Microsoft Lumia 532 Hands-on and Initial Impressions

Microsoft has been putting efforts in the budget range smartphones, and after the Lumia 535, the brand launched two smartphones with some decent specs for the price being asked. The Microsoft Lumia 532, launched for Rs. 6499, has a decent spec list while keeping the phone build quality similar to what Nokia had been doing with the Lumia series earlier.

Microsoft doesn’t really need to learn or change in the design aspect, especially with the phone already being sturdy and good as always, and the plastic body on the back doesn’t disappoint much as the device withstands falls quite well, and the rough finish on the back does not let the device slip out of the hand. The back cover isn’t similar to what you see on the Nokia X or the other Lumia 500 series devices, as there is a transparent plastic frame running on all sides.

It is removable, and the slots for SIM cards and MicroSD card are accessible when you pull out the replaceable battery. The sides look like a bumper case and not a part of the framework directly, though it makes it look only better.

What is more interesting here, is the Windows Phone 8.1 OS with the Demin features. It looks neat, a few changes and thanks to the bundled offers with the device, apps such as Paytm, Redbus, Truecaller and a few others are pre-installed. The Lumia brand is well used, as there are apps named Lumia Camera, Lumia Selfie, Lumia Storyteller, Cinemagraph and such. Other apps include Food Panda, Jabong, Here Drive +, Here Maps, Star Sports and the Microsoft Office apps, which are the full versions with all options for editing documents.

Nearly 4GB storage is available for the user, and the MicroSD card slot is a certain help if the internal space isn’t enough. At the event, the functionality of People app and the Indian keyboard were shown, and it did look impressive with the prediction of words based on the previously typed words.

Camera is quite a disappointment on the Lumia 532, where Microsoft compromised in major aspects. The 5-megapixel rear shooter doesn’t have auto focus, nor you can zoom in or out, and the absence of a flash light hurts more. The Lumia camera has some Pro options for the user to take control of brightness, ISO, shutter speed and such, and the time I tried the camera, it was not a well lit place, thus the captures were not as good as you would see in bright light conditions.

The front-facing camera is too grainy. Not that we can complain about the same in this price range, but there are worthy competitors in similar range with better cameras now.

Microsoft has upped the specs a bit, from the predecessors, thus we see a 1GB RAM along with quad-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, which is now something many might appreciate, after Microsoft/Nokia were criticized for the 512MB RAM in the previous devices.

For the early thoughts, Microsoft has rectified all the mistakes they did with Lumia 535, and the touch response here makes the Lumia 532 a very smooth and neat device. It is a phone that looks quite worth the price, but you might have to compromise with the camera while taking advantage of the simple interface and a good build quality.