Lets get this out of the way, if you're looking for a smartphone that can do basic phone and smartphone tasks (e-mail, calendar, phonecalls, navigation, and web browsing) the Lumia 435 is amazingly capable given its price. If you aren't beholden to the iOS or Android platforms, you can do a lot worse (the Android devices I've used in the price range certainly qualify as a lot worse). Face it, a $50 smartphone that doesn't make me want to throw it against the wall every time I use it is actually quite the achievement. But this is a blog, and I wouldn't be a self respecting blogger if I didn't prattle on pretending a $50 smartphone isn't an engineering marvel.
Build and Overall Quality
The construction of the Lumia 435 seems to be fairly polarzing, and my first impressions were not good. Attempting to get the backplate off so the battery and microSIM could be inserted is a royal pain in the backside the first time you do it (protip: hold gently at the sides with your fingertips, press on the camera with your thumbs). Once you get everything snapped back together, you're presented with a confidence inspiring yet oddly thick polycarbonate brick.
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| Comparable to the Nexus 4 in size, but thicker, and with significantly more bezel |
Opinions on the actual feel of the device in hand are mixed. I think it feels great in hand, amazingly solid when squeezing the edges, with too much give in the back, especially toward the center. Friends who have handled the device almost universally say it feels cheap, all mentioning the squishy back. Some also feel its too slippery, though I personally like the texture. I will however admit to pitching the thing across the room due to it slipping out of my hands, and to having it go rattling around various cars due to it getting dropped. None of these have had any negative impact on the device.
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| The Lumia 435 also goes by Fatty Patty 4.65"x2.55"x0.46" |
Volume and power buttons feel nice and clicky and have a meaningful amount of travel, a rarity in this era of ultrathin phones. The navigation buttons are not illuminated (3 LEDs would have made it a $50.12 smartphone) which make using it in the dark obnoxious.
Both the speakerphone and earpiece sound surprisingly good. While the speakerphone won't win any awards, it's every bit as capable as other, much more expensive smartphones. Listening to music through the standard 3.5mm headphone jack is a pleasant experience, devoid of any interference from the cellular modem or background static that changes on interaction with the touchscreen. Both issues I've had on more expensive devices. Volume is plentiful, at least with any 'normal' impedance headphones and earbuds I have around here. Audiophiles with high-impedance cans will probably have a different opinion (but none are likely to trust their music to a $50 phone anyway).
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| A speakerphone and a 'camera' with no flash |
Both cameras are absolute rubbish. The front facing camera is so bad you might as well pretend it doesn't exist. It doesn't work in light, it doesn't work in dark. It does however function as a pretty good ambient light sensor for the automatic backlight brightness adjust. The rear camera is also godawful, but at perfectly passable in broad daylight (there is no flash, a flash LED would have made it a $50.56 smartphone). While the fixed focus limits creative expression, quick snaps suitable for sharing on social media are possible. TechRadar has samples if you really care about the camera.
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| Free potato with every phone, cranky blind cat not included |
The screen is a mixed bag. It's surprisingly bright and crisp given its low resolution (800x480, 4", 223 ppi). Colors seem accurate, with none of the oversaturation that is prevalent in phones these days (especially ones with OLED displays). The autobrightness control works well. However, off angle viewing is terrible. This may be an issue when using it for navigation in the car.
Connectivity
Cellular reception is good in areas where T-Mobile has coverage. Call quality is good, though noise rejection could be improved. Unfortunately, there is no LTE (LTE modem and antenna would have made it a $52.86 smartphone), so cellular data performance is pretty poor (good enough for navigation and e-mail, don't try streaming anything), and there is no VoLTE on T-Mobile Band 12 out here in the boondocks. Bluetooth has acceptable range and there are no issues with dropped connections or pairing.WiFi performance is impressive, possibly the best at receiving signal in all corners of my house of all the devices I have around here. Unfortunately Windows Phone seems to batch HTTP operations, so downloads and page loads come in bursts. WiFi calling works well, though the intermittent waves of high latency I see with our internet here can lead to dropped calls. WiFi is on 2.4 GHz only (5 GHz transceiver and antenna would have made it a $53.44 smartphone), but it does support N, which is nice.
GPS / GLONASS performance is hands down the best of any smartphone I've ever used. It locks almost instantly, even in my basement. I have yet to find myself waiting for a lock. Admittedly, I can't find a setting to turn A-GPS off, so it may be cheating like crazy, but I'm comparing it to other phones with A-GPS on, so I stand by my review.
Battery Life
With no instrumented testing, I give the battery life a 'good' rating. It lasts a day (7:30 AM to 10 PM) off the charger easy. Connected to WiFi all day. Even in the first few days I had it with 4 to 5 hours of screen on time playing around with it, I never saw less than 30% battery at the end of the day (even with half an hour plus of Asphalt 8: Airborne). In fact, if you're the kind of person that keeps their phone in their pocket most of the time, only quickly skimming through e-mails or texts at lunch or before bed, I dare say you could go 2 to 3 days without charging. Crazy!Performance
Surprisingly another highlight! Easily the weakest point of the cheaper Android devices, Microsoft's iOS5-esque limited multitasking capability makes the Lumia 435 feel almost snappy. While some 3rd party apps will show the dreaded 'Resuming...' almost every time I switch to them (*cough* IM+ *cough*), my usual evening routine of bouncing between the browser and e-mail is perfectly pleasant.Even my limited experience with gaming (the aforementioned Asphalt 8: Airborne, Crossy Road) provide a perfectly pleasant experience when killing time at the DMV. While the small screen and occasional hiccup when something happens in the background will probably keep it from being your primary gaming device, the amount of eye-candy $50 can pump out is impressive.
Conclusion
A good buy, and truly impressive when the price tag is taken into account. While nobody will mistake it for the latest iPhone, it's an all around solid device. For a user who isn't tied to the iOS or Android ecosystems and just wants to fire off the occasional e-mail, couch surf, and have extremely capable turn by turn navigation, the Microsoft Lumia 435 is a no brainer.As expected, a $50 smartphone won't do a thing to sway anyone to switch from either of those platforms, but it shouldn't be expected to. At the same time, with a few additions (knock off any two 'misses' in the next iteration Microsoft and advertise the crap out of it), it could easily eliminate the last vestiges of the dumphone and featurephone markets.
Now, where is my $50 Android equivalent...
Hits
- $50 off contract
- Strong WiFi reception
- Unbelievably fast GPS locks
- Solid app performance, passable gaming performance
- Is actually good at being a phone
Misses
- Windows Phone 8.1
- No LTE
- No 5 GHz WiFi
- Squishy back plate
- Unlit navigation buttons
- Both cameras are terribad
- Included charger has a fixed USB cable, is slow
great work admin
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