If you are thinking of buying a Nokia budget phone with really good features and gives you all the benefit of a smartphone then Nokia Lumia 510 is the right fit for you. Announced back in October of last year, the Lumia 510 is Nokia's most affordable Windows Phone handset and probably be the last Lumia to run the Windows Phone 7 OS. The best part is not just the sturdy body and high battery life by Nokia but the different features of windows affordable in really low price.

Design And Build:

On the front is the 4-inch capacitive display with a resolution of 480 x 800 surrounded by a glossy plastic bezel. Found below the display are three capacitive buttons and a microphone while above it is the earpiece and the Nokia logo. There are three buttons on the right side the volume rocker, power/lock button and dedicated camera button. The left side is devoid of anything except for a slit that helps you remove the backplate. Right on top is the headset jack while at the bottom is the microUSB port. Flip it on its back and you will find its soft touch plastic backplate, the 5 megapixel camera and speaker grill. The Lumia 510 is solidly built. The Lumia 510 sports a soap shape design similar to the Lumia 610 which allows for a more comfortable grip. Also the 129g body gives an impression that it will survive after being thrown on a wall.

Camera Performance:

The Lumia 510 is equipped with a 5 megapixel AF shooter with no LED flash. Although it sports a modest sensor, it actually shoots pretty decent pictures especially in bright conditions. However, colors are a bit washed out and noise are often evident.

Display Clarity:

The Lumia 510 sports a regular 4-inch display, meaning it’s not AMOLED and there’s no ClearBlack technology like its other high-end Lumia siblings. There’s no IPS as well so viewing angles are a bit limited. On the good side, colors are vibrant, has a decent outdoor legibility and the 480 x 800 resolution equates to a pixel density of 233ppi which is very acceptable for a display of this size.

Processing Speed:

Although powered by a single-core processor clocked at 800MHz and 256MB of RAM, the Windows Phone OS delivered a smooth UI experience as expected. Animations are fluid but transitions are slow. Sometimes it would take a full second before it responds to commands like launching an app, returning to the previous app, or going back to the homescreen. Other than that, everything works fine.

Power On It:

As for battery life, the Lumia 510′s 1,300mAh battery seems below average but it was able to last for more than a day using it for WiFi internet browsing, an hour on mobile data, browsing SNS, and moderate texting and calling.

Overall:

To conclude, the Nokia Lumia 510 is a very capable and solidly built Windows smartphone. It can handle basic tasks properly but is somehow limited by the Windows 7.5 OS. Even with the improvements brought by the 7.8 update it is nothing compared to Windows Phone 8 which it won’t get.