by Mike Leader
Now owned by Microsoft, Nokia's mobile phone division continues to produce excellent Windows phones so let's see what their most affordable one has to offer you.
Solid and colourfully stylish
What you will instantly like is the familiar colourful Lumia styling and solid feel to the case, which is also comfortable to hold thanks to the back cover gently curving out towards the edges. In fact you could comfortably carry in in your hand for hours.
It instantly looks a class above the low budget android phones which all too often look cheap but not too cheerful.
Impressive screen for a budget phone
Around the front the black panel stretches the whole length of the phone, with the 4 inch screen with it's familiar Windows tiled interface adding to the sense of style.
The 854 x 480 resolution offers you a very decent viewing experience of 245 pixels per inch, which the Windows operating system deals with well due to the blocky nature of the on-screen tiles.
As a result the screen looks far better than it would on an equivalent Android handset, while the 1.2 GHz Qualcomm quad-core processor ensures the same smooth operation that you are met with on all Nokia Lumias.
You won't have any complaints with the screen which is better than some of those on much more expensive mobile phones.
15GB free storage space
Storage is limited to 4GB but you get 15GB of free online storage via Microsoft's OneDrive, and you will also find a memory card slot which accepts cards right up to 128GB so you will never be short of options to save your stuff.
A generous 5 megapixels are offered on the camera, with various Windows and Nokia camera apps to offer you all the photo enhancement and editing tools you need, while video recording is also available at 480p.
Shots are of good quality and will not disappoint you but there is no flash, and there is no forward facing 'selfie' camera here either.
Very generous feature set
A fully comprehensive suite of radios are on board with Wi-Fi, including Wi-Fi Hotspot, assisted GPS including access to Russia's GLONASS system, something often only found on much more expensive handsets. You get stereo Bluetooth too.
You will find plenty of other features including a stereo FM radio, Voice dialling and voice commands and memo, document viewer and active noise cancellation including dedicated microphone which helps to cut out background noise during your calls, and does it very well.
Our summary
If you a looking for a quality all rounder but do not want to break the bank this Windows 8.1 smartphone is perfect as a second phone, makes a great gift for the kids as an easy to use first handset and is ideal if you are simply considering looking at Windows Phone but do not want to spend a lot initially.
HD purists might want to spend a little more on a higher resolution screen, but for a sub-£100 phone the super smooth Nokia Lumia 530 is very likeable and almost impossible to fault. At this price it represents remarkable value for money.
