Microsoft just unveiled two new Lumia smartphones for the budget segment of the market, introducing the new Lumia 435 and Lumia 532 Windows Phone handsets.
The Lumia 435 is the first handset to launch as part of the company's "400 series," and seems poised to go head to head with Google's Android One in the sub-$100 sector of the smartphone market. The Lumia 532, meanwhile, joins the company's "500 series," while retaining the same sub-$100 price point.
"When we launched the first Lumia devices over three years ago, we said we were committed to bringing devices to as many people and price points as possible," Jo Harlow, corporate vice president for phones at Microsoft, touts in the announcement on Wednesday, Jan. 14, on the Lumia Conversations blog.
"With the Lumia 435 and Lumia 532, we've realized our goal of creating the most affordable Lumia devices to date, opening up the opportunity to reach those people who are buying a smartphone for the very first time. Lumia 435 and Lumia 532 deliver competitive hardware alongside innovative software that will continue to receive the very latest updates and enhancements, keeping users up-to-date with the best new features."
The new Lumia 435 comes as Microsoft's cheapest Lumia smartphone ever, sporting a price tag of just €61, or $81, before taxes and subsidies. The handset will make its commercial debut in February in Europe, Asia Pacific, as well as India, the Middle East, and Africa (IMEA), and will be available in orange, green, white, and black color options. The Lumia 435 will also come in both single-SIM and dual-SIM variants.
To keep the costs down, however, Microsoft had to make a few sacrifices with its Lumia 435. In the camera department, for instance, the handset features a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front shooter.
Other specs of the Lumia 435 include a 4-inch WVGA display (800 x 480 pixels), a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage capacity, microSD support for additional memory of up to 128GB, and a 1,560 mAh battery.
On the software side, the Lumia 435 ships with Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Denim on board out of the box, which means it will also include Cortana in markets where the software is available. It will also include Apps Corner and Live Folders, but Microsoft's new Action Center notifications center is not in the cards for this handset.
The new Lumia 532, meanwhile, has mostly the same hardware specifications as the Lumia 435, with the exception that it comes with a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and a 5-megapixel rear camera. This handset will be available for €79, or $92, before taxes and subsidies, and will also come in both single- and dual-SIM flavors.
To learn more about the two new Lumia smartphones, find the Lumia 435 announcement here and the Lumia 532 announcement at this link, or watch the demo videos embedded below.
