Nokia Lumia 530 review

A small smartphone for a small price

Nokia Lumia 530 review
Big boots to fill - but the Lumia 530's feet just aren't big enough

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Nokia has taken another small step back with the 530 compared to the 520. You still get a solitary 5MP shooter, but this time it's fixed focus.

Nokia Lumia 530

Fixed focus only is a step back for the Lumia 530

There's no front-facing camera and there's no flash. The camera app is pretty bare bones. You can tweak white balance, ISO, shutter speed, and brightness. There's also a night and a sports mode, but auto will suffice for most people. It takes around four seconds to launch the camera and a couple of seconds to take a shot.

Nokia Lumia 530

This is fairly basic camera, with a bare bones camera app

Beyond the basic camera you can record video at 864 x 480 pixel resolution and 30 frames per second, but it looks pretty ghastly. You can also try smart sequence, which basically captures multiple shots and suggests the best one.

Nokia Lumia 530

In ideal outdoor conditions with good light the Lumia 530 might capture some nice photos, as long as you keep still. It's quite slow to capture a shot, and the fixed focus makes it very limited.

The switch away from the ability to tap to focus is a very bad thing and has become so ubiquitous that even those upgrading from older smartphones will miss the functionality.

Camera samples

Lumia 530

The direct sunlight has caused the contrast here to go a bit wonky

Click here for the full resolution image

Nokia Lumia 530

This angle with the sun coming in from the right works better

Click here for the full resolution image

Nokia Lumia 530

The fixed focus has picked the long grass in the foreground

Click here for the full resolution image

Nokia Lumia 530

You can see the camera struggles with shadows

Click here for the full resolution image

Nokia Lumia 530

There's no macro mode, so you can forget about close ups

Click here for the full resolution image

Nokia Lumia 530

Without a flash, things get very noisy and there's little chance of capturing a decent low light shot

Click here for the full resolution image

TOPICS