The T-Mobile-bound variant of the entry-level Windows Phone 8-powered Nokia Lumia 520 smartphone, the Lumia 521, has been making waves since its debut on the carrier. The Lumia 521 is now set to go on sale at retailer Walmart for $150 outright.
Per reports, Walmart will begin offering the off-contract version of the Lumia 521 starting next week at its stores.
"Following a successful run on the Home Shopping Network during which it sold out, next on the schedule for the Nokia Lumia 521 is Walmart.The big box discounter is selling the Windows Phone powered model for $150 off-contract, starting next week. That means that for $150, you own the phone without being handcuffed to a specific carrier for two years," reports Phone Arena.
While consumers will not be saddled with the hassles of a two-year contract, the Lumia 521 will come paired with T-Mobile's $30 per month unlimited data and text plan. However, since the smartphone would belong to the consumer, the option to leave T-Mobile at any point is open.
Nokia announced the budget-friendly Lumia 520 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February this year and the T-Mobile exclusive variant of the smartphone, Lumia 521, hit the shelves at the end of April. The Lumia 520 is touted as the most inexpensive Windows Phone ever. The handset recently went on sale in India for $190 and has surfaced on eBay for $240. Canadian carrier Koodo also has the Lumia 520 up for pre-order for $150.
The Nokia Lumia 521 sports a 4-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 800 x 480 resolution (233 ppi). The handset measures 4.72 x 2.52 x 0.39 inches and weighs 4.37 ounces. It's powered by a 1430mAh battery, which gives up to 360 hours of standby time and up to 9 hours and 40 minutes of talk time (on 3G). The Lumia 521 also has a 5-megapixel primary camera and is fueled by a 1GHz dual-core processor.
Of late speculation has been rife that Microsoft is working on its own Windows Phone. However, Terry Myerson, Microsoft's head of Windows Phone unit, denied the rumors.
"Nokia's doing a great job [sic]," Terry let on. "They really are receiving all of our go-to-market energy right now."
With the Lumia 521 set to hit Walmart, consumers have another option where to pick up the handset.
