Nokia Lumia 520 vs. LG Optimus L5-2: Competition Between Low-cost MNC Smartphones Intensifies

South Korean consumer electronic major LG launched a mid-range smartphone, Optimus L5-2 in India a few days ago, and it will have to compete with Nokia Lumia 520 in the market.

LG Optimus L5-2 packs a pretty descent specs for an affordable price and will ahve to compete with the sub continents reigning mobile phone leader Nokia which has launched a similar 4.0-inch low-cost smartphone Lumia 520 just a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks to their MNC brand tags and low price-tag, both Lumia 520 and Optimus L5-2 have the potential to attract Indian buyers, but it remains to be seen if the consumer overlooks the new Windows Phone 8 OS of Lumia 520 and go for LG Optimus L5-2 which runs on the popular Android Jelly Bean OS.

Here is brief comparison of main specs between Nokia Lumia 520 and LG Optimus L5-2:

Display:

Lumia 520 sports a 4.0-inch screen with 480x800p display and boasts of 235 pixels per inch with Nokia's exclusive ClearBlack display technology which assists in viewing contents on smartphone's rich colour display even under direct sun-light on the device.

LG Optimus L5-2 features same screen size and display resolution of 480x800p close to 233 ppi pixel density.

Processor:

In terms of power, Lumia 520 holds the upper hand against the rival Optimus L5-2, as the Nokia smartphone packs dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 1GHz CPU and Adreno 305 GPU, whereas LG smartphone houses a below-par single-core MTK 6575 processor with 1GHz and PowerVR SGX531 graphics engine.

Camera:

Nokia Lumia 520 sports a pretty decent 5.0megapixel main camera only drawback is that it does not feature LED flash support, whereas Optimus L5-2 houses a similar 5.0-megapixel main camera with an added advantage of LED flash support.

Since both the smartphones fall in low-cost price bracket, they will not pack secondary camera at the front.

Mobile Operating System:

In this department, LG Optimus L5-2 runs on the popular Android v4.1.2 OS Jelly Bean and comes on top against the Windows Phone 8 OS powered smartphone Lumia 520. With close to 700,000 apps to choose, Android smartphone buyers have the advantage of getting hold of any new apps or games in the market as many software developers across the world prefer Android's open ecosystem compared to newly launched Windows Phone 8 OS.

Even though Windows Phone 8 was released more than half a year ago, it is still very new to the market and it houses a tiny collection of close to 150,000 apps and games and even the popular photo app 'Instagram' is yet to debut in the Windows Phone store.

Memory and Battery capacity:

Lumia 520 packs 512MB RAM, 8GB internal memory with options of expanding up to 64GB whereas LG Optimus L5-2 houses 512MB RAM, 4GB internal memory with options of expanding up to 32GB via microSD card.

LG Optimus L5-2 houses 1700 mAh battery whereas Nokia Lumia 520 features a comparatively low capacity 1430 mAh battery.

Price:

Lumia 520 is priced ₹10,499 whereas Optimus L5-2 holds a price-tag of ₹11,499, ₹1000 more than its competitor.

Here is a break-down of key Specifications of Nokia Lumia 520 and LG Optimus L5-2:

*Price as listed in the Flipkart