Launched: Super-Cheap Microsoft Lumia 435 and 532, Price Below $100
Microsoft has unveiled two new models of Lumia smartphones : Lumia 435 and Lumia 532, both below the $100 mark. Lumia 435 is Microsoft's cheapest Lumia to date - costing $81.
Both of the launched devices will hit stores in February in Europe, Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa. No release dates for US were announced.
Below $100 price point for Lumia 435 has been achieved but cutting some corners, like, the phone only equips 0.2 megapixel front and 2 megapixel rear camera.
The devices would run Windows Phone 8.1, including the new digital assistant Cortana. Phones will also come with preinstalled Microsoft Office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft will also offer 30GB of online storage.
Lumia 435 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, coupled with 1GB RAM. The phone has 8GB ROM, and via microSD it can be expanded to 128GB.
Lumia 532 is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz processor and has 2 megapixel front and 5 megapixel rear camera.
With the launch of such super-cheap smartphones, Microsoft aims to take on the low-end segment which is growing faster than other parts of the smartphone market. However, the company might be little late to the party, as companies like Xiaomi and Samsung already offer plethora of Android powered smartphones in the same price range.
