lumia – Tech Raman

These Lumia devices gets OTA update to enable 4G; Here is the List and how to

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 06:02:26 +0000

With LTE gaining momentum in India, if you are an Windows Phone fan and owning a Lumia device you might feel left out the high-speed lane. Fret not, many of the Lumia devices do have LTE capabilities but were switched off in India. Today Microsoft India announced they are rolling out OTA update to some of their Lumia portfolio which will turn on the 4G switch. The select Lumia devices getting the LTE updates are: Lumia 1520, Lumia 1320, Lumia 1020, Lumia 930, Lumia 925, Lumia 920, Lumia 830, and Lumia 625.

How to update the 4G in Lumia device?

Users of these devices can either install the latest update through the Push Notification or go to Settings > Phone update > Check for Update to manually download it. Then go to Settings > Mobile + SIM to enable 4G. Even the latest Lumia devices including the 640 XL. 640 and 540 might get the OTA update in the second round. It is good to see Microsoft sending the OTA update and enabling the existing handset to 4G. We will keep updating on the future list and other WP updates. Stay tuned. ]]>

Microsoft adds Lumia 640 and Lumia 640 XL to its Indian inventory

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 18:45:20 +0000

I lost count of Lumia models and here are two more to join the list. Launched during the WMC earlier this year, both the devices are launched today and will go on sale exclusively on Flipkart from today. The Lumia 640 & 640 XL comes at a best buy price of Rs 11999 & Rs 15799 respectively. The Lumia 640 has a 5 inch HD screen with resolution of 720p resolution and strengthened with Corning Gorilla glass. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8926), 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, the phone gets a 1 GB RAM and 8 GB internal storage, with an option to expand via microSD card. It also houses a 8MP front camera capable of shooting video at 1080p and a front camera of 1MP for video calls. The phone houses battery of 2500mAh. XL obviously implies big size and the Lumia 640 XL is a bigger version of 640 but with a better specs and even the build. The matte finish of the XL feels much better than the glossy rear of the 640. For those who love bigger screen, the Lumia XL’s 5.7-inch HD screen with a resolution of 720p should be a good news. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, there is a 1GB of RAM and 8GB of ROM, with a provision for external memory card. The camera set up includes a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera for selfies. A 3000mAh battery is a good addition. Both the devices are available in white, black, cyan orange and green. We will come up with our reviews soon. Watch the space. ]]>

First Impression: Microsoft Lumia 532 Hands-On Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 06:19:15 +0000

Microsoft announced its new low-cost Lumia, the Lumia 532. Priced at Rs 6,499 the Lumia 532 is a compact Smartphone for those wanting a budget Windows phone and joins the entry-level portfolio of the Redmond giant. The company has positioned the phones in a price band where they compete with low-cost Android phones and faces tough competition. In terms of design, the Lumia 532 reminded us of the Nokia X2, Nokia’s experimental phone with Android. Like rest of the low-cost Lumia, the 532 has changeable coloured back cover that wraps around the phone. It also has a translucent plastic coating around the edges of the back cover that Microsoft likes to call semi-transparent layered design. The Lumia 532 features a 4-inch WVGA LCD screen and an 800×480-pixel resolution, which feels just right for the small screen size. Compared to the big phones these days, the Lumia 520 is quiet small but then there are many who are comfortable with this size. The right edge of the phone features the power and volume rocker keys, in the same colour as that of the shell and offer good tactile feedback. The top edge sports the 3.5mm headset jack while the bottom features the micro-USB port. The build quality looks good and should be durable. It should handle the occasional falls and bumbs casually. [gallery columns="5" link="file" ids="8618,8619,8620,8621,8622"] Talking about the internal specs, Lumia 532 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor that should be just about enough to handle the load. There is an 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage and there is an option for microSD card slot. Lumia 532 runs Lumia Denim which is essentially Windows Phone 8.1 with Update 1 with some Nokia-exclusive features. You need to struggle to remove the back panel, a small wedge on the sides would have made things easier. Once in side you find a removable 1,560mAh battery.The Lumia 532 has a rated talk time of up to 12 hours over 3G and a rated standby time of 22 days. You have a dual-SIM slots as well as the microSD slot that can support up to 128GB in external storage. You can also avail the 30GB cloud storage from OneDrive. For the camera, you are looking at a 5-megapixel fixed cocus rear lens with no flash. There’s a VGA front camera just for the sake of it. Clearly, the photos will not be the 532’s strong points. P.S The following sample images where shot indoors at poor lighting conditions. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="8624,8625,8626,8627"] Typical of Lumia color outfits, the 532 will also be available in bright orange, white and black along with this green version I have here. Also See: Our Lumia 532 First Impression Video http://youtu.be/G1O1-deIR5E The Lumia Five series has been the most popular series in the Lumia lineup and addition of the 532 would keep the momentum going for the Lumia. Facing the legions of Android budget smartphones might be a difficult battle for Windows Phone but good to see Microsoft putting all their efforts into the Lumia bucket to keep it afloat. If you are looking for a budget Windows Phone, there are many Lumia devices now to choose from including Lumia 532, we will reserve our final words till we use the phone extensively. To start with, for WP lovers wanting a compact phone on a tight budget, Lumia 532 looks an attractive proposition.]]>

Microsoft Lumia 435, the most affordable Windows Phone launched in India

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 18:11:44 +0000

Love Windows Phone but don’t on a tight budget? No worries. Microsoft has made its entry-level range a lot affordable with the launch of Microsoft Lumia 435 at Rs 5,999. The dual-SIM phone runs on the latest Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim firmware update. The Lumia 435 comes with a decent specs and features a 4-inch LCD display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution. The device is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor with Adreno 302 GPU mated with 1GB of RAM and houses a 8GB of internal storage. The storage can be expanded via microSD card. It also comes with a modest dual camera set up with a 2-megapixel at the rear and a VGA front shooter. While a 1,560mAh battery takes care of the power needs and the company claims a 11.7 hours talktime on a single charge , the connectivity options include 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0. Typical of Lumia devices, the 435 also will come in bright green, bright orange, white and black colour options. Microsoft seems to have got the pricing right and will the Lumia 435 be able to recreate the magic of Lumia 520, the most popular Windows Phone till date, we will wait and watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5hA3TvTf7w]]>

Microsoft Lumia 535 Launched at Rs 9199; Dual-SIM with a 5MP front shooter

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 17:02:07 +0000

The Lumia devices got a booster with the official launch of the entry-level Lumia 535 today in India and it also becomes the first of the Lumia devices to sport the Microsoft badging, replacing the Nokia. On the face of it, Lumia 535 seems to have in it to keep the Lumia brand in reckoning. It also fills the vaccum in the Lumia devices of no front camera in the affordable range. So what could turn the fortunes for Microsoft with Lumia especially in country like India where the Lumia devices still manages to evince interest? Lumia 535 features a 5-inch IPS LCD display, a most sought out display size in this part of the world, a dual-camera with a 5-megapixel camera set up both in the front and rear with LED flash and autofocus on the primary camera, a 1.2GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 200 chipset, 1 GB of RAM and runs on Windows Phone 8.1 OS. The display gets a qHD (960 x 540 resolution) strengthened with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. There is a 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded via microSD card and additionally the users also get a 30GB of One drive cloud storage. There is a 1,905 mAh battery which is removable. As a promotional offer, the Lumia 535 comes preloaded with Jabong, Flipkart, Paytm and Box TV apps, each of them bundled with an exclusive deal. Jabong offers a total of INR 6,000 off on their online purchases over a 3 months period, while Flipkart gives INR 1,500 worth of eBooks, Box TV offers 2 month free subscription. If you are a Vodafone user, you get 500 MB of free mobile data traffic, as well as a total of INR 600 extra charge value from Paytm over a period of 4 moths. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVuSyyNQv2o]]>

Microsoft delivers the selfie shutter with Nokia Lumia 730 and Lumia 735

Tech Raman — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 14:59:29 +0000

The trend is to fit a 5-megapixel front shooter with a wide-angle lens to cater the selfie segment. Looks like there is a sizeable consumers who want a selfie smartphones otherwise how would you explain a sudden flourish of such devices. Not to be left behind, Microsoft today launched their first ‘selfie smartphone’ with two options Nokia Lumia 730 and Lumia 735. Both the Lumia 730 and Lumia 735 shares the same internals with the only difference being the Lumia 730 supports dual-SIM while the single-SIM Lumia 735 has LTE support in addition. The new selfie devices comes with a 4.7-inch display with a 720 x 1280 pixel resolution and powered by 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB internal storage with microSD card support and Microsoft has also thrown in 15GB free OneDrive cloud storage. The phones run on Windows Phone 8.1, update 1 but the next iteration of the WP update, Lumia Denim would arrive soon. The camera specs lists a 6.7-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and the highlight of the device would be the 5-megapixel wide-angle front facing camera to justify the ‘selfie smartohone’ tag. There is a 2,200mAh battery that can be wirelessly charged. Both the Smartphones would arrive shortly in few weeks and the the Lumia 730 priced at 199 Euros, and the Lumia 735 priced at 219 Euros. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmkNiLRFZKI#t=17]]>

Microsoft delivers the selfie shutter with Nokia Lumia 730 and Lumia 735

Tech Raman — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 14:59:29 +0000

Microsoft's Lumia 830 lowers the price barrier for PureView imaging

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:31:55 +0000

Microsoft Devices, formerly known as Nokia’s phone division today announced the Lumia 830 that brings it’s famed Pure View imaging to more affordable flagship device with a 10-megapixel PureView camera on-board. The company says its the ‘thinnest’ PureView Optical Image Stabilization on Lumia devices till date. Talking about the specifications, the Lumia 830 features a 5-ich ClearBlack IPS LCD display with a 128400 x 720 pixel resolution and powered by a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. On board is a 16GB of internal storage with microSD support. Additionally, Microsoft has bundled the device with a 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage. Lumia 830 runs on Windows Phone 8.1 with update 1 and will ship with the Lumia Denim update. There is a 2,200mAh removable battery that can be wirelessly charged. Camera as I mentioned at the begining is a 10-megapixel rear shooter with PureView imaging and on the front there is a 1-megapixel setup. Clad in a aluminum body with a polycarbonate rear, the Lumia 830 is also thinner and lighter than other flagship Lumia devices. There are four color variants: green, orange, white, and black.The Lumia 830 is positioned below the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930, as an “affordable flagship.” and is priced at Euro 330. ]]>

Microsoft's Lumia 830 lowers the price barrier for PureView imaging

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:31:55 +0000

Lumia 630 Review [Hands-On]

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 14 May 2014 00:52:31 +0000

After bagging Nokia into its kitty, Microsoft is launching the first Lumia device under its watch in India and it also becomes the first Lumia device to arrive with Windows Phone 8.1 OS. There is also another first, Lumia 630 also is the first dual-SIM device in Lumia series. I always feel only in Lumia the vibrant, colorful panels looks very attractive and Lumia 630 is no different coming in bright orange, bright green and bright yellow rear panels alongside the usual white and black colours. The green is my pick of the lot. It looks really cool! Lumia 630 falls under the budget-phone bracket and is priced a tad higher than the Lumia 525 but well below the Lumia 625. (don’t get confused by the numbering) The 4.5in IPS display has a 854×480 resolution, a slight improvement on the rest of the budget-Lumia screen’s 800×400-pixels. Still a bit underwhelming pixel count but nevertheless the display packs a color punch and looks pretty good enough. Nokia’s ClearBlack technology boosts the display. Further there is also Corning Glass 3 screen protection. What lies under the shell? A 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core chipset powers the Lumia 630 but surprisingly they have opted for 512MB of RAM only. It must be noted that unlike the Android, WP is quiet an efficient OS but when Lumia 525 came with a 1GB of RAM, it should have found a place here too. Still, the quad-core processor proved to be a good leveling force and the device didn’t feel lagging at the brief period I toyed with. I am sure it will handle most of the regular stuffs people do at this segment barring some resource-crunching games. The device uses a polycarbonate body yet there is nothing of the cheap plasticy feel like most Android devices of this segment contents with. The rectangle block has slight corners on the edges and the Lumia 630 looks cute and feels good on hand. I quiet liked the matte finish of the chassis. No wonder even as the market share shrunk for various other reason, people still rate Nokia high on their device’s build quality. Hope the reputation and the effort continues under Microsoft too. The power button and volume rocker are found on the right while the left is stripped clean off any buttons and ports. On top and bottom as expectedly are the audio jack and USB port respectively. [gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="7142,7143,7144,7145"] The chassis almost look like an unibody but in real terms, it can be peeled out. The inside looks neat with slot for the dual SIM and memory card. Talking about the external memory card. It can be accommodate up to 128GB. Windows Phone 8.1 brings forth lots of new features and possibilities and Lumia 630 gets some of the benefits. One noticeable difference is the lack of hardware navigation keys and Lumia 630 uses on-screen capacitive keys. The device also gets in-phone search. Another introduction is the ability to customize live tiles on the home screen with our own background image. The image seeps down into various tiles as you scroll down. The parallax effect of the background image makes it more interesting and visually appealing. So good bye, the boring block color we have seen on Windows Phone 8 running devices. Go to Start + Theme setting for changing the background. Also earlier we could only have three coloumns of apps in larger Lumia devices but with the new software update, it is possible to have a third coloumn on Lumia 630. Yet another refreshing update is the Notifications + Action centre. Like with Android devices, swipe from top for the Action centre.It gives quick access to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Camera, brightness. Also you can see the notifications as well as control the notifications settings to allow/restrict notifications from certain apps. Lumia 630 comes with Microsoft’s new Word Flow keyboard. It is unarguably the best native smartphone keyboard around. This keyboard was officially certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest smartphone keyboard in the world. An interesting titbit the record was set by an Indian, Gaurav Sharma. You can swipe your finger for accurate text entry and it has great auto-correct features plus there is also a good dose of emoticons to get playful. Now to the camera. A 5-megapixel shooter is mounted on the rear sans a LED flash. The device lacks a front-shooter. There are quiet a dollops of features and also apps like Nokia Cinemagraph, Nokia Glam Me, Bing Vision are tied up to camera setting. First impression: verdict Lumia 630 is cute with a good build quality for a budget-smartphone, the WP 8.1 brings a host of new features that makes the smartphone better at usability. The brief time I toyed with the device, it looks like success of Lumia 520 might continue with this phone too. We will wait for our review device and give a detailed report but I am positive with the brief encounter. ]]>