Today is the day when we’ll have to wave good-bye to Nokia-branded handsets: Microsoft is set to launch its first Lumia phone without the Nokia brand, called Microsoft Lumia 535. It is not a high-end product, not a flagship phone, but an affordable piece of technology with everything one might expect from a modern day smartphone, the Adam Fraser of the Lumia Conversations blog writes.
Let’s take a short look on what we’ll find under the Lumia 535’s colorful hood. The phone has a 1.2 gigahertz Snapdragon™ 200 quad-core processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM, 8 gigabytes of internal storage space, that can be expanded by using a Micro SD / TransFlash card of up to 128 gigabytes. The phone’s IPS LCD screen is in line with today’s trends – it has a 5″ diagonal, qHD (960 x 540) resolution, and a pixel density of 220 ppi. The device is fitted with two physical buttons – the power and the volume. It has WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and the usual sensors. In short, it has everything you might expect from a modern day smartphone (except for NFC, this feature is not to be found among its specifications).
Microsoft calls the Lumia 535 an “5x5x5″ smartphone, as it has a 5” screen, and two 5 megapixel cameras – one facing front, and one usual in the back, with LED flash and an aperture of f/2.4. This phone was clearly built with selfie-maniacs in mind, allowing them to snap self portraits at an incredible quality. The Microsoft Lumia 535 comes with the Windows Phone 8.1 installed on it, and with a series of “Microsoft experiences” like Skype and OneNote. It also comes with 15 gigabytes of free OneDrive storage for safely storing those selfies in the cloud, and pre-loaded with features like XBox-Live Hub, business software like Microsoft Office, and many more – read the complete list of specifications here.
As a proud user of a Nokia Lumia 620, I can say that Windows Phone has only one weak spot – the app store is by far not as filled with free apps as it should be. Hopefully this changes soon, as Microsoft’s mobile devices become more and more popular, as they should. The Microsoft Lumia 535 is a colorful, vibrant and young experience, with the accessories it deserves (some really colorful portable speakers, headsets and protective covers are already listed, and they look cool). It will go on sale in China, Hong Kong and Bangladesh this month (with more countries soon to follow) for an estimated RRP (recommended retail price) of 110 Euros (around $135) before taxes and subsidies.