Microsoft Lumia 435, A budget breath of fresh air

I have reviewed, well written about, quite a few mobile phones now, mainly Nokia handsets and thankfully my opinion has usually been pretty positive, however two negative ones that come to mind were the first I did on a trial Nokia E75 and the last one I did on the Lumia 535, the first Windows Lumia branded as Microsoft instead of Nokia. I do , unfortunately stand by my view of the 535, having been given a second handset by the very kind and cool Mr Dean Patrick of Mix Radio fame, and although the second Lumia 535 was slightly better, specially after the software update, it remains a chore to use and the screen is still very inaccurate and typing is actually an unpleasant experience. Maybe I'm unlucky but the Lumia 535 as I've experienced it is more likely to put people off a low budget Windows handset than encourage them to use one. I said I thought Microsoft had gone one step below the minimum specs for a windows phone. I WAS WRONG !!!

Full Lumia 435 Specs HERE

Having been offered the chance to trial a Lumia 435 dual sim via James at connects and actually thinking twice before accepting the trial (one budget lumia too many ?) I had a package arrive at work on Friday the 13^th containing a cute little box , which contained a cute little phone :) Which is very reminiscent of the Nokia X I reviewed last year :-D . I will get the bad out of the way first, which in all fairness is purely subjective and verging on unfair. I describe the phone as 'cute' meaning small (4” screens were massive a few years ago, but bigger screens dominate now) and for 90% of users I think the size of the Lumia 435 may be an advantage as far as pocketability and one handed use is concerned, but as a grumpy old gitt who wears glasses and has fat fingers, reading and typing on a smaller screen is more difficult than on a larger one. The only other personal criticism I can throw is that the camera isn't up to much, having said that photography is not everyone's number one priority and as the complete little 435 probably costs less than the camera unit in most phones I've used it is hardly a fair dig.

Now with reduced expectations I really didn't expect much from the Lumia 435, did I mention earlier I WAS WRONG ? Well the Lumia 435 is phenomenal at it's price, sub £40 on PAYG but will also stand up well to many mid range handsets. Where I thought the Lumia 535 was under specified, the 435 has similar specs and runs like a watch, you occasionally notice it's a little slow when installing apps , loading games (although fine once loaded) and rendering heavy web pages with its Snapdragon 200 processor, but general use is fine and snappy and to compare it to something like my Lumia 1520 is both unfair and unrealistic, that said I've used it with my main and a spare sim card in since I got it and it hasn't frustrated me once, in fact it generally makes me smile. The screen is very accurate to the touch and so the typing and swiping experience on the phone is just what you'd expect from Windows Phone.

The 435 does everything I want just fine, all my social media apps work great and ping my notifications, the web experience is great, calls and messages work as well as anyone could want. Using the little handset as my main phone, the 1560mAh battery has easily lasted me a full day with some to spare and it really has done everything I need except take hi res photos, although it still takes a pleasant snap in good light :)

What is really mind blowing about the Lumia 435 is, if you take a step back, the price, you can own this handset for UNDER £40 !! That is a fully functional Sat Nav system , a media centre with apps like Mix Radio and Shazam for listening to and find music, and in the UK you can get BBC iPlayer , CatchUp TV, ITV Player , Demand 5 to stream live or catchup TV as well as Youtube and the flat squared sides of the 435 mean you can easilt stand the handset up in either portrait or landscape and use all these services to watch on a very viewable screen. On top of avoiding getting lost and entertaining you, it allows telephone calls, sms, messaging and mobile social media, and then there is the piece of resistance, the Lumia 435 fits in the top pocket of a workshirt perfectly, even leaves room for a pen !! Oh and it has Cloud storage with OneDrive, you can edit documents, it has secure email............

I really like the Lumia 435 , I like it a lot, well done Microsoft, keep up the good work, keep up testing standards on production and get me a high spec top end camera Lumia before the end of 2015.

Thanks for taking time to read my thoughts and viewing the pics, hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers

Stephen Quin

17/03/2015