Nokia Lumia 510 Review

Introduction:

Nokia Lumia 510 is the rock bottom price point for a Windows Phone Lumia, starting in the sub-$200 without a contract, and available in various flashy colors.

The price range and color scheme indicate that it is geared towards emerging economies and the younger crowd, and that's where the Lumia 510 is headed indeed.

Is there something in the entry level specs that could make the WP 7.8 handset stand a fighting chance against cheap Androids? Read on our review to find out...

In the box:

• Wall charger
• microUSB cable
• Stereo headphones
• Warranty and information booklets

Design:

The soapy shaped Lumia 510 is built solid, without creaks or crevices around the chassis. It is also relatively thin and light, compared to some other smartphones we've seen.



You can compare the Nokia Lumia 510 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Nokia has even thrown in a painted metal band around the sides, which adds to the rigidity of the phone, and ups the build materials mojo a bit. The rounded corners plus tapered back with soft touch finish make it comfortable to hold and easy to operate with one hand.

All three buttons on the side – the lock key, volume rocker and two-stage shutter button – are easy to find and press, with deep tactile feedback.


Display:

The 4” screen is recessed for added protection, so the phone lies on the edges of the metal rim that surrounds the phone, thus avoiding scratches when face-down. The display is with 480x800 pixels of resolution which rings in a good 233ppi pixel density number.

Viewing angles are decent with this display, but brightness is not that great and the reflectance ratio seems to be high, so viewing it comfortably outside is a challenge at times.

Interface and functionality:

Our Lumia 510 unit came with Windows Phone 7.8 preinstalled, so you can resize the live tiles on the home screen, and have the other goodies that come with this WP release.


Besides its exclusive apps like Ringtone Maker and the free offline voice-guided navigation Drive, Nokia has loaded TuneIn Radio on the handset, and the App Highlights hub, which shows curated applications you may want to install.



Processor and memory:

Siliconwise the Lumia 510 seems pretty weak, with an 800 MHz single core processor, just 256 MB of RAM, and mere 4 GB of internal memory. The UI moves briskly, despite the sub-1 GHz processor, yet you can feel a difference in comparison with powerhouses like the Lumia 920, for example. Don't expect performance wonders while opening apps, playing games and taking pictures, but if you are willing to live with a bit of wait, the phone runs most apps fine, excluding some that still have issues with 256 MB of RAM.

What is more likely to draw your ire towards the Lumia 510 engineers, is the lack of a microSD card slot. With just 4 GB of internal memory, of which only 2.5 GB are user-available, you will be constatly forced to delete or transfer stuff away from the phone, not to mention if you decide to load a few Nokia Maps for offline navigation, or load up on movies. There are always the 7 GB of storage in SkyDrive, but you have to be connected to the web to utilize that.

Internet and connectivity:

The mobile Internet Explorer browser renders pages fairly quickly, even complex ones, and deals with zooming and scrolling in a commendable manner, considering the phone's specs.


There is no Adobe Flash support, of course, but you can see most everything else get rendered correctly, and the viewing experience is decent enough on the 4” screen with 233ppi for more than just a quick check of something.

Nokia Lumia 510 comes with a 7.2 Mbps 3G radio with bands depending on the region, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, FM radio and that's about it. Wired connectivity is done via a simple microUSB port, conveniently located at the bottom of the phone.

Camera:

The 5 MP camera on the back of the handset lacks an LED flash next to it, so low-light shots get more than the usual hit here. There is no front-facing camera either.

Graced with the typical Windows Phone 7.8 camera interface, Lumia 510 allows for adjustments in the contrast, brightness and saturation of the photos and videos you are about to capture, as well as number of scene presets, including a macro mode, which comes handy.


Photos themselves come out a bit soft, but the colors are accurate and detail is plenty, which is more than we expected from the phone's price point. There are a few white balance issues here and there, like with sky clouds going purple at points, but we've encountered those on much more expensive handsets too.


The big let-down is the video definition, as the Lumia 510 shoots footage in VGA only, which runs crisp and with fluid 30 fps, but in this day and age of 1080p phones, is nothing to write home about.

Nokia Lumia 510 Sample Video:



Multimedia:

The Windows Phone music player categorizes your tunes by artists, albums, playlists and even genres, but for equalizer presets you have to visit the Settings app beforehand. It is also able to run in the background, and can be managed from the lock screen, which comes handy.


The phone's loudspeaker is of average quality, both in terms of strength and sound, feeling rather flat and tinny, especially at the highest volume.

Video playback goes up to HD clips without a hitch, despite the humble processing power, but only MPEG-4 files are supported, as usual.

Call quality:

Call quality in the earpiece is decent, with distinct sounding voices, which, however, come out a bit muted. The Lumia 510's mic didn't fare well relaying our voice to the other end, and we sounded distorted on the receiving side at the higher volumes.

Battery:

Nokia quotes nearly 8 hours of talk time in 3G mode, and about a month of standby from the 1,300 mAh unit, which are commendable achievements. The unit is also easily swappable should you need more juice on the go.

The company rates the Lumia 510 as able to provide close to 8 hours of video playback, which is again above the average mark for any smartphone, so in terms of battery life you are covered with the cheap WP 7.8 handset.

Conclusion:

There are no overly weak points in the Lumia 510 performance, and Nokia has even managed to create an above average looking and feeling 4” handset for its sub-$200 price point without a contract.

What will make many potential buyers turn away from the phone, though, is the lack of a microSD slot for storage expansion. There are a few Windows Phone handsets out there which will offer more than the Lumia 510's mere 4 GB of storage for about the same, or a little higher price, like the Lumia 710, and even the 610.

If you mainly use your handset for talking, navigation, quick browsing and taking pictures, though, the Lumia 510 is a good choice, as it makes pretty decent photos, and the browser performs well.

If you venture outside the Windows Phone world, however, a sea of Android handsets awaits you at rock bottom prices, like the LG Optimus L5, which goes for about the same money also with a 4” screen and 5 MP camera, but offers all the advantages of Android and its application store.

Software version: 7.10.8858.136

Nokia Lumia 510 Video Review: