Microsoft Lumia 540 – Review
Budget devices is the target segment for mobile manufactures these days and who is a better player than Microsoft in that segment? The reason, their lean and stable Windows Phone 8 Operating system. An Android device at this price segment could lag or slow down over the period of usage, but not Windows mobiles. Windows mobiles offer similar experience across all of their mobiles in any price range and the key differentiator would be the hardware. Management guru and pioneer Masaaki Imai’s mantra to the world was Kaizen, which meant continual improvement. Microsoft seems to be adopting Kaizen in their Lumia lineup and they are taking it a bit too serious. They are aggressively pursuing excellence by introducing new products in the Lumia lineup and improving it with every release. The Lumia 540 is another classic example of Microsoft’s Kaizen moto. After the success of Lumia 535 followed by Lumia 640, Microsoft has introduced the Lumia 540 tightly wedged between these two offering.
Consistent Lumia Design
The Lumia 540 has the classic Lumia design language, only that it feels a bit improved. The Lumia 540 has a flush flat design. It sits flat on the table and has optimally curved corners. The material used is plastic and it feels premium. Lumia 540 is marginally thicker and heavier than Lumia 535, but due to the flush design it feels very thin at 9.4 mm. The back panel is removable. Under the panel is the 2200 mAh battery and the dual micro SIM slots along with the microSD card slot. The primary camera is 8 MP and is assisted by a single LED flash. The speaker is placed at the back and I would have preferred the placement to be at the bottom. The right side of the device houses the volume keys and power button. At the top you have the 3.5 mm audio jack and the bottom has the USB socket. The display is a large and brilliant 5 inch IPS LCD with ClearBlack technology. At the top of the display we have 5 MP camera and the ambient light sensors. I had some issues with the sensor and they were not able to pickup the screen brightness automatically. The earpiece and mic are neatly tucked at the top and bottom of the display. The black unit we got for review had a matte finish and it was not slippery. The mobile is very comfortable to hold and slips in and out of the pocket with ease. Once again, impeccable design and robust construction on this Lumia device as well.
Watch the unboxing and design tour video
Display that does the job
The display quality is something that has been inconsistent with the Lumia devices, especially in the budget segment. Fortunately the Lumia 540 does not disappoint. It has a a 5-inch IPS LCD 720p HD display with ClearBlack technology. The black levels are deeper and the color are natural/ Sunlight visibility is good and the display has decent viewing angles. It does not have tap to wake or glance screen functionality which was a novel feature in the Lumia lineups. However you can enable tap to sleep, where in you can tap the navigation bar and the screen locks and goes to sleep. The display is not protected by any toughened glass, but its of good quality. I am saying that because I dropped my review unit a couple of time and still not a scratch.
Not a power horse, but a work horse
Digging into the spec sheet would tell you that the Lumia 540 is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with a Adreno 302 GPU. It has 1 GB RAM and 8 GB of internal memory of which 4 GB is available to the user. Memory is expandable with a microSD card by upto 128 GB. It is not the most powerful hardware we have seen in this price segment, but that the trump card here. Lumia device can run smoother and snappier than any other mobile in this price range because of the OS which has very minimal hardware requirement. On the flip side, the weak harware impacts heavy apps like any graphic intensive game. But for casual gaming, the Lumia 540 is perfect. If you are an avid gamer, then go for the better spec’d Lumia 640. Also it lacks 4G capability which is a standard offering in many mobiles these days in that price segment. Lumia 540 is powered by the latest Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia Denim Update 2. The UI is fast and snappy as usual and so no signs of lag at any point.
Camera, a step back
The camera gets a huge bump when compared to Lumia 535. It has a 8 MP sensor, but capable of just 480p videos. The camera app is a little step back from what you have in the Lumia 640 or 640 XL. They had the Lumia Camera 5 on them with Live and Rich modes apart from a few UI enhancement. Unfortunately Lumia 540 has the Lumia Camera 4.9 which is still not bad. I am a huge fan of the Lumia Camera app with all its awesome pro controls. Clicking picture with the 540 was a bit slow. It took a bit of time to advance to the next shot. The image output was rich in detail but the colors were a bit washed out. The front 5 MP camera has a wide angle lens to accommodate 4 to 5 faces. It is not auto focus and the results are just average. The Lumia 540 has a decent camera experience, but the competitors in this price range have much more to offer in the talent pool.
Check out the camera sample
The 2200 mAh battery powering the Lumia 540 lasted for about a day on normal usage. On intense usage, the battery lasted for about 14 hours and that too when the battery saver option was enabled.
Should you buy it?
If you ask me for a recommendation to buy a mobile without any hassle and with an assurance that its performance would degrade over the period of usage and running on a tight budget, I am definitely going to recommend the Lumia device. The Lumia 540 is available for Rs 9000 and if you extend the budget by just Rs 1000 you will get the Lumia 640. Lumia 640 is definitely worth the extra bucks. The Lumia 535 is now priced at Rs 7000 and that puts the Lumia 540 is a very tight spot in between. I would strongly recommend the Lumia 640 over Lumia 540 and Lumia 540 over Lumia 535, if you dont care about 4G capability. This Lumia 540 does not set the floor on fire, but it is definitely a straight forward phone that has a clean UI and a decent performance.
#540Reasons Contest winner
In Collaboration with Lumia India, we at Gadgetdetail hosted a contest(#540Reasons Contest) on out twitter timeline on 2nd June 2015. The contest ran for 12 hours and we had one brand new Microsoft Lumia 540 to giveaway. The tweets were vetted for duplicates and the tweet IDs from the unique tweets were fed to randomizer app and the winner was selected. Congratulations to Gourav for winning the Lumia 540. We will be in touch with you soon.
Some of Gourav’s tweets
@GadgetDetail @LumiaIndia No need go outside for work,carry your office in your pocket with #Lumia540 has inbuilt Ms – Office#540Reasons
@GadgetDetail @LumiaIndia Each picture having there own story i want to experience that story form #Lumia540 #540Reasons
i want to mu own @GadgetDetail @LumiaIndia Dashing colorSuperb designAmazing clear displayWith the wonderful performance#Lumia540 #540Reasons
Some more of the tweets from our readers
@GadgetDetail #Lumia540 @LumiaIndia not other device can give such dynamic and vibrant look but lumia has and this is one of #540Reasons – @AnandBoisa
@GadgetDetail #540Reasons @LumiaIndia #Lumia540 In-Built Office or 350GB of Cloud Storage is juast ony of my #540Reasons – @stopthestart
I love windows phone for its speed and reliability #Lumia540 is a speed monster and I want it #540Reasons @LumiaIndia @GadgetDetail – @aj_strikes