Microsoft has a new cheap smartphone, the Lumia 535, and it’s the very first to drop the Nokia name in favour of Microsoft.
The new Microsoft Lumia 535, as it is to be known, is a 5-inch smartphone that continues Microsoft’s recent focus on ‘selfie’ phones. To this end it has 5-megapixel cameras at the front and at the rear, an impressively high resolution for a phone due to cost somewhere around the £100 mark. The front camera also has a wide 24mm focal length to help fit more people into group photos.
“Lumia 535 comes with our “5x5x5” proposition,” said Jo Harlow, Corporate Vice President for Phones at Microsoft. “Innovation should be available to everyone, and we are doing this through the very best integrated Microsoft services free and out-of-the-box, a 5 MP wide-angle front-facing camera and a spacious 5 inch, qHD screen – all at an affordable price.”
The other ‘5’, in case you were wondering, are the five Microsoft services you get as part of the phone: OneDrive, Skype, Cortana, Office and Outlook email.
This isn’t quite the end for Nokia as the name will still be used for feature phones and candybar phones in some markets, but if it’s a Lumia smartphone then in future it will be a Microsoft Lumia phone.
Microsoft Lumia 535 Specs and Features
The core Luima 535 specs are as follows, a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB of storage and optional microSD expansion. There’s also dual-SIM version, though it’s unlikely to be sold in the UK.
The 5-inch screen has a qHD (960 x 540) resolution and there’s 1,905mAh capacity battery to power it. The main camera is an auto-focus camera and it has an LED flash, a notable improvement over the fixed focus Lumia 530.
Microsoft Lumia 535 Release Date and Price
The Lumia 535 price will vary depending on the territory, but Microsoft puts it at around 110 Euros before taxes, which we estimate will make the Lumia 535 UK price in the region of £100.
There’s no precise Lumia 535 release date yet either, but we’re told it will go on sale in the UK and other regions before the end of November.
It won’t, however, be coming to the US as Microsoft doesn’t currently have plans to sell it there.
Next, read our Mobile Phone Buying Guide
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
