone with your finger. The telephone speaker also left a positive impression: the volume and clarity of the sound allow you to successfully communicate with your interlocutor even in a relatively noisy place. There were no complaints on the other side of the telephone line, which means that the microphone on the Nokia Lumia 520 also copes with its duties well.

Nokia Lumia 520 has a very powerful and high-quality headphone output. Paired with good headphones, the hero of this review can provide comfortable listening to music in almost any conditions; you just need to remember its negative effect on hearing if you try to compete with the external noise in the subway. The complete headset deserves only a satisfactory rating. Unprepossessing in appearance, with only a microphone and no answer key, it provides acceptable sound quality. There are no creaks, rattles or hisses throughout the entire power range, but the sound itself looks too flat: high frequencies are difficult to hear, and low frequencies merge into a hum.

It's a shame that the Nokia Lumia 520 doesn't have a built-in FM radio.

Wireless Interfaces and Communications

Despite its budget, Nokia Lumia 520 has all the most popular modern communication tools. It includes: 2G and 3G cellular communications with HSPA+ support, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a combined A-GPS/GLONASS receiver. What distinguishes the review hero from older models is the lack of support for LTE and NFC.

There were no problems with the operation of the cellular communication module. The smartphone quickly connected to the network and provided reliable communication in various conditions. Data transmission over the mobile network was mainly limited by its capabilities, rather than by the capabilities of the device. Testing the connection speed in the field conditions of the Moscow region showed good results. It’s funny, but sometimes instead of the “H” icon, the smartphone showed an unusual “4G” icon - it is clear that there is no LTE in the Nokia Lumia 520, and outside of Moscow it is found only sporadically. Apparently, the operating system simply perceived the HSPA+ signal that way.

Connecting to a home 802.11n network with a TP-Link TL-WR1043N router as a base station also went without incident. The speed of the connection to the network in this case was limited only by the capacity of the communication channel with the provider. According to subjective impressions, the Wi-Fi signal reception quality of the Nokia Lumia 520 is better than that of many other communicators. Thus, the hero of the review successfully detected the network and connected to it where the Samsung Galaxy S2 did not find anything.

The Bluetooth file transfer speed between MacBook Pro 2009 and Nokia Lumia 520 was 1.6 Mbps. Unfortunately, the hero of the review does not have a Bluetooth modem profile, so you can distribute mobile traffic only by organizing a Wi-Fi access point. Pairing the smartphone with the Sony MW1 wireless headset initially caused both devices to freeze. After the reboot, their connection was restored and it became possible to use the headset both for listening to music and for phone calls. The functionality of the headset, however, remained at a basic level: the names of the tracks on its screen were displayed normally, but instead of names from the smartphone’s address book, only numbers were displayed.

The operation of the A-GPS/Glonass receiver did not cause any complaints. Both built-in navigation applications and third-party ones quickly determined the location of the device, and the connection was stable in the future.

Camera

Nokia Lumia 520 has a single camera with a resolution of 5 megapixels. It is equipped with an autofocus system, but does not have a flash.

It is most convenient to control shooting using a separate hardware key located on the right side of the smartphone body. The interface of the camera control program is very laconic; on the main screen there are only icons for shooting modes and calling up settings. The list of settings itself is very short, it contains only the basic basic parameters.

The camera and control program start up quite quickly, but the process of taking a picture is somewhat slow due to the thoughtfulness of the autofocus system. But once you specify the focus area by touching the screen, you don’t need to worry about “releasing the shutter”: the camera itself will try to focus and immediately take the picture.

The maximum image resolution of the Nokia Lumia 520 camera is 2592×1936 pixels. Video shooting is carried out with a resolution of 720p and a frequency of 30 frames per second, the recording format is MPEG-4, AVC/LC-AAC. The quality of photos and videos, in a subjective opinion, is not bad for a budget smartphone.

Battery life

It is difficult to expect outstanding battery life from a device whose battery capacity is only 1430 mAh. However, the Nokia Lumia 520 hardware is not exactly the most powerful, and the smartphone developers clearly tried to squeeze extra minutes of work out of their hardware and software platform - which is worth a separate tab in the device settings, responsible for enabling and configuring the energy saving mode. To make the results more fair and objective, this mode was disabled in all our traditional tests, since it could not seriously affect music playback, and reducing the backlight brightness in the e-book reading test contradicts our methodology for measuring battery life. So, without beating around the bush, here are the test results.

When playing music, the smartphone screen was turned off, when reading, the brightness was set to 100 cd/m², and a 720p video in MP4 format (H.264/AAC) was used. As you can see, the results were by no means the worst. They almost completely coincided with the performance of the Nokia Lumia 720, which is built on the same platform as the hero of the review, and this despite the latter’s smaller battery capacity. Surely the small diagonal of the display had a positive effect.

In general, the Windows Phone 8 platform and the Qualcomm MSM8227 SoC showed good results in battery life tests. In terms of activity time away from power sources, the Nokia Lumia 520 is on par with devices such as “long-lasting” Android smartphones based on the MediaTek platform, and provides its owner with an acceptable level of mobility.

The battery of the review hero charges very quickly, in just over a couple of hours - thanks to the included charger with a charging current of 0.75 A.

Performance

This is perhaps the most uninteresting part of any Windows Phone 8 smartphone review to date. It is uninteresting for several reasons. The first is the small number of devices with this OS on board and the extreme similarity of their hardware characteristics: in fact, all current Windows backgrounds are built on the basis of several SoCs and differ only in display resolution. The second reason is the pointlessness of comparing devices with different operating systems, since more or less relevant results can only be given by cross-platform browser tests, which depend only on the “raw” processor performance and optimization of the JavaScript engine in a specific mobile browser. Truly relevant and convenient benchmark programs for comparing devices on different OS have not yet been created.

Be that as it may, we will rely on the existing tools. Since the Nokia Lumia 520, 620 and 720 are practically twins in terms of hardware, there are no serious differences in the results of their tests. It is unlikely that Nokia engineers could have consciously or unconsciously deteriorated the platform of the review hero, and without such errors there would be nothing to have any impact on the final scores.

	Nokia Lumia 520 (2x1.0 GHz, Adreno 305)	Nokia Lumia 720 (2x1.0 GHz, Adreno 305)	Nokia Lumia 920 (2x1.5 GHz, Adreno 225)	Huawei Ascend W1 (2x1.0 GHz, Adreno 305)
AnTuTu	7746	6490	10903	9455
MultiBench 2 CPU	11,465	11,635	17,748	N/A
MultiBench 2 Graphics	33,249	31,047	37,873	N/A
PhoneMark	604	556	943	774
WP Bench Free	178,91	177,98	229,84	214,25

However, as it turned out, in most tests the Nokia Lumia 520 even outperformed its older brother, the Nokia Lumia 720. It is difficult to say what the reason for the priority of a more budget smartphone on the same hardware platform may be - perhaps in the case of the AnTuTu test it is that that the Nokia Lumia 720 has not been tested for graphics processing speed.

Here the scores for Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 are almost identical, which once again proves the direct dependence of these tests on processor performance.20565

The hardware performance of the Nokia Lumia 520 smartphone is quite enough for games. Angry Birds, Asphalt 7, Assasin’s Creed, NFS: Hot Pursuit - they all launched and worked normally after being installed in the memory of the review hero. Despite rumors about limited support for some games for devices with 512 MB of RAM, we did not encounter them during testing.

In general, the performance of the Nokia Lumia 520 is not at all budget - by the standards of devices with Windows Phone 8, of course. Everything that a mid-price segment smartphone such as the Nokia Lumia 720 can offer is in the current hero of the review.

Playing video

The video player built into the OS in the Nokia Lumia 520, as in the case of the Nokia Lumia 720, refused to play videos contained in media containers that were incomprehensible to it. He knows the codecs themselves: after all, if you save the video in MP4 format, the reviewer will play the movie in H.264/AAC format with a resolution of up to 1080p without any problems.

We did not find an MHL interface in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see Methodology for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1), we checked how the video is displayed on the screen of the smartphone itself. Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 frames/ With). In tests we used the standard video player. The test results are summarized in the table:

File	Uniformity	Passes
Screen
watch-1920x1080-60p.mp4	not playable
watch-1920x1080-50p.mp4	not playable
watch-1920x1080-30p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-25p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1920x1080-24p.mp4	Great	No
watch-1280x720-60p.mp4	not playable
watch-1280x720-50p.mp4	Fine	No
watch-1280x720-30p.mp4	Fine	No
watch-1280x720-25p.mp4	Fine	No
watch-1280x720-24p.mp4	Fine	No

Note: If both the Uniformity and Dropout columns are rated green, this means that when watching movies, there will most likely be no or no amount of artifacts caused by frame spacing or dropouts visible. will not affect viewing comfort. “Red” marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the corresponding files.

The intervals between frames (or groups of frames) alternate more or less evenly, but files with 50 fps (720p and 1080p) and 60 fps (1080p) are not played back. The smartphone cheerfully starts playing a 720p file at 60 fps, and does it well, but only for the first few seconds, and then the playback turns into a slideshow. Strange but true: in general, 1080p files play back slightly better than 720p. The displayed brightness range exactly corresponds to the standard video range - all shade gradations are displayed in shadows and highlights (for video in the range 16-235).

Impressions and conclusions

Since the Nokia Lumia 520 is the cheapest smartphone with Windows Phone 8, we had to make allowances for this throughout the review: this function is missing, it was worsened here, something was excluded there - but for that kind of money... Yes, the low price of the smartphone makes it comparable to other Windows Phone 8 devices is very simple. The main conclusion is this: if you want to get acquainted with the modern Microsoft mobile operating system and its ecosystem, your choice is the Nokia Lumia 520. In my opinion, in this case there is no need to overpay for more expensive models.

If you just need a good smartphone running Windows Phone 8, then you should also opt for the Nokia Lumia 520, since in terms of its basic capabilities, hardware, performance and battery life, it is in no way inferior to the 620 and 720 models, and the Lumia 820 and 920 costs completely different money. In fact, the hero of the review has only two serious drawbacks: a mediocre display, as well as a missing front camera and LED flash.

The hero of the review also looks worthy in comparison with the general mass of budget smartphones, including the legion of Chinese devices. Firstly, it can already be purchased at almost the price originally announced by Nokia - a little less than $200, which puts it on the same level as the Chinese on Android. Secondly, the hardware of the Nokia Lumia 520 is practically the best that the segment of Windows Phone smartphones can provide for the most modest money. Of course, Chinese devices with Full HD displays and quad-core processors will look more interesting on paper and in the hand, but only until something starts to freeze, crash or fall off. Nokia still provides some quality workmanship, and Windows Phone 8 itself is very undemanding in terms of resources, works smoothly and quickly.

As for the Microsoft mobile platform, it only has two serious shortcomings; fatal or not - only time will tell. The first of them is still a significant lag behind Apple and Google in filling their own application store. The situation with ordinary popular programs is slowly improving; from my own minimum of necessary software, I could not find only a normal offline dictionary, such as Lingvo, and a navigation program with support for a traffic jam tracking service, such as Yandex.Navigator. Moreover, Lingvo is available in the Windows Phone Store, and it costs the same money as for iOS, but to search the dictionary it requires a network connection, and if you have access to the Internet and a browser, then why a separate and paid program? To create Yandex.Navigator, its developers need some access to low-level programming interfaces, which Microsoft refuses to provide. Why they need it is unclear; regular Yandex.Maps and Here Drive work just like that. Thus, the main problems of the current Windows Phone Store are the absence of several programs that are truly necessary in everyday life, whose developers are in no hurry to do anything for their appearance, and an extremely meager, almost poor selection of entertainment applications and especially games. While iOS continues to port classic games and create great new ones, Windows Phone 8 is left content with a few popular games from other platforms (the appearance of Angry Birds was a real event), games owned by Microsoft companies and a very diverse, but equally uninteresting arcade and puzzles from independent developers. A sad and strange situation, given the support of the popular DirectX in Windows Phone.

The second serious drawback is the continued division of memory into internal, which is suitable for installing programs, and external (for example, on a microSD card), on which you can only save music, photos and videos. Of course, 8 GB of internal memory is a lot by the standards of Android, but by the standards of Windows Phone 8 it is very little: it becomes filled with applications and their data very quickly, and as a result you get a comical situation when the internal memory has run out, and the memory card Tens of gigabytes are free.

Despite the improvement in the interface and capabilities of the operating system, it still has many minor flaws and errors - I will list just a few. Disconnecting the battery resets the date, time, and volume settings. The voicemail phone number specified in MTS cannot be changed (more precisely, it is possible, but to no avail). When launched, the phone control program displays a list of recent calls instead of the telephone keypad, and to see it, you need to touch a very small icon with your finger. The Yandex search built into the system works poorly: it either refuses to update the search results list, or does not update its own widgets, instead of redirecting to the site, it produces a list right in the same window, and, most importantly, it does not search for anything in the memory of the smartphone itself - not contacts, no programs, no files. Why does such a search need a separate key on the device body?

Many things that you get used to when using other smartphones are not present at all in Windows Phone 8. There are no convenient indicators of the operation of wireless communication modules, there is no way to quickly enable or disable them without digging into the settings (the Battery program provides significant help here). The same “dialer” program cannot search for entries in the contact list either by the first digits of the number or by the alphanumeric representation (3 for DEF, 4 for GHI, and so on). The list of such small but unpleasant things can be continued endlessly; Perhaps I’ll focus on these few, which especially interfered with long-term work with a smartphone.

Now on to the good stuff: The clunky Zune has been replaced as the only desktop sync program by simply “Windows Phone for Desktops” in PC and Mac variants. The functionality implemented in the program is quite good, for example, it can synchronize the contents of the smartphone’s memory with iTunes - something that owners of Android devices will apparently never see out of the box. There is also a second connection option - as an MTP device with direct access to the microSD card and some directories of the smartphone’s main memory.

In general, Windows Phone has room to develop; the system has already come a long way from the deplorable state of the original Windows Phone 7, and there is no point in stopping at half of it. The platform has potential, no one will deny this. With the release of Nokia Lumia 520, assessing all the features and disadvantages of Windows Phone 8 has become much easier and cheaper.

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