Microsoft Launches First Lumia Phone Without Nokia Branding

Microsoft unveiled the widely-reported Lumia smartphone without Nokia's name on it but scored mid-range specs to make an affordable entry.

Microsoft, the world's largest software developing company, is now officially a fully-fledged smartphone company, too, thanks to the first Microsoft Lumia smartphone sans Nokia branding. Though, the company acquired Nokia Devices and Services Division several months ago, Microsoft chose to run the company's smartphone business under the Finnish brand. But a rebranding was already on the books, which officially took off with Lumia 535 on Tuesday.

Microsoft did not take a high-level approach with its first rebranded smartphone as it wrapped mid-range specs in its Lumia 535. Touted as "5x5x5" smartphone package, the Lumia 535 sports a 5-inch screen, 5-megapixel camera on both front and back sides, the company said in an official Lumia post. The smartphone features a Windows logo and Microsoft's name on the back panel and on the front screen to replace the Nokia's name.

The Microsoft Lumia 535 is a successor to Lumia 530, which was launched back in July. But the new smartphone is a major step up compared to its predecessor. It boasts a bigger and clearer display at 960x540 pixels. With the processor same as the Lumia 530, RAM and internal storage is doubled to 1GB and 8GB, respectively. The microSD card slot enables storage expansion up to 128GB.

The cameras are the major highlight of the Lumia 535 measuring 5MP on both sides, much in line with the slightly better Lumia 730 and 735. The rear camera is supported with LED flash for clearer pictures in dark and the front high-megapixel camera enables high-quality selfies and video calling. It sports a 1905mAh battery among other native apps such as Office, Cortana, OneDrive, and OneNote.

Like other Lumia models, the Lumia 535 will be available in cyan, bright green, bright orange, white, dark grey, and black. Microsoft will commence sales of the new handset in Asian countries later this month for around $135 (€110). If you have more than one SIM card, the Lumia 535 will have room for an additional SIM in the dual SIM variant but LTE is completely out of the picture.