Nokia microsoft lumia 520. Mobile communication technologies and data transfer speed

Finally, the novelty has arrived! 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 Windows Phone 8 smartphone. Is it worth the money? Should I buy it? Who will like it and who won't?

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

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

Let's move on to the smartphone and its appearance. Picking up the phone, I immediately drew attention to the construction of the rear panel. The completely straight corners combined with the smooth lines of the back panel left me with the best impressions. The phone is very comfortable in the hand, ergonomics are not satisfactory.

The back panel is made in the likeness of 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, which is very sad news for photography lovers. The speaker hole is also located on the bottom right. The smartphone turned out to be not the thinnest - there is almost a centimeter (9.9 millimeters). This is not a minus, but rather a plus - the golden mean, thanks to which representatives of both large and bulky male hands and small, delicate female hands will work comfortably 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 to the top and look at the top panel. On top of the earpiece, the inscription Nokia and the proximity sensor. The Nokia Lumia 520 does not have a front camera, 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 classical - 800x480. The pixel density is 233 per inch. Quite good results, although in this case I prefer a smaller diagonal screen (Lumia 620 - 3.7 inches), which gives 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! It is support high sensitivity mode. This means that the screen can be controlled by your favorite items. 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 carefully and carefully. But high sensitivity will allow you to use your smartphone in any gloves in the most severe frost. Due to the use of a standard matrix, the screen cannot boast of strong saturation and brightness of color reproduction. Also, the lack of an oleophobic coating (a la ClearBlack) affected the quality of the picture. But nevertheless, in the sun (if high brightness or automatic setting is enabled), 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 and received a dual-core, modern Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with a frequency of 1GHz. This ensures a perfect 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, which are few in number - Amazing Spider Man, Dark Knight Rises and Modern Combat - Zero Hour, Temple Run and more some. The smartphone can work 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. For data transfer, 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 the computer is also carried out without the use of additional applications (the hated by everyone 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. Subtract from these 8 GB about 1.5 GB that the system takes, it turns out that no more than 5 GB will be available to you. This is not critical, since the Nokia Lumia 520 supports micro-SD cards, the volume of which can be as much as 64GB. If this is not enough for you, Microsoft will kindly provide you with free 7GB of storage in the cloud. Please note that applications can only be installed in the phone's memory, so when buying 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 ports for a memory card and a 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. A 1430 mAh battery perched under the cover (a point in favor of the Nokia Lumia 520 against the Nokia Lumia 620), and underneath it are slots for a SIM card and micro-sim. Slightly increased battery capacity will allow your pet to work in moderate use mode 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 buying this model. Let's give credit - the camera in the Nokia Lumia 520 is not the worst. The 5MP resolution with autofocus in good light can allow you to take good pictures at 2592x1944 pixels. This is enough for comfortable printing in 10:15 format. Detailing, of course, does not shine, but I think that for a smartphone for $ 250 this is not bad.

The situation worsens when you have to take pictures in low light conditions. You will have to brighten the picture only with hardware capabilities (by increasing the ISO settings - do not be afraid of noise, at ISO 800 - the maximum value - noise is not noticeable on the smartphone screen, or by adjusting the exposure), since there is no flash in this smartphone. The photo below is taken at night. The photo speaks for itself. But the camera can capture HD 720p video at 30 fps.

The phone is equipped with an A-GPS and GLONASS sensor. If you like a variety of trips and travels, then you will surely appreciate the navigation capabilities of this smartphone. By downloading the maps to your smartphone beforehand (for example, Ukrainian maps weigh about 350 MB), you can use them without connecting to the network both in the HERE Drive app and in the HERE Maps app. Please note that maps can only be downloaded for one country (HERE Drive limited, unlimited available on 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, the nearest competitors - HTC 8S and Huawei Ascend W1 - started having problems. Indeed, for 8,000 rubles you will receive a smartphone in which (pros):

• dual-core processor Qualcomm S4 1Ghz;
• 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
• no ClearBlack and Gorilla Glass
• no compass
• no wireless charging
• relatively small battery
• no flash
• no front camera

wp-seven opinion: Nokia Lumia 520 will be a great choice for those who are switching from Windows Phone 7 to Windows Phone 8 or just starting to get acquainted with the OS. This device will also come in handy 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 - Nokia Lumia 520 provides all the necessary features. I liked the smartphone, but I won’t say that I fell in love with it, as I fell in love with the Nokia Lumia 822.

The fate of former smartphone market leaders Nokia and Microsoft remains the subject of much online battle and speculation. Despite various prophecies about the imminent death and futility of their modern mobile products (of course, we are talking about Lumia smartphones and Windows Phone), both companies continue to develop and demonstrate new developments. Of course, there is an opinion that Microsoft, with its resources, is able to keep even deeply unprofitable technologies and products afloat for a long time, but as a counterargument, it is worth noting that even the resources of such a huge corporation are not unlimited, and it can admit its mistakes, as it was with devices Zune and Kin. Afloat Windows Phone primarily supports the desire of Microsoft 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 of selling applications, music and other content, will lure and keep 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 exclusively Windows Phone in its top-end devices is not so obvious. Almost immediately after the news of the conclusion of a strategic partnership with Microsoft, statements of short-sightedness and requests or even demands to release more Android devices began to be heard against the company. It is difficult to say what exactly made Nokia refuse to join the community of Android smartphone manufacturers: perhaps close ties between Nokia and Microsoft management, perhaps some special terms of the license agreement and access to OS development, perhaps the desire to “not be like everyone else” , and perhaps all together at once. To what extent this strategy turned out to be correct, only time will be able to answer, but now the position of the Finnish company is very unstable: if in the market of conventional mobile phones in 2012 Nokia took second place in terms of the number of devices sold, then in the increasingly popular and profitable segment of smartphones, the company continues to lose positions after the discontinuation of the release of devices with Symbian. Based on Gartner's report, Windows Phone's share of the mobile OS market is growing, but at too slow a pace to have a positive impact on the fate of such a "monosystem" manufacturer, which Nokia has become of its own free will.

Another mistake of Nokia, according to many fans of this company, was the focus on the release of premium devices and smartphones in the middle 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, acquiring a powerful device with excellent hardware stuffing, but limited in terms of software. It is clear that there were few people who wanted to experiment for a decent amount of money. Finally realizing 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 the announcement - simultaneously 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 an easy acquaintance with Windows Phone 8 from the financial side should have appeared on the market.

In reality, when the communicator appeared on store shelves, its price, of course, was not as attractive as in the announcement. However, the smartphone still remains the most affordable device of the Lumia family.

Contents of delivery

The Nokia Lumia 520 mobile computer comes in a small box, traditional for the company, made of extremely thick cardboard. In addition to the image of a smartphone in various colors, the packaging contains only license information and information about the configuration. You won’t be able to find out anything about the characteristics of a smartphone by picking up its packaging in the 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 bundle is standard for a budget smartphone - nothing superfluous, only the essentials: a charger, a Micro-USB cable, a wired stereo headset, a battery and documentation.

Characteristics

Since the Nokia Lumia 520 is the cheapest smartphone in the Lumia line, the developers have removed from it everything that, in their opinion, was superfluous. In addition, they were faced with the task of separating the models 520 and 620 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 are the features of the Nokia Lumia 520?

• 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 card slot
• Communication 2G GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, 3G WCDMA 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• Data transmission GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA (up to 21.1 Mbps)
• Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)
• A-GPS, Glonass, gyroscope, orientation sensor, accelerometer, proximity sensor
• Cameras: 5 MP (autofocus)
• Battery 1430 mAh
• Dimensions 119.9×64×9.9 mm
• Weight 124 g

In terms of platform, the Lumia 520, 620 and 720 models are pretty much the same. They are built on the same Qualcomm MSM8227 SoC, which includes two Krait computing cores with a maximum operating frequency of 1 GHz, and a core for working with Adreno 305 graphics. You can learn 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 - a modest 512 MB by today's standards. Modest, of course, if we compare head-on devices based on different operating systems, which is fundamentally wrong. Apparently, the Windows Phone 8 OS itself and applications for it 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 in Lumia 520, 620 and 720. In all smartphones, it is exactly 8 GB, in the case of Nokia Lumia 520, 5.2 GB of it is available to the user, of which a significant part will be occupied by built-in applications. Expand your music, photo, and video storage with removable microSDXC memory cards up to 64GB. Also, the owner of the smartphone is provided with 7 GB of data in the Microsoft SkyDrive cloud service.

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

The Lumia 520 has an IPS matrix with a resolution of 800x480 pixels, like most Lumias, but the display itself lacks a polarizing filter, it does not support ClearBlack technology, there is no Gorilla Glass protective glass and there is no oleophobic coating. Thank you for leaving support for 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 almost as good as the cameras of more expensive smartphones.

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

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

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

Design and appearance

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

The Nokia Lumia 520 does not fall under the category of ultra-thin and ultra-light communicators neither in terms of size, nor in thickness, nor in weight. However, this is not expected 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 ​​a small screen by today's standards, and thick rounded "rubberized" edges of the back cover-boat provide a secure grip. In general, the body design of the hero of the review is one of the most optimal in terms of the reliability of the position of the smartphone in the hand and its control, only sharp corners sometimes dig into the palm if taken incorrectly.

There are no serious complaints about the design and build quality of the Nokia Lumia 520. The smartphone itself fits securely into the shell of the lid; a creak is observed only if you press hard on its center; there are no backlashes and large gaps between the parts. There are also a few minor design flaws: dust collects in the speaker hole, the hardware buttons hang a little in the grooves, the touch keys are not backlit and often work from false touches when working with a smartphone inaccurately.

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 from the lid without long nails: you have to contrive and put pressure on the camera lens to move the case. If you pick up its edge with a fingernail in the area of ​​​​the telephone speaker, then detaching the cover is quick and painless. The reverse installation of the smartphone case into the shell cover does not cause any special problems.

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

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

The left side of the Nokia Lumia 520 is empty, on the right side there are three hardware keys: a double one for volume control, power and camera control. All of them have an embossed comfortable shape and a clear pressure, but the last parameter is strongly influenced by the correct installation of the cover: with a slight shift and skew, the buttons stop being pressed distinctly.

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

In general, 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 of devices of the highest price range, but for a budget smartphone, the hero of the review looks and is built quite well.

Software

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

Nokia devices, in addition to the eminent manufacturer, are also attracted by the abundance of proprietary software developed by this company. First of all, we are talking about navigation services, united under the general name Here: Drive, Maps and Transit. Here Maps allows you to view maps online and offline, search for a specific address and organizations, get directions - in general, everything that Google Maps and Yandex.Maps can do. Here Transit, as the name implies, allows you to plot the route of a trip by public transport. Here Drive is a handy car navigator. These programs, of course, have their advantages and disadvantages: the former include the ability to download maps for almost all countries on Earth for free, while the latter have a slightly confusing interface. Previously, they also lacked support for a traffic monitoring service, but in the latest versions of applications, traffic recording has appeared. It should also be noted that free maps of any region can only be used 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 comes from. In the full version of the program, Here Drive+, there is no such restriction, the update costs 664 rubles.

Music Nokia+ is a multimedia combination of free streaming radio (with the ability to listen to your favorite tracks offline for a monthly subscription) and a regular digital music store. The approach, in general, is clear, there are more and more such applications and services now, however, 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 take panoramic pictures using the camera built into your smartphone.

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

This concludes the list of additional Nokia software. There are several more tabs in the smartphone settings 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 MTS programs and services that are installed in the memory of this particular instance of Nokia Lumia 520. The smartphone was purchased at the store of this operator, since it was originally sold only there, and most of the functions mentioned are tied to the SIM card of this company.

Display and sound

The screen is exactly what the developers of Nokia Lumia 520 seriously saved on. On paper, everything looks great: IPS-matrix, diagonal 4 inches, resolution 800 × 480 pixels, density 233 pixels per inch, 16 million colors. But in practice, the display of the hero of the review is mediocre, no more.

The black color on the Nokia Lumia 520 screen looks gray, all smartphone owners have noticed this, and nothing can be done about it. The display of the hero of the review is not able to show the real black color. The absence of polarizing and anti-reflective filters, as well as ClearBlack technology, also has a negative effect when working with a smartphone in bright ambient light conditions - it becomes difficult to see anything on the Nokia Lumia 520 screen. It's good that color inversion is practically not 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 starts to get confused.

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

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

Alexey Kudryavtsev, editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections, conducted a detailed examination of the screen using measuring instruments.

The screen of the smartphone 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). Reflection in the screen is tripled, 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 slides poorly on the screen surface. Still, fingerprints from such a screen are removed more easily, and appear on it at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control (three fixed levels are available) and with a white field displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was about 310 cd / m², the average - 200, the minimum - 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 settings of the screen parameters there is a checkbox that turns on a special mode to increase 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) - in the same way , as in the case of previous Nokia smartphones with the same option. Either the company has introduced this option so that the user is aware of the allegedly improved readability in the sun and can even “turn it on”, or the effect is so insignificant that there is no real improvement (or there always is).

The automatic brightness control works according to the light sensor (it is located to the right of the logo on the front panel). In automatic mode, when the ambient light 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 displaying a white field in full screen) for three values ​​of the selected brightness (for levels short, average And high). In complete darkness in automatic mode, the brightness decreases to 10, 12 and 15 cd / m², respectively (dim, but readable), in an artificially lit office 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) rises to 270, 380 and 380 cd/m² (the last two values ​​are even higher than manual high brightness). 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, backlight flickering at low brightness is not visible, but if desired, this flickering can be detected, for example, by quickly waving a pencil in front of a white field on the screen.

This screen has an IPS type matrix. The micrograph shows a typical IPS sub-pixel structure:

The screen has very good viewing angles without hue inversion and without significant color shift even at large deviations of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen. True, as it seemed to us, the brightness of the white field drops more strongly with deviation, 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. The black field, when deviated diagonally, is strongly highlighted and acquires a purple hue. When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is good. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 30ms (17ms on + 13ms off). The transition between 25% and 75% grayscale (according to the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 42 ms. Contrast typical for IPS is 666:1. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows, and the exponent 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:

Perhaps there is a dynamic adjustment of the brightness of the backlight 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 grayscale output 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 sRGB borders, so in general, images on the screen have saturation close to natural.

Apparently, the matrix filters mix the components together. 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 acceptable 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. (The dark areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance does not matter much there, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

The color balance and the work of automatic adjustment of the screen brightness do not cause complaints - unlike the other characteristics of the screen, 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 is 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 phone speaker also left a positive impression: the volume and clarity of the sound allow you to successfully communicate with the interlocutor even in a relatively noisy place. There were no complaints from the other side of the telephone line, which means that the microphone of the Nokia Lumia 520 also does its job well.

The Nokia Lumia 520 has a very powerful and high-quality headphone output. Paired with good headphones, the hero of the review is able to provide comfortable listening to music in almost any conditions, you just need to remember about its negative effect on hearing if you try to compete with external noise in the subway. The bundled headset deserves only a satisfactory rating. Nondescript in appearance, with only one microphone and no call answer key, it provides an 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 heard poorly, 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 communication

Despite its budget, Nokia Lumia 520 has all the most popular modern means of communication. In its holder there are: 2G and 3G cellular communication with HSPA + support, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b / g / n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a combined A-GPS / Glonass receiver. The hero of the review is distinguished from the older models by 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, and not by the capabilities of the device. Checking the connection speed in the field of the Moscow region showed a good result. It's funny, but sometimes instead of the "H" icon, the smartphone showed an unusual "4G" icon - it's clear that there is no LTE in the Nokia Lumia 520, and outside of Moscow it is only sporadically found. Apparently, the operating system simply perceived the HSPA + signal in this way.

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

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 mobile traffic can only be distributed by organizing a Wi-Fi access point. Pairing a smartphone with a 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 making phone calls. The functionality of the headset, however, remained at a basic level: the titles of the tracks on its screen were shown normally, but instead of the names from the smartphone's address book, only numbers were displayed.

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

Camera

The Nokia Lumia 520 has a single camera with a resolution of 5 megapixels. It has an autofocus system but no flash.

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

The camera and control program start up fairly 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 have to worry about “shutter release”: the camera itself will try to focus and immediately take a picture.

The maximum image resolution of the Nokia Lumia 520 camera is 2592×1936 pixels. Video recording 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 view, is not bad for a budget smartphone.

Battery Life

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

When playing music, the screen of the smartphone was turned off, when reading, the brightness was set to 100 cd / m², and a 720p video in MP4 (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. Surely the small diagonal of the display had a positive effect.

Overall, the Windows Phone 8 platform and the Qualcomm MSM8227 SoC performed well 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-playing" Android smartphones based on the MediaTek platform, and provides its owner with an acceptable level of mobility.

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

Performance

Perhaps this is the most uninteresting part of any review of a smartphone based on Windows Phone 8 at the moment. It is uninteresting for several reasons. The first is the scarcity of devices with this OS on board and the extreme similarity of their hardware characteristics: in fact, all current Windows backgrounds are based on several SoCs and differ only in display resolution. The second reason is the pointlessness of comparing devices with different operating systems, since only cross-platform browser tests can give a more or less relevant result, which depend only on the "raw" performance of the processor and the optimization of the JavaScript engine in a particular mobile browser. Truly relevant and convenient benchmark programs for comparing devices on different operating systems have not yet been created.

Be that as it may, we will rely on the existing toolkit. Since Nokia Lumia 520, 620 and 720 are practically twin brothers in terms of hardware, there is nowhere to appear from serious differences in the results of their tests. It is unlikely that Nokia engineers could consciously or unconsciously worsen the platform of the hero of the review, and without such errors, there is nothing to have at least some influence on the final scores.

However, as it turned out, in most tests, Nokia Lumia 520 even outperformed its older brother, Nokia Lumia 720. It’s hard to say what could be the reason for the priority of a budget smartphone on the same hardware platform - perhaps, in the case of the AnTuTu test, it lies in the fact that that the Nokia Lumia 720 did not pass graphics processing speed measurements.

This is where the scores of Nokia Lumia 520 and 720 almost coincided, 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, Assassin's Creed, NFS: Hot Pursuit - they all started up normally and worked after being installed in the memory of the review hero. Despite rumors that some games have limited support for devices with 512 MB of RAM, we did not have a chance to 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-range smartphone, such as the Nokia Lumia 720, can offer, is also in the current hero of the review.

Video playback

The built-in video player in the Nokia Lumia 520, as in the case of the Nokia Lumia 720, refused to play videos enclosed in media containers incomprehensible to it. The codecs themselves are known to him: after all, it is worth resaving the video to MP4 format - and the hero of the review plays the film 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 Method for testing video signal 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 to determine the nature of the output frames of video files with various parameters: resolution (1280 by 720 (720p) and 1920 by 1080 (1080p) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps) varied. With). In tests, we used a regular video player. The test results are summarized in the table:

Note: if both columns "Uniformity" and "Gap" are set to "green", this means that when watching movies, most likely, either artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and dropping frames will not be visible at all, or their number and visibility 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. The 720p file at 60 fps starts playing briskly, 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 slightly better than 720p. The displayed range of brightness exactly corresponds to the standard range of video - in the shadows and in the highlights, all gradations of shades are displayed (for video in the range of 16-235).

Impressions and conclusions

Since Nokia Lumia 520 is the cheapest smartphone with Windows Phone 8, we had to make allowances for this circumstance throughout the review: this function is not there, they worsened it, something was excluded there - but for such money ... Yes, the low price of the smartphone makes it comparable to other devices on Windows Phone 8 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 Nokia Lumia 520. In my opinion, you do not need to overpay for more expensive models in this case.

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

The hero of the review also looks worthy in comparison with the total mass of budget smartphones, including the legion of Chinese devices. Firstly, now it can be purchased almost at the price originally announced by Nokia - a little less than $ 200, which puts it on a par with the Chinese on Android. Secondly, the hardware stuffing of Nokia Lumia 520 is practically the best that the segment of smartphones on Windows Phone can give 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 in them. Nokia still provides some kind of workmanship, and Windows Phone 8 itself is very undemanding to resources, it works smoothly and quickly.

As for the Microsoft mobile platform, it has only two serious drawbacks; fatal or not, only time will tell. The first of these is still a significant lag behind Apple and Google in filling their own app store. The situation with the usual popular programs is slowly being corrected, from my own minimum of necessary software, I could not find only a normal offline dictionary, such as Lingvo, and a navigation program with traffic tracking service support, such as Yandex.Navigator. Moreover, there is Lingvo in the Windows Phone Store, and it costs the same money as under iOS, but it requires a network connection to search the dictionary, 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 he them - it is not clear; regular Yandex.Maps and Here Drive work like that. Thus, the main problems of the current Windows Phone Store are the lack of several programs that are really necessary in everyday life, whose developers are in no hurry to do anything to make them appear, 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 with a few popular games from other platforms (the arrival of Angry Birds was a real event), Microsoft-owned games and a wide variety of but equally uninteresting arcade games and puzzles by 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 only music, photos and videos can be saved. 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 small: it becomes clogged with applications and their data very quickly, and as a result, a comical situation arises 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 voice mail phone number specified in the MTS cannot be changed (more precisely, it is possible, but to no avail). The phone management program displays a list of recent calls at startup instead of a phone keypad, and to see it, you need to put your finger on a very small icon. The built-in Yandex search system does not work well: either it refuses to update the search results list, or it does not update its own widgets, instead of redirecting to the site it displays a list right in the same window, and, most importantly, it does not look 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 case?

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

Now for the good stuff: the cumbersome Zune as the only desktop sync program has been replaced by just "Windows Phone for Desktop" 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 the owners of Android devices, apparently, will 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 you should not stop at half of it. The platform has potential, no one will deny it. With the release of Nokia Lumia 520, it has become much easier and cheaper to evaluate all the features and disadvantages of Windows Phone 8.

Finally, the most affordable Windows 8 smartphone has arrived. Nokia Lumia 520 in Ukraine can be bought for about 1600 hryvnia, while you get the same platform and chipset as the more expensive Nokia Lumia 720.

Specifications Nokia Lumia 520

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, the Nokia Lumia 520 is a typical new-generation Windows smartphone. Devices on this platform have found their own style: both of the most popular manufacturers of such smartphones prefer this shape, and also bright colors. The Lumia 520 is no exception. It is available in yellow, red, black and white interchangeable rear panels. We got a "girly" white for testing, and before we held in our hands a red one, also mostly designed for a female audience.

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

But unlike the latter, it has a removable rear and battery, and, in addition, to change the SIM card, you do not need to use a special paperclip-like key, which I personally have already got. 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 removable socket, by the way, is not very easy to detach, for this you need a strong nail. The back itself is thin, easily bending. However, in its grooves it is attached well. In general, the assembly is quite decent for a “state employee”, there were no noticeable gaps, as well as inappropriate squeaks.

Together with iPhone 4s

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

At the bottom is a microUSB connector, at the top is a minijack for a headset. The whiteness (in our case) of the rear surface of the smartphone is diluted only by the camera eye without a flash, the company logo, as well as a small speaker, which still closes when placed on a plane. Three touch buttons are highlighted in white on the dark body. They are not highlighted, 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 will be greatly mistaken in calling it the best among all smartphones in the price category up to 3,000 hryvnia (12,000 rubles). In the youngest Lumia 520, everything is not so rosy, but this is quite natural. Still, the smartphone costs much less. Nevertheless, despite the price of 1600 hryvnia, the manufacturer gave the smartphone an IPS-matrix (say, 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 especially the replacement of glare. The resolution of the four-inch screen is 800x480 pixels, like 620 or 720. Someone 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 that of the Lumia 720, there is no Gorilla Glass 2 protective glass, as well as True Black, that is, black is somewhat gray. But the contrast ratio is high here (910:1). And yet - an excellent ultra-sensitive sensor that allows you to wield a 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 of the five-megapixel camera module cannot be called "stellar": the colors are pale, the detail in low light is poor, there is no flash. But still, again, I will not be too lazy 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 merge them), “Animated Photo” (the selected piece of the picture “moves”) and "Panorama".

And the camera is recording this video

System and Performance

In fact, the processor and memory are the same as in other nearby Nokia Lumia - 620 and 720. This is a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 with MSM8227 chipset and 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. The low amount of RAM means that some 3D games on the smartphone will not run. For example, the notorious Temple Run. For everything else - "social programs", FullHD-movies and the vast majority of games, performance is enough for the eyes. Not to mention the free-flying interface of Windows 8. Since the hardware specifications are the same, the results in synthetic tests for the Lumia 520 are similar to the 720 model. The package of pre-installed applications here is about the same as in other models. I would like to once again note the successful navigation programs, but for details refer to the Nokia Lumia 720 review. Here I also note the excellent synchronization of calendars, mail and other things: the tasks entered in the calendar during the testing of the Lumia 720 appeared on the Lumia 520 thanks to the common Microsoft ID: the calendar happily reminded me that I had an intention to run on Fridays. The sound in the smartphone is average, but in no case do not use the bundled headset, it is more than disgusting.

autonomy

The Lumia 520 has a 1430 mAh removable battery. This is less than the Lumia 720 (2000 mAh), but the bright screen "eats" more energy there. 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 - a little less than 6 hours.

In the dry matter

In my opinion, Nokia Lumia 520 is an excellent smartphone, one of the best in its price range in terms of quality and features. On the iron side, these capabilities are somewhat limited by 512 MB of RAM: some three-dimensional 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 jarred, 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 interchangeable panels;
• Sensitive IPS display.

3 reasons not to buy Nokia Lumia 520:

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

Information about the make, model, and alternative names of a particular device, if any.

Design

Information about the dimensions and weight of the device, presented in different units of measurement. Used materials, suggested colors, certificates.

SIM card

The SIM card is used in mobile devices to store data that certifies the authenticity of mobile service subscribers.

Mobile networks

A mobile network is a radio system that allows multiple mobile devices to communicate with each other.

Mobile technologies and data rates

Communication between devices in mobile networks is carried out through technologies that provide different data rates.

Operating system

The operating system is the system software that manages and coordinates the operation of the hardware components in the device.

SoC (System on a Chip)

System on a chip (SoC) includes all the most important hardware components of a mobile device in one chip.

Built-in memory

Each mobile device has a built-in (non-removable) memory with a fixed amount.

Memory cards

Memory cards are used in mobile devices to increase the storage capacity for storing data.

Screen

The screen of a mobile device is characterized by its technology, resolution, pixel density, diagonal length, color depth, etc.

Sensors

Different sensors perform different quantitative measurements and convert physical indicators into signals that are recognized by the mobile device.

Main camera

The main camera of a mobile device is usually located on the back of the case and is used for taking photos and videos.

Audio

Information about the type of speakers and audio technologies supported by the device.

Radio

The radio of the mobile device is a built-in FM receiver.

Location determination

Information about navigation and location technologies supported by the device.

WiFi

Wi-Fi is a technology that provides wireless communication for short distance data transmission between different devices.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a standard for secure wireless data transfer between different types of devices over short distances.

USB

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is an industry standard that allows different electronic devices to communicate.

Headphone jack

This is an audio connector, which is also called an audio jack. The most widely used standard in mobile devices is the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Connecting devices

Information about other important connection technologies supported by the device.

Browser

A web browser is a software application for accessing and viewing information on the Internet.

Audio file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support various audio file formats and codecs that store and encode/decode digital audio data, respectively.

Video file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support various video file formats and codecs, which store and encode/decode digital video data, respectively.

Battery

Mobile device batteries differ from each other in their capacity and technology. They provide the electrical charge they need to function.

One of the most affordable smartphones based on the Windows 8 operating system is the 520. The characteristics of its hardware and software components, as well as reviews of the real owners of this gadget, are what will be discussed in this material.

Equipment

The Lumiya 520 has quite the usual equipment, as for an entry-level device. This gadget is sold with the following accessories and components:

• Energy efficient AC-20 charger.
• Battery BL-5J. Its nominal capacity is 1430 mAh.
• Interface cable CA-189CD. Most often it is used to exchange data with a personal computer or laptop.
• Stereo headset from
• User guide. On one of its last sheets is a warranty card.

Although it is indicated in the documentation that the front of the device is protected by glass, it will be difficult to keep the front panel in its original state without a protective film. Also, a cover will also come in handy. The case of the device is made of plastic and it is not difficult to damage it. Well, an external flash card will increase the amount of internal memory. All three of these accessories - a protective film, a case and a flash drive - will have to be purchased separately. They are not in the basic configuration of the smartphone.

Gadget design

The front panel of the device, as noted earlier, is made of protective glass. Which one - the manufacturer does not specify. But we can say with confidence that this is not about the "Gorilla Eye". In the upper part of the front panel there is a speaker, and in the lower part there are touch keys, with the help of which the device is controlled. The rest of its central part is occupied by the display. On the right side of the device are the lock, camera and volume buttons. A microUSB port is placed on the bottom edge of the device, and an audio port is placed on the top edge. On the back of the device is the main camera and loud speaker. There are 5 color options for the body of this device: white, blue, red, yellow and black. From the point of view of practical operation, the best of them is Nokia Lumia 520 BLACK. Its characteristics in terms of hardware and software resources are identical, but it does not get dirty as noticeably as, for example, the exact same Nokia, but in yellow.

CPU

A very modest entry-level processor solution is used in the Nokia Lumiya 520. The characteristics of the hardware capabilities of the CPU clearly indicate that this solution is focused on the budget segment of smart phones. More specifically, this device is based on the S4 Plus processor solution from the leading chip developer for smartphones, Qualcomm. Its second name in accordance with the manufacturer's nomenclature is MSM8227. This chip consists of two computing modules based on the Krait architecture. In maximum load mode, they can increase up to 1 GHz. At the time of its release (2013), this chip could not boast of an outstanding level of performance. Therefore, most resource-intensive applications (mostly the most demanding 3D toys) did not run on this smartphone. But for ordinary tasks, its computing capabilities are quite enough. This includes reading books, watching movies, listening to music and radio, and surfing Internet resources using browsers - this smart phone can handle all this without problems.

Display and video adapter

One of the main advantages is the display in Nokia Lumia 520. Its characteristics are far from being flagship, but even the type of matrix used (which is IPS) is not so common in entry-level gadgets. As a result, the viewing angles of this device are close to 180 degrees. Well, color reproduction, brightness and contrast are at an excellent level. The presence of an air gap between the screen and the touch surface of the front panel of the device is one of the few drawbacks to this gadget.

The display resolution of this device is 480x800 with a diagonal of 4 inches. It is almost impossible to distinguish individual pixels on its surface. The second important component of the graphics subsystem is the graphics adapter. This device is used by Qualcomm. Of course, this video accelerator cannot boast of an outstanding level of performance. But, on the other hand, it does an excellent job with its main task - processing video information.

Camera

There is only the main camera in Nokia Lumia 520. Its technical characteristics are very modest. It is based on a sensitive element of 5 megapixels. There is also an autofocus system. But about such things as LED backlight and image stabilization system, the owners of this smart phone should not dream of. They are not implemented in this device. The quality of panoramic images taken with the main camera does not cause any complaints. But the text will be difficult to photograph so that it can then be disassembled. Video on this unit is recorded in 720p format. The image quality in the videos is acceptable.

Memory

One significant drawback is in the memory subsystem of the Nokia Lumia 520. Characteristics (reviews indicate this nuance) are not balanced. If the presence of 8 GB as a built-in drive can be attributed to the advantages of the device, then 512 MB of RAM is a significant drawback. A bunch of 4 GB (built-in storage) and 1 GB (RAM) looks much more preferable. But the developers carried out an experiment that certainly did not go to the benefit of a smart phone of this model. It is because of 512 MB that the interface in the operating system “slows down” and toys such as Asphalt 8 and GTA: San Andreas do not start. Although the rest of the hardware stuffing (the next device in this line, the Lumiya 525, proves this) makes it easy to run them.

There is also a slot for installing an external drive in this gadget. Its maximum size can be 64 GB. If this is not enough for you to store personal data, then you can use various cloud services.

Battery

It is not necessary to expect a high degree of autonomy from the Nokia Lumiya 520. The characteristics of the technical parameters of the battery confirms this once again. As stated earlier, this smart phone uses a BL-5J battery with a nominal capacity of 1430 mAh. Now you need to take into account that this device uses Qualcomm's dual-processor S4 Plus solution with a frequency of 1 GHz, and its display diagonal is 4 inches. With an average level of load on the gadget, one charge of its battery will definitely last for 2 days. If you use the device less intensively, then you can count on the fact that this value will increase to 3-4 days. Well, at maximum load, the battery can last 12-14 hours. That is, it will have to be charged every day with such an intensive use.

Interfaces

All the necessary types of wired and wireless data transfer methods are supported by the Nokia Lumia 520 smartphone. The characteristics of the phone indicate support for such of them:

• The main way to exchange data with the global web is Wi-Fi. b, g and n modifications are supported. Receiving information in this case is limited to 150 Mbps, but this is quite enough to download files of any size.
• The second way to receive and send information to the global web is GSM and 3G mobile networks. In the first case, you can communicate on social networks or browse simple Internet resources. You can't count on more at a speed of several hundred kilobits. Well, in the second case, when the device operates in 3G networks, you can not limit yourself in communication and download files of any size. The speed in this case can reach 20 Mbps.
• Another important way to exchange data is Bluetooth. It allows you to connect to the device or a similar smart phone. In the latter case, you can exchange photos or musical compositions.
• Navigation in this device is carried out in two ways at once: using GPS and using A-GPS.
• The main wired method of transferring information is the microUSB port. He is also responsible for charging the battery.
• Another wired port is the 3.5mm audio jack. It connects a wired stereo headset or external speakers.

System software

Windows Background 8 is used as the operating system in Nokia Lumia 520. The characteristics of this OS by users indicate a high level of its stability and reliability. At the same time, all existing software for this platform will run on it without problems. Its key drawback is that it supports only 32-bit calculations, but 64-bit ones are out of the question. But, on the other hand, do not forget that the device went on sale in early 2013 and at that time there was no need to think about anything more.

Application software

Nokia Lumia 520 boasts an impressive set of supported application software. The characteristics of its hardware stuffing allow most of the programs of this platform to run on this device without any problems. Among the pre-installed software, one can single out the presence of clients of the social networks Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. There is also Skype and Office. In general, everything you need to work is immediately on this device. Well, what is missing, you can install from the application store. If desired, you can even find free programs in it.