Nokia unveils budget smartphone Lumia 525, comes with changeable covers

After launching two new Lumia phablets- christened Lumia 1320 and Lumia 1520- and a tablet (a first for the company) called Lumia 2520, Finnish-handset manufacturer Nokia has now unveiled a budget Lumia smartphone. The successor to the original Lumia 520, the new device will come with changeable covers that will be available in orange, yellow and white colours. Here is a look at the specifications of the device.

Lumia 525 sports a 4 inch IPS LCD super sensitive touchscreen WVGA display (800x480 pixel resolution) with 235 pixels per inch pixel density and runs on the Windows Phone 8 operating system (with Lumia Black user interface). Recently, Microsoft had acquired Nokia's mobile handset business for $7.2 billion.

It is powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual core processor, and has 1 GB of RAM. The internal memory of the device is 8GB that can be further expanded an additional 64GB with a microSD card. The company is also providing 7GB of SkyDrive cloud storage.

In terms of camera, this one has a 5 mega pixel auto focus rear camera (but no flash) that can also record high definition (HD) video (720 pixels) at 30 frames per second. The main camera has f/2.4 aperture and offers 4x digital zoom. The available video white balance modes include cloudy, fluorescent, incandescent, automatic, and Daylight. The device does not have a front-facing camera.

On the connectivity front, the device comes with Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, and 3G, and it also has a microUSB port & a microSD card slot. The device measures 119.9 mm x 64 mm x 9.9 mm and weighs 124 gm. It has a 1,430 mAh removable battery that the company claims will provide over 16.9 hours of talk time, 5.9 hours of video playback and 14 days of stand by time.

This smartphone comes with Nokia HERE maps (for navigation), GPS (with A-GPS), and Nokia MixRadio, and has a monoblock touch form factor.

Here is a promotional video of the device.

Additional photography features include:

Nokia Smart Camera- Shoots a sequence of photos to choose the 'Best Shot', combine the photos into one picture, make a strobe effect to emphasise motion, and remove unwanted objects.

Cinemagraph- A blend of photo and movie-like animation, creating pictures that seem almost alive. On-screen assistance lets users select an animated area of the picture and create and edit a cinemagraph.

PhotoBeamer- Point the device at any screen displaying www.photobeamer.com and view the photos (of the device) anywhere.

Panorama- Users can take pictures and the app automatically stitches them into a picture-perfect view.

Considering its specifications, and the price at which its predecessor is available for, we feel that the device should be priced between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. In the price range, it will compete with the likes of XOLO Q700 (Rs 9,900), Micromax A90S (Rs 9,499), Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos (Rs 9,999), and Lenovo A800 (Rs 9,990), among others.