Nokia Lumia 521: Quality Smartphone on an Extreme Budget
by Vivek Gowri on August 8, 2013 1:08 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Nokia
- Mobile
- windows phone 8
- Lumia 520
- Lumia 521
I was surprised to see that the 521 (and 520) had an IPS display when the specs were finalized, because I fully expected the display to be one of the biggest sacrifices made for the sake of the budget. I suppose it’s not too much of a surprise, given that the 620 has quite a good display.
In person, the 521 display is pretty middling. It’s not a bad panel, but it’s not that fantastic either. Maximum brightness isn’t that great at 342 nits—that’s decent enough for most situations though not quite bright enough for comfortable viewing in broad daylight. The black levels aren’t anything to write home about either, so contrast ratio is pretty low by the standards of the phones we typically look at, though its worth pointing out that we focus primarily on far higher end smartphone hardware. Compared to a contrast ratio chart from a couple of years ago, the 521 is about average. The white point of 6336K is very close to neutral, and color reproduction is pretty solid as well.
What kind of kills the 521 display experience though isn’t the panel itself, since that’s pretty decent; it’s the gap between the LCD and the glass. That turns what would be a very respectable viewing experience into an ultra reflective mess anytime you venture outdoors. As a result, you end up wanting to crank the display brightness higher than normal (which is why I rarely used the automatic brightness setting). The extra glare brought on by the air gap is rather distracting and ends up being quite the downer in a lot more usage scenarios than just outdoor. In office-style overhead lighting, too, the glare can be quite terrible and generally ends up degrading display quality by a noticeable amount.
Given the price point, it’s hard to fault the 521 too much and I must admit that I have somewhat of a skewed perspective. When you’re used to carrying a One, an S4, or another device with a screen of that caliber, the step down to a far lower quality WVGA panel seems pretty drastic. But the colors are vibrant, viewing angles are predictably stellar, and overall the panel looks pretty good, so there are a lot of positives to focus on.
The brightness controls for Windows Phone are a bit finicky—you only get four options: low, medium, high, and automatic. The brightness steps are pretty reasonable, starting with low at 74 nits, medium at 191 nits, and high at 342 nits. There is no iOS or Android style brightness slider, so you’re basically stuck trusting the light sensor or one of the three presets.
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toraji - Friday, August 9, 2013 - link
it truly istoraji - Friday, August 9, 2013 - link
You did make a good decision the htc 8x is an awesome phone the only thing you miss out on are the free nokia apps, you can buy them in the store thoughI am sure they will love their phone
regards
t
JBaich - Saturday, August 10, 2013 - link
My only question is regarding IE Mobile. On my Lumia 1020 the mobile browsing experience compares side by side *very* favorably with my (black) HTC One (not X) with 4.3. I was actually amazed by how smooth mobile IE was when I first started using the 1020. As such I'm surprised by your negative experience with IE. Surely you are justified, or you wouldn't be writing for Anandtech.MatthiasP - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
Nokia makes such fantastic phones in any price range but is so handicapped my Microsoft's halfhearted commitment to the Windows Phone OS.ESC2000 - Sunday, August 11, 2013 - link
I'm really excited to see this and I hope it does well on T-mobile because something needs to put pressure on the ripoff that is AT&T and Verizon contract-subsidized phones. People balk at spending $600 or $700 for an unlocked unsubsidized phone even though they pay way more in the long run with the big carriers, but $129 is not too tough to swallow. Of course people could also just wait until the end of their contracts and use their old device on t-mobile's BYOD plan.The one thing that gives me pause about this phone is the RAM. Is it sufficient? I know the ipad mini's 512 GB RAM seemed woefully low in late 2012 and now it is almost another year later. I don't know what causes it but my brother's mini does lag, especially when pressing the home screen button.
petermarker - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 - link
Pretty cool to see Nokia make good budget phones, I think this is a good market for them. I actually prefer this phone to the craptastic old Android phones being peddled on prepaid. http://www.allprepaidplans.combeck2050 - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link
Remember when IDC forecast Windows Mobile would take 40% of the smart phone and tablet market by 2014. They can barely give these things away.killer8 - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - link
I'd just chime in that I sold my Nexus 4 and just use a Lumia 521 now. Obviously the Nexus 4 is a better phone in almost every way, but as someone who is a light to moderate smartphone user, it was too much phone for the money compared to the sheer value of the 521.What I like about the Lumia 521 most, besides the price, is Office built - in, especially OneNote, which syncs with my desktop version seamlessly.
The Lumia 521 lasts for days on a signal charge with moderate usage. I've not had a single weird overnight battery drain yet. Nor lock ups.
Web browsing is the only thing that can be notably slower than the Nexus 4, due to it's 512MB RAM. Otherwise, the phone runs totally fluidly. No random lag ups and so on, still so common even on the Nexus 4 at times, depending on how well the app is behaving.
Compared to crap sub $200 Android phones, the Lumia 520/521 is hands down the winner.
siniranji - Friday, August 16, 2013 - link
I find this phone very interesting and moreover after hearing android troubles & hanging problems, stable OS is the need of the hour, and windows 8 wins in this category. Everyone needs a phone fast and economical but good at performance front as well as not power hungry. Once in two days charging is acceptable.Calista - Sunday, August 18, 2013 - link
I picked up a Lumia 520 because I was curious what WP had to offer and I must say I'm impressed what $85 can buy us nowadays. A few reviewers have been complaining about the dull screen, but I must say it work just fine. It's fluid, feels logical and it's easy to navigate.I don't plan to replace my HTC with the 520, if jumping OS ship I would get a 920 or similar high-end unit but as previously mentioned - considering the low price it's certainly an impressive phone and I hope it will bring both MS and Nokia a larger market- and mindshare. It's well deserved.