Microsoft is updating its Lumia portfolio with a couple of new low-end devices, one of which it’s calling the most affordable Lumia to date.
Unlike Microsoft’s “affordable flagship,” the Lumia 830, the Lumia 435 is no power house. It runs on a dual-core Snapdragon 200 clocked to 1.2 GHz and features 1GB of RAM along with 8GB of storage. There’s also a 4-inch 800×480 display, a 1560mAh battery, and a 2MP camera on the back (with a VGA shooter up front). This is not an impressive device, but it ships on Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim out of the box, and is priced at around €69, or $97 CAD before taxes and carrier subsidies.
The Lumia 435 is will be launched in certain parts of Europe, Asia-Pacifit, India, the Middle East and Africa in February. It’s doubtful it will make it to North America.
Microsoft also announced the Lumia 532, which is a bit more powerful. It follows on from the launch of the Lumia 530 in July of last year, adding more processing power, twice the RAM, and twice the storage.
The Lumia 532 boasts a quad-core Snapdragon 200 clocked to 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, a 5MP camera, a 4-inch 800×480 display, 8GB of internal storage, a 1560mAh battery, and optional support for dual-SIM. Like the Lumia 435, it ships with Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Denim.
The Lumia 532 is also aimed at certain markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and will be priced at €79 or just over $110 CAD.
Microsoft has been focusing heavily on emerging markets, where Nokia always performed best. It’s worth noting that there hasn’t been a flagship Lumia released since the Lumia 1020 in the fall of 2013. It’s unlikely we’ll see one until Windows 10 for mobile makes an appearance. For now, these cheap and cheerful Lumias will have to satisfy your Microsoft-made hardware needs.
