Nokia Lumia 520 (R1 999)
Nokia’s Lumia 520 has been an absolute revelation in South Africa. It has done extremely well in the market even having beaten the iPhone 5 in sales at one point. It owes much of this success to the ease of use that first time smartphone owners find in the Windows Phone operating system with its big colourful tiles and simple to use interface.
The fact that the Lumia 520 is already a year old and can still compete with phones that have just entered the market in its price range is proof of just how good the hardware inside the Lumia 520 is. The only fault we might be inclined to pick on is the Windows Phone operating system which lacks the same amount of apps as Android has, but since almost all of the most widely used apps are present it shouldn’t be a big deal to most.
[symple_column size=”one_half”] [symple_box] “Tiles for miles!” [/symple_box] [/symple_column][symple_box] Rating: 4.5 Stars [/symple_box]
Samsung Galaxy Trend (R1 999)
Samsung’s Galaxy brand of smartphones is almost instantly recognisable and the Galaxy Trend is no different. In fact the Galaxy Trend looks like a miniature version of a Galaxy S3 only smaller. The similarities with the Galaxy S3 aren’t just skin-deep either with an almost identical looking skin over the operating system to the one used on its more famous brethren.
While we love the instant familiarity that most people will feel with Samsung’s smartphones along with the fantastic display that Samsung have put into the Galaxy Trend we were slightly disappointed with its real world performance. The Galaxy Trend is as smooth as butter when you first start it up, but once laden with apps and widgets on the home screen it starts slowing down rather drastically at times. We would have also liked a newer version of Android than the now three-year-old Android 4.0 that it comes with.
[symple_column size=”one_half”] [symple_box] “Samsung is trending” [/symple_box] [/symple_column][symple_box] Rating: 3 Stars [/symple_box]
