Microsoft Lumia 540 Review: Great battery but the camera disappoints
1/7
Microsoft Lumia 540 Review
<b>Text: Hitesh Raj Bhagat, ET Bureau</b><br><br>The Lumia 540 is yet another smartphone by Microsoft in the sub Rs 10,000 price bracket. The new dual SIM phone is aimed more towards photo enthusiasts because of the 8MP rear camera, 5MP front camera and a 5-inch HD display.
2/7
The 5-inch HD screen is great
One of the good things about the phone is the display. The 5-inch HD screen is great to use - sharp text with natural colours and excellent viewing angles. Thanks to the ClearBlack technology, the blacks on the screen look great and also make it easier to read in different lighting conditions. However, we did feel that the brightness levels could have been better.
3/7
The Lumia 540 is in sub Rs 10,000 price bracket
One thing that we did not like was the preloaded bloatware apps on the Lumia 540. You get Cleartrip, Foodpanda, Olacabs, Snapdeal etc. that come pre-installed and eat storage space.
4/7
The 8MP sensor with f2.2 aperture works well
Performance from the rear camera is good - it takes images with good details in daylight as well as indoors.<br><br> The 8MP sensor with f2.2 aperture works well but in low light there is excessive noise visible in the photos. There is an LED flash, but in our usage it tended to over expose the nearby subject in the photo.The front camera is good for selfies, but we noticed that most of the images captures with the front facing camera were soft (not enough sharpness).
5/7
The design is similar to other Lumia devices
The design ethos is similar to other Lumia phones too: a glossy finish, rounded edges and thick bezels around the display. As expected from the glossy plastic - we noticed smudges and scratch marks appearing on it after just a few days of usage.
6/7
The Lumia 540 is a jack-of-all-trades
Overall, the Lumia 540 is a jack-of-all-trades. However, for about the same price, the Huawei Honor 4x gives you a larger 5.5 inch display, better hardware and performance as well as better battery life.<br><br> If you don't want a large phone, then the Asus Zenfone 5 is cheaper and offers better performance, camera and battery life in a stylish design. However, if you are enthusiastic about Windows Phone, the Lumia 640 gives you better processor (Snapdragon 400), bigger battery and camera that does full HD video recording for roughly the same price.
7/7
Specifications
5-inch IPS ClearBlack display (1280 x 720 pixels), 1.2Ghz quad core Snapdragon 200 processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB + microSD slot, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, 8MP rear + 5MP front camera, dual SIM, Windows Phone 8.1, 2,200mAh, 152g
