< Go back to the collection list

Microsoft Lumia 550

The budget Lumia that couldn't.

The Lumia 550 is one of the last devices in the series, which is good.
After Microsoft took over Nokia's mobile devices division, the Lumia quality took a nosedive. While the x3x generation Lumias turned out to be quite good, those with the Microsoft logo leave a bit to be desired. Touch issues with the 535 and a bland approach to creating the 532/435 models. It was a little better with the 640 and 640 XL Lumias.
Then the x5x generation models came along and all Nokia's remains were gone. The flagship 950 and 950 XL were made out of very thin plastic and then the miserable budget models: 650 (which price was probably an out-of-season April's Fools joke) and 550.

Lumia phones were known for their very good quality/price ratio, and the 550 has nothing, and it offers performance far worse than the 532. I have no idea whether it's the fault of the very low-end Qualcomm processor, Windows 10 or a combination of both.
Microsoft decided to be brazen enough to use the camera module from the... Lumia 520. Yes, nearly 3 years older model. Ironically, this is a plus and works better than what the 435 and 532 models offered. These cameras didn't have such basic things as an autofocus.
As a bonus, the IPS display used is absolutely horrific (compared to the one in Lumia 520), because at some angles the colors invert like in a cheap TN LCD, and has many, many stuck or dead pixels. Setting a higher screen brightness and displaying a solid black background results in a rainbow-like, starry sky. Wonderful.

I survived with this thing for about six months and every month I was wondering how it hadn't landed on the wall yet.
To make it not so bitter, the Lumia 550 had two tiny advantages: LTE support and a camera flash.

Specifications: