Microsoft Lumia 435

The Lumia 435 is a dirt-cheap smartphone. It’s not aimed at phone enthusiasts but light users or those who are looking to buy their first smartphone.

What’s really interesting about this cheap Windows Phone is that Microsoft has confirmed it will run Windows 10 when it arrives later this year. The Lumia 435 will then be your cheapest entry point to a full Windows 10 computer. Compare that to budget Androids, which are unlikely to ever be upgraded from the KitKat or Jelly Bean operating systems they ship with.

Even now, with its Windows Phone 8.1 software, one thing we’ve always admired about Windows Phone is how well it runs on lowerspec hardware, making it a fantastic candidate for a cheap smartphone such as the Lumia 435. So we’re a little dumbfounded to find a better hardware specification here than in any sub-£50 Android phone (sub£50 iPhones simply don’t exist).

Short and squat, the Microsoft Lumia 435 is exactly what you’d expect from a budget smartphone. It’s pretty chunky at 11.7mm, but rounded edges at the rear and a 4in screen make it comfortable to use in a single hand. We like the 134g weight, too, which stops this cheap phone feeling like a toy.

It’s made from plastic, but unlike many of the black plastic Android slabs you’ll find at this price its bright and colourful rear extends to the front for a splash of colour. In this sense Microsoft (okay, Nokia) has also found a great way of getting around the creakiness associated with removable rear panels, although it does mean the screen juts out somewhat at the front. These covers are interchangeable (but sold separately), giving access to an also-removable battery, MicroSIM and microSD card slots.

The screen is a 4in LCD with an 800x480-pixel resolution, which has a pixel density of 233ppi. This is pretty standard for a budget smartphone and, although the bright and colourful Windows Phone tiled interface looks infinitely better on an HD screen, even here it’s attractive. We weren’t very keen on our sample’s sickly green colour scheme out of the box, with that colour to our eyes looking more obviously washed out than any other, but on changing the theme to crimson Windows Phone was back to looking beautiful.

Sat beside a full-HD screen the difference is notable, but after a few minutes of playing with the Lumia 435 you quickly become used to the screen quality. That hint of fuzziness won’t disappear, but watching videos and browsing photos on this sub-HD screen is not about to hurt your eyes either. For the money, the screen quality is absolutely acceptable, plus, it has good viewing angles and doesn’t feel overly dim.

You’d be forgiven for thinking the Lumia 435 has the same core hardware specs as the £89 Lumia 535, with both featuring a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chip, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage – the latter two are extraordinary at this price, and double what you’ll find in any £50 Android phone. In fact, the processor inside this Windows Phone is a dual-core model, whereas the 535 has a quad-core chip. The 1GB of RAM will be important if you decide to upgrade to Windows 10.

General performance is acceptable. Launching apps and moving between menus is by no means instantaneous, but it’s fluid enough. One thing we did notice is that the camera still takes a good six or seven seconds to launch, despite this phone running Lumia Denim, which promises faster camera startup and photo capture.

In addition to the 8GB of internal storage, the Lumia 435 has a microSD card slot that supports up to 128GB. You also get 30GB of free cloud storage via the built-in OneDrive app.

Connectivity-wise you get 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS and GLONASS. The Microsoft Lumia 435 accepts a Micro-SIM and operates on 2G- and 3G networks, but it does not support 4G. That’s not a surprise – you’ll have to pay at least £100 if you want 4G connectivity. A dual-SIM version is also sold outside the UK.

Although Windows Phone is often criticised for its lack of apps, a handful of those built into Windows Phone is one of the things that endears us to the OS. Through its HERE Drive suite you get free turnby-turn driving instructions, offline maps and live traffic information, meaning this £50 smartphone can double as your satnav.

We can’t forget Cortana either, Microsoft’s voice assistant that is just as capable as Google Now and Siri – you can ask it anything. And we love the Lumia 435’s doubletap-to-wake feature.

Photography is one area in which the Lumia 435 shows its budget roots, with just a 2Mp fixed-focus camera at the rear. As we mentioned earlier, it takes a while to start up, and there’s no LED flash so you can forget about shooting in low light (or using this phone as a torch).

Something that also gives the Lumia 435 an advantage over its cheap smartphone rivals is a frontfacing camera. Sure, it’s just 0.3Mp, fuzzy and horrible to look at, but it opens up a new world of video chat (and unrecognisable selfies) that just isn’t possible with cheap Androids.

Microsoft has fitted the Lumia 435 with a 1560mAh removable battery. In our experience this is a one-day battery – it might not sound especially high in capacity, but this phone doesn’t run particularly demanding hardware.

Verdict

This is the best phone you can buy under £50.