The Nokia Lumia 520 is an entry-level
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was s ...
smartphone announced by
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
at the 2013
Mobile World Congress.
In September 2013, the Lumia 520 became the best-selling
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
device in the world, selling more units than any other model of Windows phone, PC or tablet. By July 2014, the Lumia 520 has had 12 million activations, and has played a key part for Nokia and Microsoft.
A minor successor, the Nokia Lumia 525, was later released.
Hardware
The Lumia 520 comes in a slate shape with 4-inch SuperSensitive
touchscreen
A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is ofte ...
. The viewing angles are slightly reduced compared to other phones in the Lumia line. The Lumia 520 shares the same screen resolution of 800x480 as the more expensive Lumia 620, 720 and 820, and actually has a higher pixel density than the 720. The touchscreen is designed to be sensitive enough that one can use it while wearing gloves or with fingernails.
Aside from the screen, the front of the phone contains the
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was s ...
standard Back, Start and Search buttons, along with a speaker. The back houses a sole 5
MP camera sensor with autofocus and two-stage capture, but no LED. The sides of the phone also have standard Windows Phone features, as required by Microsoft – volume keys, camera key, power/lock key, 3.5 mm headphone jack and micro-USB connector, which is also used for charging purposes. The phone does not have a front-facing camera or a digital compass. The Lumia 520 ships with 8 GB (8 × 2
30 bytes) of internal storage with about 3 GB of the storage taken up by the operating system.
The Lumia 520 has a 1430 mAh battery, which is larger than the 1300 mAh battery in the Lumia 620. The 520 is also slimmer and lighter than the 620, but at the same time longer and wider due to its bigger screen. To reduce the production costs, the 520 lacks Nokia ClearBlack display, a front-facing camera,
NFC, camera flash and a compass.
Nokia Lumia 525
The Nokia Lumia 525 launched as the successor to the Nokia Lumia 520 with nearly the same specifications and appearance. The Lumia 525 doubles the RAM from 512 MB to 1 GB, therefore making it compatible with more demanding games and apps. The back shell is also now glossy instead of matte. It is offered in black, white, orange, and yellow colors which can be swapped via removable shells.
This phone was first launched in Singapore on December 14, 2013, followed by an India launch in the first week of January 2014.
Software
The Lumia 520 ships with Microsoft Windows Phone 8, as well as exclusive software like Nokia Mix Radio and
HERE Maps
HERE WeGo is a web mapping and navigation service, operated by HERE Technologies and originally developed by Nokia. In 2013, HERE Technologies released this web mapping application for Windows Phone and the World Wide Web as a revamped version ...
(featuring turn-by-turn directions, offline maps and navigation, and transit info). The phone received the Lumia Amber software update in mid-2013, which brought numerous bug fixes and improvements, including the ability to capture steadier images, and the Lumia Black update in late 2013.
The Lumia 520 can be upgraded to Windows Phone 8.1 as part of the Lumia Cyan update. Although a port was initially released as an insider preview, the phone will not receive the upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile, which has been attributed to being due to having only 512 MB of RAM.
An
Android Marshmallow
Android Marshmallow ( codenamed Android M during development) is the sixth major version of the Android operating system developed by Google, being the successor to Android Lollipop. It was announced at Google I/O on May 28, 2015, and release ...
6.0.1 port to the phone is underway at
XDA Developers
XDA Developers (also known simply as XDA; often stylized as xda-developers) is a mobile software development community launched on 20 December 2002. Although discussion primarily revolves around Android, members also talk about many other opera ...
, after developers became able to replace the
UEFI
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a set of specifications written by the UEFI Forum. They define the architecture of the platform firmware used for booting and its interface for interaction with the operating system. Examples of ...
bootloader
A bootloader, also spelled as boot loader or called boot manager and bootstrap loader, is a computer program that is responsible for booting a computer.
When a computer is turned off, its softwareincluding operating systems, application code, an ...
used for Windows with the Qualcomm
Little Kernel bootloader used to boot Android and other Linux-based operating systems.
Reception
CNET called the Lumia 520 "tremendous value on an easy-to-use device"; and said of its variant, the Lumia 521, "Though it lacks 4G LTE support, the $150 Nokia Lumia 521 still gives you quite a bit for your money. Pricing is absolutely this phone's primary value proposition, but the essentials all seem to work, the hardware is sturdy, and the camera is better than average."
The price of the Lumia 520 was halved to $50 in the United States and £70 in the UK for Christmas 2013 season.
Limitation
Similar to other budget phones like the
Lumia 620 and
Lumia 720, it only has 512 MB of
RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* ...
, half the RAM of the first Windows Phone 8 devices, causing certain applications and features to not run. On 27 November 2013, the Nokia Lumia 525 was announced in Singapore.
It increases the RAM to 1 GB to allow all Windows Phone features and applications to run.
520 Variants
A special variant, the Nokia Lumia 521, was created for
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic ( T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland ( T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobil ...
US. The 521 is slightly longer than the 520 at 124.0 mm (vs. 119.9 mm), so accessories such as cases and screen protectors manufactured for the 520 do not fit the 521. The Nokia Lumia 521's first retail release was on 27 April 2013.
See also
*
Microsoft Lumia
Microsoft Lumia (previously the Nokia Lumia) is a discontinued line of mobile devices that was originally designed and marketed by Nokia and later by Microsoft Mobile. Introduced in November 2011, the line was the result of a long-term partnersh ...
*
Nokia Lumia 525
*
Nokia X, X+,
XL
*
Nokia Lumia 530
*
Microsoft Lumia 535
The Microsoft Lumia 535 is an entry-level smartphone developed by Microsoft Mobile that runs the Windows Phone 8.1 OS and is upgradable to Windows 10 Mobile. The phone features a 5-inch display. It is equipped with a 5 MP front-facing camera. It ...
*
Microsoft Lumia 540
*
Microsoft Lumia 550
Microsoft Lumia 550 is a budget smartphone manufactured by Microsoft Mobile as part of its Lumia family of Windows-based mobile computing products. It was introduced along with the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL on 6 October 2015 at a press even ...
*
Nokia Lumia 635/630
References
External links
*
{{Nokia Lumia
Lumia 520
Microsoft Lumia
Mobile phones introduced in 2013
Discontinued smartphones
Windows Phone devices
Mobile phones with user-replaceable battery