Microsoft Lumia 535 and 535 Dual SIM review: A first of many

Photos app does the job

In Windows Phone 8.1 the Photo Hub has lost the magazine UI in favor of the traditional WP page view. You get three swipe-able pages - all, albums and favorites - all pretty much self-explanatory.

Automatic OneDrive backup is available, you just need to enable it from the settings. Microsoft gives you 15GB for free plus 3GB for the each device on which you turn on the automatic OneDrive camera upload.

Pictures hub

Sharing options include Bluetooth file transfer, messaging, email, Facebook, OneDrive and other available social services.

Xbox music app

The default Xbox music player in Windows Phone 8.1 uses the familiar page layout - you get Now Playing page; Collection view with shortcuts to artists, albums, songs, genres, playlists, and Music Store highlights. It also allows you to create, edit and delete playlists straight from your phone.

Music app with Now Playing screen and its album view • Collection and Music Store

The player is compatible with your Xbox Music account and can stream your songs if you have active connection without saving them on the phone.

Browsing your collection

Unfortunately, the Music app doesn't support FLAC playback. Equalizer options are available from Settings -> Audio. You can either user presets or customize your own.

Same video player with limited codec support, does not play HD

The video player is a separate app called Video. It has a four-page layout - your collection, movie store, TV store and spotlight.

The Video hub

The video player supports XviD, DivX, MOV and MP4 videos up to qHD resolution. The few things it won't play are MKV files and videos using the AC3 audio codec. There is a limited subtitles support.

Playing back 720p or 1080p video files is not smooth, if they start at all.

Playing a video

FM radio with RDS

There's an FM radio with RDS support on board the Lumia 525. You can use the loudspeaker for the FM radio, though you still need the headset connected as it doubles as an antenna.

FM radio

Audio quality is decent, on the quiet side

The Microsoft Lumia 535 did well when plugged into an active external amplifier, showing very clean output. Its volume levels are only average and lower than most other Lumias we've tested recently, but in this price range we'd still call this a win.

Performance with a headphones wasn't as great however. Stereo crosstalk rose moderately, but frequency response got dodgy and some intermodulation distortion crept in. Add the still average volume levels and you get a mediocre performance on this occasion.

Microsoft Lumia 535 frequency response

You can learn more about the tested parameters and the whole testing process here.