Huawei Ascend Y530 review

Huawei Ascend Y530 Camera

The Y530’s 5-megapixel camera was better than most budget sensors we’ve seen, but there are a few trade-offs you’ll have to live with if you want well-exposed pictures. In our outdoor shots, it managed to capture plenty of cloud detail in the sky, but the buildings in our test shot looked very dark and murky as a result. Conditions were admittedly quite overcast during testing, but when we compared our photos with shots taken on other phones under the same conditions, the Y530’s dingy, muddy colours compared poorly to the Moto G’s brighter, more vibrant shots and the detail present in the Alcatel One Touch Idol S’s shots. There was also a fair amount of noise present in larger patches of colour.

Huawei Ascend Y530 Battery Life

We weren’t particularly impressed with the Y530’s battery life either, as its 1,750mAh battery lasted just 7 hours and 8 minutes in our continuous video playback test with the screen set to half brightness. We’d normally expect to see at least nine hours from a modern smartphone, so you may need to charge the Y530 more frequently if you’re using it all day.

Huawei Ascend Y530 Conclusion

The Huawei Ascend Y530 is a competent Android handset for £120 SIM free, but with its poor battery life and mediocre camera, it’s not quite cheap enough to make it a better buy than the £130 Alcatel One Touch Idol S, which is a more competent and desirable phone all round.