Nokia 515 Review

A blast from the past. That is what comes to mind when seeing the Nokia 515 device. Has Nokia forgotten the year? Has it confused the smartphones era with the basic devices era? Has it misunderstood the need of audio text acceptance to predictive text in basic messaging? What about voice dialing confusion with speed dial, or color displays?

The Nokia 515 seems to be a decade late, but Nokia has still got the arrogance to release the device. However, the device has the features we all fell in love with, like the sturdy built, the extreme simplicity and the solid performance, not to mention the extremely long life of the battery.

While unboxing the Nokia 515, you will get everything inside the retail box that you need to get started with this phone.

• Nokia 515 device
• A Nokia charger
• Nokia WH-108 headset (absent of volume controls)
• A pin to access the phone’s insides

The 515 has a QVGA resolution display sized at 2.4", with a modest 167 ppi, which isn't too bad for entry level devices. The display quality is pretty neat and good contrast levels too make the display surpass the expectations pre-formulated depending on pricing.

The device is very legible in sunlight, and even beats some of the top tier devices in this comparison.

The Nokia 515 has been designed very efficiently. The design has been done to make the device look sleek, slender, classy and stylish all at the same time. The glossy plastic keys try to ruin the outlook a bit, but do not succeed. We dare say, in the price range where this device lies, we cannot recall any recent device with such an exquisite design.

The back consists of a single piece aluminum cover, with a patch of rubber near the bottom to allow radio to function properly with decent sound quality. The cover can be removed by inserting the pin in the small hole near the bottom and to pry open the cover. Users can access battery and card slots from this place.

The front, in our view, should have been focused more from a design perspective, with a 2.4" display which is very small for screen sizes these days, as well as the plastic keys. The classic Nokia designing is on display here, which although looks stylish, does make one think why Nokia went with such a material for its keys. Also, the Corning Gorilla Glass 2 makes the screen very well protected.

As was meantioned earlier, the 515 takes up the classic pre-smartphone era front display, with a screen at the top and a keypad at the bottom. The navigation consists of a four-way D-pad with the center key used for confirmations, with a soft key and a call key on either side of the D-pad. All the keys are comfortable, proper sized for easy use, and have good feedback. Right below the keys is the microphone.

The left side does not have any buttons, while the right side contains the volume rocker only. The absence of extra buttons enhance the stylish looks, making the device look cool. The bottom has only the pin hole for opening the back panel. The top has the microUSB as well as the 3.5mm headphone slot. On the back, the 5MP camera is present with the LED flash, and the speaker grille is present near the bottom at the back.

The back is a stylish single piece aluminum cover, which is removable, which can be done using the ejector pin provided, which is a bit odd for devices like this. Underneath the cover is the 1,200mAh battery, with SIM and microSD slots also present very close to the battery. However, the designing is such that the battery has to be replaced for SIM or microSD cards to be swapped. Overall, the device design is pretty solid, and has been built to last.

The device is 6th edition S40, with Active standby as the default homescreen layout, with the screen divided into tiles, with scrolling available by D-pad. The layout can be rearranged, but the default one is the most sensible one. The soft keys can be made to launch different screens, which can be set by settings. The generic indicators, as in classic Nokia devices, are on top. The main menu can be viewed as grid, list or single item view modes.

Nokia 515 is a S40 device, so it can use Java apps to increase its functionality. This is no replacement to smartphones, but still, it covers some basic apps like Facebook among others. The messaging is the same old simple and easy to use option, which covers SMS, MMS, flash and audio message setup as well as emails in the same manner of the traditional Nokia java phones. The device has a keypad, which traditionalists and messaging enthusiasts will love due to the added benefit in typing speed.

Email support is present for POP3, IMAP and SMTP protocols, the most common and widely used options. Multiple accounts handling as well as SSL support means you can add multiple accounts, including Gmail too.

The imaging application labeled Photos can organize images in albums, displayed as a timeline, as well as can be sorted by name, size and date. Images can be viewed in landscape or portrait mode, and though auto-rotation is not available, images are loaded on the full screen. The regular Gallery application is also present, though it now resides inside the Applications menu, and performs more like a file manager than a gallery, though it still enables viewing pictures. This application can manage files as well as folders, so this one will be used a lot.

The device has a music player which supports basic features and formats, like MP3, WMA among others. Track filtering is also present. And of course the A2DP profile support is present, enabling audio streaming via Bluetooth. A radio is also present on the device, and with the built-in antenna, does not require headsets to start playing. Many would like the radio feature, specially knowing that the device has good audio quality, particularly when the powerful loudspeaker is used. Although the device supports MP4 and 3GP among other video formats for viewing, due to the small screen size, the device will not be used for this purpose we suppose – even though the device supports full screen video viewing, with only pause button available in this mode.

The 515 has the traditional Nokia browser, with the URL and search bars, as well as the side-scrollable panes of the Symbian display. The page load on the device uses the trick that Opera Mini introduced, i.e. compressing the page on the server before transmitting to the phone, keeping traffic to a minimum. Also the image quality adjustment for display on the web browser further helps on slow networks. The performance though, is only best as per the old standards, not the ones introduced by smartphones. Also, the calendar, alarm and calculator are standard Nokia offerings, though the calculator does offer the basic as well as advanced modes. In addition a loan calculator is also present, and the unit converter application also comes pre-installed. The applications for Notes, World Clock, Countdown, To-Do List are also present, all part of the standard Nokia package.

The single speaker present at the back, near the bottom of the device, is an excellent one. We wish some of the smartphones would start offering similar speakers, as some recent introductions like Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and Sony Xperia Z1 have just average or close speakers. The speakers provide users to pick any calls coming to their devices in loud environments too, and the same quality can be enjoyed while playing music or videos on the device. We can assume some music lovers would really enjoy this feature of the device.

The Nokia 515 has a fixed-focus camera as its offering, with a 5 mega pixel camera that can take pictures of up to 2592 x 1944 resolutions. The interface of camera is quite simple and easy to figure out. The options present include white balance, a self-timer, as well as several effects, as well as, surprise, the camera can shoot panorama photos.

The image quality of the shooter is pretty good for a 5MP shooter, even though there may be better 5MP shooters around, this one is the best in this price range by a fair distance. Also, the camera has face detection, which makes shooting more fun. Though, on the downside, of course there is no front facer on this device.

The reproduction of color is very good, with decently accurate white balance, with the detail more than sufficient for 5MP shooters. However, there is enough noise as well, so all is not rosy with the snapper.

With the Nokia 515, you can also record videos as well but at a very disappointing 30fps in QVGA quality. The video is one of the weakest points in the device.

The device contains dual-band 3G with HSDPA at 7.2 Mbps down and 5.76 Mbps up, as well as the option for USB connectivity to computers, GPRS, EDGE and Bluetooth. However, there is a much felt absence of Wi-Fi, which is now a common option in all devices, however, Nokia may not have received the memo on that.

The device also contains multiple GSM options, as well as an extendable memory, which is much appreciated.

The Nokia 515 flaunts a 1,200mAh battery, and with a small display size as well as not too taxing applications, the device can churn out more than 10 hours of talk time, as well as more than 5 hours talk time for 3G. The device can withstand more than 900 hours on standby as well, which is incredible. We used the device on average, including messaging, some surfing, a bit of emails, and some calls. By the end of the day, we still around half the battery in the tank, which is outstanding.

Apart from its extraordinary battery life and all the good features the Nokia 515 has to offer you, it does come with some shortcomings which are listed below:

• The device is higher in price than some smartphones with pretty decent feature set
• Smart dial is not available
• Screen brightness has to be managed manually
• The absence of a touchscreen, or Wi-Fi

The Nokia 515 is going to have a difficult welcome and stay in the market, that part even Nokia knows. Of course, the devices like this are still existent, they are now on the fringes, literally, with the smartphones playing center stage in the cell phone market. For a manufacturer to launch a device like this, at a time when it is also being sold, is surprising, specially seeing that other devices from Nokia like the 625, the 920 and others were starting to make a buzz in the market.

Still we have to give Nokia the approval for being courageous enough to come out with a device like this. With a device like this, with the build quality, the form, the looks and feature set, we can only assume that this device will have its own sales which it may well live up to or even exceed.

The aluminum look, that was seen in classic sell outs from Nokia, like the 6300, is extremely solid and sure looks that way. The device being so solid, yet with such a classy frame and compact size sure makes us reminiscent of the good old times of the devices like 6500, and 6303i among others. However, this all now seems to be a useless exercise, with smartphones invading the market and offering so much more, some even at prices lower than this device from Nokia. Also, the width of the device is a recent trend, and if the device was a bit slimmer, we could be seeing some followers of the traditional Nokia thinking of getting this device.

The device also carries a 5MP camera, something that was unheard of in this segment of devices, and it also comes with an LED flash. The presence of 3G and USB modem that make this device seem a good idea for some. However, with the Wi-Fi being absent, many users won’t even consider this device.

Nokia has no impressions of greatness through this device, and they know that this device will only garner limited appeal. However, with their still coming out with this device means that they are still targeting those who aim for simplicity, style and design perfection.