Last week, Microsoft announced the launch of the Lumia 532 in India. Another budget device, the Lumia 532 fares well on the specifications sheet and costs less than Lumia 535, the other latest phone on the shelves right now.
The phone promises an uncompromised Windows Phone experience with an excellent Lumia design and always dependable build quality to compete in a crowded market of budget Android smartphones.
Design
While closely resembling most Lumia models, the Lumia 532 borrows the dual shot design from the Nokia Asha series (and Lumia 620), which had a lot of fans, including me. The dual-shot casing wraps the matte finish back on the edges. While the build feels solid, the dual-shot design adds to the charm. It's compact and fits very nicely in the hand.
The volume rocker button has a depression in the middle that makes it look like two buttons next to each other. It doesn't make a difference to the ergonomics of the button, but the tactile feedback is just right, maybe, for this reason. The camera button is missing in the 532, and the capacitive hardware buttons at the bottom of the display are not backlit. While most people push buttons instinctively on memory, it's sometimes a tad disorienting.
Display
The Lumia 532 sports a 4-inch LCD screen, which might be a little small for a lot of people now. However, it makes for an excellent, compact package for customers not looking for a larger phone or migrating from a feature phone.
The screen resolution is an average 800 x 480 with 233 PPI, and the viewing angles aren't that great. Tilting the phone, especially when you are playing a game or watching a game, changes the colors noticeably. Otherwise, the colors and text are sharp, and the touch experience is very smooth - always a worrying factor in budget smartphones. It is a fingerprint magnet though.
Kudos to Microsoft to have the phone support Glance screen and double tap to wake. These two signature Lumia features look trivial on paper but are very handy in everyday usage.
Hardware
Powered by a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 Quad-core processor, the Lumia 532 packs in 1GB of RAM – pretty good internals for a smooth Windows Phone experience in a budget Lumia. Web browsing, navigation, and switching between apps is smooth, and the performance is pretty good for a budget smartphone.
While the phone doesn't heat up on gaming for quite a while, the graphics disappoint a little. There aren't frame skips on most occasions, but graphic-intensive games like Asphalt 8 lag a bit. Also, like most budget Lumias, the phone doesn't play full HD videos. For an entry-level smartphone though, these are fair markdowns.
The Lumia 532 isn't a miser on internal storage, and 8GB is a decent offering and there is a micro SD slot for expansion. The phone packs in 1,560mAh battery that is user replaceable. You can also buy different colored back covers to personalize the device to your liking, including orange, black, white or green.
Lumia 532 sports a 5MP rear camera but misses on Tap to Focus and Zoom options due to no auto-focus, as well as a flash. It gave a few decent shots in the hotel where the Microsoft presser was held, but I'll explore the camera more, in different outdoor and indoor spaces and lighting conditions. On the front though, there is a VGA 0.3 MP camera. While not amazing, we are glad that it is there.
Software
The Lumia 532 runs on Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia Denim Update out of the box.
Summary
The Lumia 532 phone delivers an exceptional Windows Phone experience housed in a nice, compact package that looks attractive and feels great in hand. It cuts corners in the display, camera flash, and here and there, but forms a nice, value-for-money smartphone at ₹6,499.
Do you like the Lumia 532, or would you spend some more to buy the other Lumias in the market? Tell us in the comments, and we'll soon get back to you with a complete, detailed review of the Lumia 532!
