Microsoft on Wednesday officially announced its new budget friendly smartphone dubbed ‘Lumia 530,’ claimed to be the most affordable Lumia to date, with an aim to expand Windows Phone platform to a wider money minded audience.
Announcing the launch, Jo Harlow, corporate vice president of Microsoft Devices Group said Microsoft is working hard to bring the uncompromised Lumia technologies, third party apps, and services currently offered in the company’s flagship products to a larger section of the people.
He said the new budget friendly phone, Lumia 530, will help the company attain its commitment of making affordable smartphones available for everyone.
Powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, the new Nokia Lumia 530 features a 4-inch FWVGA (480 x 854p) LCD display. The handset will be packed with 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage expandable up to 128GB via microSD slot and 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage. The handset will run Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1, and come with a 1,430mAh battery, promising up to 13.4 hours of talktime or 5.5 hours of video playback.
The smartphone will boast a 5-megapixel fixed-focus rear camera lacking flash. Unfortunately, the Lumia 530 doesn’t feature a front-facing camera or any dedicated hardware key for the camera. Connectivity options include dual-SIM card slots, 3G support, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0.
Available in bright green, bright orange, white and dark grey colours, the smartphone is expected to be rolled out around the world starting August 2014 for approximately £70 (around €85, $115, AU$120).
